As early as May of 1862, the United States started form­ing what became known as the United States Col­ored Troops, or USCT. It was offi­cially com­menced on May 22, 1863. Over 178,000 free and freed African Amer­i­cans joined, being placed in one of 175 regiments.

One reg­i­ment in par­tic­u­lar, the 4th Cav­alry Reg­i­ment, was where my great-great-great-grandfather, Louis Dear­born, served. He was born on August 25, 1845. He enlisted in the army on April 27, 1864, as a Pri­vate. Toward the end of the War, he was a Cor­po­ral.  Louis stayed in the army until the USCT mus­tered out on March 20, 1866.

His reg­i­ment didn’t see much action. They helped in the defenses of New Orleans, Car­roll­ton, Camp Para­pet, and Don­aldsville, until August of 1864. Then they were moved to Baton Rouge, on August 8, and helped in the defenses of that post until July 1865. In between that time the reg­i­ment took an expe­di­tion to Clin­ton, which lasted from August 23–29, 1864.

Dur­ing the expe­di­tion, action was seen at Olive Branch, and Comite River, near Baton Rouge. Another expe­di­tion, from April 11–13, 1865, took the Reg­i­ment from Port Hud­son to Jack­sonville. Other duties were at var­i­ous depart­ments of Mis­sis­sippi until the USCT mus­tered out.