The man historians believe was the first Black man to fire a weapon in support of the Union Army to be honored
Historians think he was the first Black person to fire a gun in support of the Union Army, even though he wasn’t allowed to join the army. He will be remembered with a sign near the site of a battle in 1861 outside of Leesburg, Virginia.
Lewis A. Bell may have been the first black person to fire a gun for the Union Army.
Historians think he was the first Black man to fire a weapon in support of the Union Army, even though he wasn’t allowed to join. He will be remembered with an interpretive sign at Ball’s Bluff National Cemetery, northeast of Leesburg, Virginia, at the site of an 1861 battle.
Paul McCray, a historian with NOVA Parks, said that Lewis A. Bell shot at Confederates during the Battle of Ball’s Bluff on October 21, 1861.
As part of events for Black History Month, the park authority, the Loudoun Branch of the NAACP, and local leaders will put up an interpretive sign at the cemetery on Saturday, February 18. The cemetery is a short walk from Ball’s Bluff Battlefield Regional Park.
McCray said that Bell was a camp worker for the Union Army in Maryland and that he had traveled with a Massachusetts unit from Maryland across the Potomac River to Virginia.
McCray said, “Balls Bluff is a little north and east of Leesburg. It is right on the Potomac River and is very high above the river.” “It wasn’t easy for the Union soldiers to cross the river and get up to the battlefield,” which was high above the Potomac.
“He did camp chores for one of the officers, who he worked for. McCray said, “When he went to the battlefield, he probably brought extra gear and supplies with him.” “He got involved in the fighting a little bit.”
At the end of the battle, it was hard for Union troops to get down the steep slope.
“It looks like Lewis Bell picked up a gun. There were rifles around and there were probably some dead soldiers. “The regimental history says that he picked up the gun and fired at Confederates,” McCray said. “At the time, Black people weren’t allowed in the army, so he wasn’t armed or allowed to fight.”
After four months of research with the Friends of Balls Bluff, McCray said they think Bell was the first person to fire a gun in support of the Union Army.
On Saturday, February 18, the park authority, the Loudoun Branch of the NAACP, and local leaders will put up an informational sign at the cemetery, which is close to Ball’s Bluff Battlefield Regional Park. The sign that is being unveiled is part of a series of signs in parks that are meant to tell a more complete history of Northern Virginia.
A description from 1870 says that before he was caught, Bell “armed himself, loaded, and fired with great spirit.”
Lewis A. Bell’s story is told by historian Paul McCray.
“The captured soldiers, like Louis A. Bell, were taken to Richmond and held there for about four months until they were traded for Confederate prisoners,” McCray said. “That’s where we kind of lost track of him.”
McCray said he doesn’t know if Bell joined the Union Army in 1863, when black men were allowed to do so. “But we do know that there were five Lewis Bells in the Black troops for the last two years of the war,” he said.
“After the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863, 200,000 Black men signed up to fight for their freedom,” McCray said. “And that’s what makes Lewis A. Bell important: he may have been the first.”
