29th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry Regiment (Colored)
The Fred Fowler Story Fred Fowler was born about 1832 in Frederick County, Maryland. His first master, Michael Reel, had a farm and a flour mill about four miles from Frederick City. Reel owned sixteen slaves, among whom were Fred's mother, and her eight children. Fred's father belonged to a man named Doyle, who had an adjoining farm. Doyle sold the father to a man named Fisher, who subsequently put up the first gas factory in Frederick. On the death of Michael Reel, in 1847, his estate had to be divided. Some of the slaves were disposed of according to appraisement, others at auction. Fred, then about fifteen years old, was taken at the appraised value of $400 by a son of the deceased Reel. If auctioned off, he thought he might have brought somewhat more. At this sale his mother and one child were bought for $500 by a man named Todd, who subsequently sold her to Dr. Shipley. Four children were purchased by men supposed to be traders, who presumably took them to Georgia, which, according to the sentiment of "Nellie Gray," was the slave's notion of some far-away place where the speculators found a market. No one of these four was ever seen or heard from after they were put on the train for Baltimore. The other children, two sisters, were taken away by a man named Roach, but that was all that was then known. The almost invariable rule in the inter-state slave-trade was that separation ended all communication with those left behind. In 1887- forty years after the sale-these sisters wrote a letter to a colored church in Frederick asking for information about the slaves that belonged to the Reel family. Someone in the church knew that Fred Fowler was living in Washington, D. C. The letter was forwarded to him and from it he learned that these sisters had been taken to Columbia, Tennessee and were still living. A meeting soon followed. When Fred was twenty years old, young Reel, who was about to move to Springfield, Illinois, sold him privately for $1,000 to Dr. Willis who lived in New Market, Frederick County, Maryland.
That was a high price for the time and place. Fowler was with Dr. Willis for three or four years as a farmhand. The Doctor was the physician for the norotious interstate slave traders B.M. & W.L. Campbell. They had a large jail in Baltimore for their purchases in Maryland. In New Orleans they had another, where most of their sales were made. The Doctor went to Baltimore once or twice a week to examine sand prescribe for the Campbell slaves. In the farming season, when there was need of extra labor, he would bring some of them out to work for him. Mrs. Salmon, a Quaker, told Fowler that Dr. Willis contemplated selling him the following winter, probably because some less valuable slave could do the work. All slaves dreaded being sold, for, if young and strong, it usually meant being "sold South." So in the spring of 1858 Fowler made up his mind to run away. He and another slave started one Saturday night and safely walked to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania by the early morning. Promptly on Monday Dr. Willis issued a handbill offering $200 reward for the recovery of his runaway. Fowler knew no details of this until perhaps thirty or forty years later, when a son of Dr. Willis gave him one of the handbills. It was shown about 1905 to the present writer who had It carefully typewritten as to the lines and capitalization, but the size of the letters could not be reproduced. The original was duly returned to Fowler, but unfortunately he subsequently lost or mislaid it. It was tiny for a handbill-only about six inches long and four inches wide and was worded and lined thus:-- "$200 REWARD! Ranaway from the subscriber, living at New Market, Frederick Co., Md., ON Saturday Night, THE 8TH OF MAY inst., a Negro Man, named Fred Fowler,aged about 26 years, five feet ten or eleven inches high, stout made, dark copper color, round full eye, upper teeth full and even, has a down look when spoken to, lisps slightly in his speech, and has small hands; no other marks recollected. Had on when he left, dark pants and coat and light made shoes.
The above reward will 'be given for the arrest of said Negro, if taken out of the State of Maryland, and his delivery to the subscriber; or one hundred dollars, if taken in the State, and secured in jail. Dr. W.L. Willis, New Market, Md., May 10, 1858." The same wording long appeared as an advertisement in the Baltimore Sun. Both were all in vain. A free Negro, associated with the Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania and working as a mason for a company of men who built large barns in Maryland, had told Fowler to report in Gettysburg to a man by the name of Mathers. The runaways did so and were concealed until the next night. They then walked to Carlisle, Pennsylvania. There they remained that day. During the night they went on to Harrisburg. Some Abolitionists took charge of them and put them on a farm about eight miles from town. In August, they proceeded to Bradford, Canada West. There Fowler found an aunt who had run away with a party of twelve, many years before. He worked on a farm until May, 1862, when he went to the American Hotel in Lockport, New York to become a waiter. In August, 1863 he left for Hartford, Connecticut, to enlist in the 29th Regiment of Connecticut Colored Volunteers. The, regiment was turned over to the Government in March 1864 and was then taken and was then taken by boat from Hartford to Annapolis Maryland, and there transhipped to Beaufort, South Carolina. At Beaufort they had a few little skirmishes. Once they were about surrounded by the Confederates for five days, and were without food a part of the time. The Confederates were between Beaufort and Hilton Head, but did not know to what disadvantage they had the colored regiment. In the summer of 1864 the regiment was moved to Bermuda Hundred, Virginia. On the day of landing they took part in an engagement at Malvern Hill. They were in several skirmishes and were finally attacked at Strawberry Plains. From there they were taken to the Weldon railway, for the purpose of cutting off the southern connection with Richmond. They fought there three days and tore up the track. To make the rails useless they were red hot and twisted around trees. Later the regiment was taken back to the neighborhood of Fort Harrison, on which they made an attack. After a few weeks they took the Fort and remained there all winter and until a few days before the fall of Richmond. Early in April, 1865, all a Sunday afternoon the troops in Fort Harrison saw a large mass of Confederates marching in plain view in front of them. "We thought there must he a million of them marching there!" It was supposed that the Confederates intended soon to attack Fort Harrison. The occupants of the Fort sent out videttes so as to give the earliest possible notice of it. Those in the Fort made every preparation for resistance. But there was no attack. That night three unarmed Confederates came to the videttes and reported that there were no troops in front.; that the Confederate lines had long been very thin ,and that the Federals could march right into Richmond. This was found to be true, for on the following day the Union troops started for the Confederate capitol. Fowler's regiment reached there on the morning of the fall and went to State House Hill, but camped close to Libby prison, down near the river. A few days later-a day or two before Lincoln was shot-they left Richmond for City Point, where they first heard of his death. From there they were taken to Point Lookout, Maryland, to aid in the search for Booth. After Booth was captured, the regiment returned to City Point, and a week later was ordered to Brownsville, Texas, for the special purpose of getting the supplies,-a great collection of cotton, wagons and all sorts of munitions-that General Kirby Smith had tried to take to Mexico. The regiment remained there until the 15th day or October, when Fowler and the others were mustered out of the United States service. In the spring of 1876 he was appointed a messenger in the Library of Congress, which was then and until about 1900 in the Capitol just west of the great dome. He was a strong willing worker. Doctor Spofford relied on him to find and bring forth from dark and dusty storerooms the files of old newspapers when needed for historical purposes. By the that time that the magnificent Library of Congress building was completed and things were in shipshape, Fowler had reached an age when he was entitiled to, and given less heavy work. He died October 9, 1919, at the advanced age of about 87 and was buried in the great National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. There his grave and name can be seen among those of men who fought to preserve the Union, and in doing so destroyed slavery—the “sacred institution” of the old South and “the corner-stone" of the short-lived Confederacy. Fred Fowler served his race and his country well and he was well rewarded. F. B. Other 29th Soldiers From The State Of Maryland Calloman Thomas Washington County 10/21/1864 Frederick, Maryland Carpenter William Frederick , MD 1863 Norwich, Connecticut Duncan Samuel Frederick, MD 1864 Bridgeport, Connecticut Fowler Frederick New Market 08/18/1863 Gross Cornelius S. Frederick, MD 1863 Hartford, Connecticut Jackson Thomas Allegheny, MD 12/07/1864 Frederick Maryland Johnson John E. Frederick, MD 1863 New Haven, Connecticut Robinson Amos Frederick, MD 1865 Frederick, Maryland Taylor Jefferson Washington County 1864 Bridgeport, Connecticut Thomas John Frederick, MD Williams Dennis W. Frederick, MD Norwich, CT Williams George W. Frederick, MD 1863 Norwich, Connecticut My thanks to the Frederick Community College and Carroll County Maryland Historical Society for sharing this information. SOME UNDISTINGUISHED NEGROES JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY Page 476-480
For nearly twenty years he was daily at the door of the Reading Room to admit readers and to refer sightseers to the gallery for the best view of the grand and beautiful totunda. His remarkable and most honorable career caused him to be regarded with much wonder by persons of the young generation, especially if from the North By the whole staff of the Library and by the many research workers that daily came there, he was regarded with a fondness such as was feltowar no one else.
Last Name First Name County Residence Date Enlisted Place of Enlistment