The Sleets, The Union Army, & Self-Liberation

The Sleets, The Union Army, and Self-Liberation. . , While Kentucky slaves were not freed by the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863, which only affected the enslaved community under Confederate control, Union military policy in Kentucky did provide opportunities for slaves to liberate themselves. Members of the Sleet family found freedom by joining the Union army., Despite complaints from some Kentucky politicians and military officials, the enlistment of free and enslaved African Americans into the United States Colored Troops (USCT) began in February 1864. Loyal slave owners were to receive $300 for each slave who volunteered for the army, and fugitive slaves were pressed into the service. Eventually, more than 23,700 African American Kentuckians joined the Union army, with most of them enlisting at nearby Camp Nelson in Jessamine County., Two of the founders of Sleettown - Henry and Preston Sleet - joined the USCT in 1864. Both men were slaves born in Boyle County and probably lived in this area. Henry enlisted in the United States Colored Artillery under the name of Henry Brown (his middle name). He joined the unit in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on August 13, 1864, at age eighteen. Preston, however, went to Camp Nelson and enlisted in Company G of the 123rd United States Colored Infantry on September 29, 1864. Like his brother, he enlisted using the surname Brown., Preston may have been connected to the Union army as early as 1862, immediately after the battle of Perryville. After the Civil War, when Preston was sixty-two years old, he testified in a court case that he left Perryville with the 89th Illinois Infantry, which camped near here, immediately following the battle. Since he could not join the Union army as a soldier, he may have been employed as a cook, teamster, or laborer. Once Union military policy allowed African Americans to enlist, he traveled to Camp Nelson and joined the Union army., Following their Civil War service, both men returned here and established Sleettown., (Sidebar):, Kentucky Lincoln Heritage Trail, 1809 Abraham Lincoln born at Sinking Spring farm, in present-day Larue County, Kentucky., 1816 Lincoln family moved from Kentucky., 1841 Abraham Lincoln visited his friend Joshua Speed at Farmington, the Speed family plantation, in Louisville, Kentucky., 1842 Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd of Lexington, Kentucky., 1847 The Lincoln family visited Lexington, Kentucky, en route to Abraham's only term in Congress., 1860 Abraham Lincoln elected President of the United States in November., 1865 Abraham Lincoln assassinated at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., (Captions):, Thomas E. Bramlette to Abraham Lincoln, October 19, 1863. Available at Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division (Washington, D.C.: American Memory Project, [2000-02]), http://memory. loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/alhome.html, accessed January 9, 2008., Elijah Marrs was born in Shelby County, Kentucky, in 1840. His father, Andrew Marrs, was a free man, and his mother was a slave named Frances Marrs. Elijah and his mother lived on the Robinson plantation in Shelby County, where he attended Sunday school with his master's permission. Marrs joined the Union army in 1864, thus gaining his freedom and pursuing a successful military career, ultimately gaining the rank of sergeant. He later betame involved in the ministry and the field of education, becoming the first president of the Kentucky Normal and Theological Institute, now known as Simmons College. Elijah died in 1910, a self-liberated African American. , Courtesy of the Louisville Free Public Library, The signature of Preston Sleet from his July 1904 war claim testimony. , Courtesy of Perryville Battlefield State Historic Site, Thomas E. Bramlette, Governor of Kentucky, 1863-67 , Courtesy of the Kentucky Historical Society, President Abraham Lincoin, November 8, 1863 , Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division