First Black Combatant of the Civil War

First Black Combatant of the Civil War. Park History Interpretive Series. During the Federal retreat of Ball's Bluff, Lewis A. Bell, a free African American comp worker, may have been the first Black man to fire a gun in support of the Union Army. , According to the 1870 edition of History of Worcester in the War of the Rebellion, Bell worked for Colonel Milton Cogswell, 42nd New York Infantry Regiment, while other sources cite his involvement with a Massachusetts unit. Bell "supplied himself with arms, and loaded and fired with great spin before being taken to Richmond as a prisoner of war. , "The negro prisoner was un object of no little curiosity, and he seemed quite uneasy. He says his name is Lewis A. Bell, and that he was free in the District of Columbia; but some of our citizens thought they had seen him before, and it is very probable that he is what the Yankees term as a "contraband." " , Bell Is Captured , Lote in the bante, as Union troops fled down the steep embankment, Company F of the 15th Massachusetts Infantry, along with members of other regiments, fought a rear-guard action to protect the retreating soldiers. Bell was with them and likely captured at this point in the bottle and taken prisoner with company commander Lieutenant Greene. Richmond newspapers mentioned Bell on October 25, 1861. The Daily Richmond Examiner claimed Bell was acting "at the time of his capture, as servant to one of the Massachusetts officers" and "he was dressed in semi-miltary costume.", He denied ever having been in the city before, and said he was born and had resided all his life, prior to the present time, in Washington DC. The Daily Richmond Dispatch described Bell as "a negro from the 20th Massachusetts (Infantry Regiment).", The New York Daily Tribune later referenced Lewis Bell in a February 22, 1862 column filed from Fort Monroe, Virginia. In a list of prisoners who arrived under flag of truce from Richmond, he was one of four described as "Negroes", Service in the Union Army , As African Americans were officially barred from Union Army service until the January 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, Lewis Bell's participation of Boll's Bluff was possibly the first time an African American took up arms in support of the Union cause.