New at Emerging Civil War: The Enigma of John Lott

I’ve written about John Lott, allegedly “The first colored man that shouldered a musket in the Union Army,” previously for Spirit of ’61. In particular, his involvement in a murder at Philippi the day after Union forces occupied the town. The information I’ve since uncovered is a fascinating and unconventional story that stretches from southern Indiana to one of the war’s first engagements and, finally, to the battle of the Crater. What emerges is the story of a man whose journey was not of valor, but of violence, revealing a darker, seldom-told side of the war. Check it out in my latest article published on the Emerging Civil War blog: