Galilee Cemetery is located on Dunlap Orphanage Road in Brighton, TN. It is an African-American cemetery with approximately 200 graves.
The oldest grave in the cemetery is that of E W Webb. He was born on October 20, 1862, and died on September 13, 1895, at the age of 32. His son, D L G Webb, is the second oldest grave in the cemetery. He was born on January 28, 1890, and died on October 10, 1895, at the age of five. The third oldest grave in the cemetery is that of Brice Jackson. Brice was born on April 16, 1836, and died on December 23, 1897, at the age of 61. Brice served in the 55th US Colored Infantry at the age of 28. This information came from the Service Records of Union Colored Troops, 1863-1865.
A History of African American Regiments in the U.S. Army
By Dr. Paul-Thomas Ferguson, Joint Munitions Command February 11, 2021
From: US Army
During the Civil War, the Union established and maintained regiments of black soldiers. This became possible in 1862 through passage of the Confiscation Act (freeing the slaves of rebellious slaveholders) and Militia Act (authorizing the president to use former slaves as soldiers). President Lincoln was initially reluctant to recruit black soldiers. This changed in January 1863, with the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring freedom for all slaves in Confederate states.
The first black regiments to serve in the Civil War were volunteer units made up of free black men. These included the 1st North Carolina Colored Volunteers, 5th Massachusetts (Cavalry), 54th Massachusetts (Infantry), 55th Massachusetts (Infantry), 29th Connecticut (Infantry), 30th Connecticut (Infantry), and 31st Infantry Regiment. In May 1863, the War Department established the Bureau of Colored Troops for the purpose of recruiting African-American soldiers. These became the United States Colored Troops (USCT) and existing volunteer units were converted into USCT regiments.
New regiments were also formed from every Union state. While mostly made up of African-American soldiers, other minorities served in these regiments as well, including Native Americans and Asians, while white Union officers served as commanders. USCT regiments participated in all aspects of the Union war effort as infantry, cavalry, artillery, and engineers, though they were often used as rear action garrison troop
The first military action involving a black regiment was the Battle of Island Mound (Missouri), at which the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers were instrumental in ensuring a Union victory. USCT regiments also served heroically at the Battle of the Crater (Virginia), the Battle of Chaffin’s Farm (Virginia), the Battle of Fort Wagner (South Carolina), and the Battle of Nashville (Tennessee). They were also among soldiers at the fall of Richmond (Virginia) and were present when the Army of Northern Virginia surrendered at Appomattox.
By the end of the Civil War, there were 175 USCT regiments, containing 178,000 soldiers, approximately 10% of the Union Army. The mortality rate for these units was exceeding high. One of every five black soldiers in the conflict died, a 35% higher rate than other troops. In the process, sixteen USCT soldiers earned the Medal of Honor for their Civil War service.
After the war, Congress reorganized the U.S. Army into ten cavalry regiments and forty- five infantry regiments. These included two regiments of black cavalry (the 9th and 10th) formed at Fort Leavenworth, and four regiments of black infantry (the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st), formed at Jackson Barracks in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Fort Clark, Texas. When the Army pared back to twenty-five regiments of infantry in 1869, the four black infantry regiments were consolidated into two (the 24th and 25th).
These regiments, which came to be known as “Buffalo Soldiers,” were posted in the West and Southwest, mainly to quell disturbances between settlers and Native Americans. Though the origin of the name “Buffalo Soldiers” is in dispute, most sources agree that Native Americans (either Comanche, Apache, or Cheyenne) were the first to use the term to identify their black opponents. Eventually, the term was used to refer to all black soldiers.
The Buffalo Soldiers would serve in the United States military for the next fifty years, primarily in the Indian Wars of the 1890s, for which thirteen enlisted men and six officers received the Medal of Honor. The 9th Cavalry also replaced the 6th Cavalry in 1892 and served as peace-keepers for the Wyoming land dispute known as the Johnson County War. From 1892 to 1895, the commander of the 10th Cavalry was future World War I commander of American Expeditionary Forces and Army Chief of Staff Gen. John J. Pershing, whose service with the Buffalo Soldiers earned him the nickname “Black Jack” Pershing.
In January 1898, during a period of rising tension over Spanish atrocities in Cuba, the USS Maine exploded in Havana harbor. Anti-Spanish sentiment rose following this incident, particularly in the “yellow press” newspapers of Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, leading to a U.S. war declaration in April 1898. While the Navy was ready for this conflict, the Army had only 28,000 men in uniform. Enlistees, volunteers, and National Guard units soon added 220,000 soldiers, including 5,000 African- American men, but the only black troops who fought in the Spanish-American War were the Buffalo Soldiers.
Though most of the action in the Spanish-American War took place in the Pacific Theater, Cuba saw significant naval and land-based operations. The bloodiest and best- known battle in this part of the war was at San Juan Heights, two kilometers east of Santiago de Cuba, known as the Battle of San Juan Hill. Though much of the post-battle press went to Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, as well as the first-ever use of the Gatling Gun in war, the most difficult fighting fell to the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th and 24th Regiments.
As then Lt. John J. Pershing later recalled, “White regiments, black regiments, regulars and Rough Riders, representing the young man-hood of the North and the South, fought shoulder to shoulder, unmindful of race or color, unmindful of whether commanded by ex-Confederate or not, and mindful of only their common duty as Americans.”
For their efforts at San Juan Hill, five Buffalo Soldiers earned the Medal of Honor. These regiments would go on to fight with distinction in the Philippine-American War (1899- 1903), Mexico and World War I (1916-1918), and World War II (1944-1945). The 24th Infantry Regiment, participating in the Korean conflict, was the last American segregated unit to see battle before the regiment was disbanded in 1951.
Galilee Cemetery in Brighton TN
Burials
NAME | DOB | DOD | COMMENTS |
---|---|---|---|
Allan, Roy | 3 Jan 1912 | 11 Mar 1976 | |
Allen, Charlie L. | 1936 | 1954 | |
Benson, Albert B. | 11 Apr 1923 | 25 Aug 1957 | Homemade marker |
Benson, Rev. Ernest (Sr.) | 2 May 1915 | 28 Jul 2002 | |
Benson, Louisiana Phillips | 28 Nov 1892 | 4 Nov 1973 | |
Benson, Sylvester | 16 Apr 1886 | 28 May 1975 | |
Benson, Theodore | 1917 | 1988 | |
Bledsoe, Calvin Larry | 26 May 1930 | 1 Aug 1956 | PVT US ARMY |
Bledsoe, James | ??-???-1891 | ?? July ???? | Homemade marker - Dates are worn and unreadable |
Bledsoe, John | 3 Oct 1921 | 3 Oct 1951 | TENNESSEE PVT 382 ENGR |
Bledsoe, Susie | 20 Sep 1891 | 09-14-1964 | |
Boddie, Charlie E. | 16 Aug 1882 | 6 Feb 1965 | |
Boddie, Jackson W. | 31 Jul 1905 | 24 Jan 1986 | |
Boddie, Florence | 14 Feb 1877 | 29 Dec 1963 | |
Boddie, Sadie | 27 Jul 1912 | 21 Feb 1990 | |
Boyd, Evelyn L. | 5 Feb 1893 | 10 Jun 1971 | Double HS with Lewis E. Boyd |
Boyd, Lewis E. | 4 Mar 1891 | 17 Mar 1970 | Double HS with Evelyn L. Boyd |
Boyd, Lou Alice | 16 Oct 1918 | 3 Mar 1985 | |
Boyd, Thomas E. | 5 Aug 1926 | 4 May 1947 | Military Marker - Tennessee - World War II |
Britton, Decie Phillips | 6 Dec 1899 | 30 Nov 1985 | |
Britton, Willie | 10 Feb 1897 | 27 Aug 1989 | |
Calhoun, Anderson | 28 Jul 1919 | 10 Jun 1954 | TENNESSEE PVT CO B 96 ENGR OS |
Cambel, Rosa Lee | 7 Aug 1899 | 21 Jul 1952 | Homemade marker |
Campbell, John | 9 Nov 1888 | 18 Dec 1958 | |
Campbell, Mary F. | 15 Aug 1885 | 20 Apr 1966 | |
Campbell, Ruth Mae | 12 Feb 1926 | 5 Jun 1981 | |
Campbell, Thomas Franklin | 12 Jul 1927 | 27 Nov 1948 | |
Campbell, Uriah | 29 Dec 1895 | 12 Oct 1967 | TENNESSEE PFC 37 CO 10 |
Crawford, Ellen Wiggins | 30 Nov 1901 | 30 Nov 1987 | Double HS with Isaiah Crawford |
Crawford, Isaiah | 10 Nov 1895 | 13 Jul 1972 | TENNESSEE PVT US ARMY WORLD WAR I |
Drain, Jimmie Jones | 26 Jan 1878 | 13 Nov 1970 | |
Hall, Annie | 1919 | 1979 | Homemade marker |
Halliburton, Archie Marie | 14 Apr 1923 | 18 Jun 1985 | |
Harper, Homer | 29 Dec 1919 | 7 Dec 1986 | Double HS with wife, Louise Harper. Married January 7, 1954 |
Harper, Louise | 8 Dec 1925 | Double HS with husband, Homer Harper |
|
Hatley, Rubye Walker | 12 Apr 1931 | 31 Jul 2004 | |
Hayes, David G. | 26 Jan 1916 | 4 Aug 1983 | Double HS with Ruby Bernice Hayes |
Hayes, Ruby Bernice | 10 Jan 1925 | 21 Apr 1983 | Double HS with David G. Hayes |
Hicks, Charlie | 15 Mar 1872 | 15 Mar 1956 | Homemade marker |
Hicks, Erskin | Dec 1903 | 5 Mar 1963 | Only month and year on marker for birth |
Hicks, Minnie F. | 21 Feb 1896 | 3 Dec 1995 | |
Hicks, Polly Ann | 6 Dec 1913 | 22 Mar 1976 | |
Hicks, Robert Lee | 9 Aug 1901 | 23 Nov 1964 | |
Hicks, Sam | 23 Jun 1896 | 8 Nov 1974 | |
Hicks, Will N. | 30 Jul 1892 | 19 Apr 1970 | |
Jackson, Brige | 22 Apr 1836 | 23 Dec 1897 | |
Lemons, Jessie C. | 23 Jun 1934 | 21 Nov 1998 | |
Moss, Andrew | 1892 | 1949 | Double HS with Luevenia Moss |
Moss, Luevenia | 1897 | 1990 | Double HS with Andrew Moss |
Neal, James | ? | ? | Homemade marker - Unable to read dates |
Nelson, Alex B. Jr. | 18 Jun 1917 | 8 Dec 1994 | Double HS with wife, Prennie Nelson |
Nelson, Prennie | 5 Apr 1916 | Double HS with husband, Alex B. Nelson Jr. |
|
Phillips, Bettie Louis | 10 Oct 1892 | 28 Jun 1992 | Double HS with James Ervin Phillips |
Phillips, James Ervin | 8 Mar 1885 | 7 Mar 1963 | Double HS with Bettie Louis Phillips |
Phillips, John Wesley | 18 Aug 1882 | 8 Jan 1958 | |
Piggee, Rev. George Sr. | 7 May 1914 | 28 Jul 2001 | |
Piggee, Sam Ever | 17 Jun 1918 | 7 Apr 1980 | "Wife and Mother" |
Smith, Futur Lee | 29 Aug 1914 | 24 May 1975 | |
Smith, Irene Young | 26 Apr 1921 | 2 Nov 2005 | |
Smith, Laura Ann | 10 Sep 1922 | 6 Dec 1991 | |
Smith, Stephanie Michele | 19 Jul 1973 | 21 Jan 2008 | |
Thomas, E. Maurice "Jack" | 18 Sep 1935 | 18 Apr 2003 | |
Thomas, Ernest M. Sr. | 14 Mar 1908 | 28 Oct 1982 | |
Thomas, Lois Blackwell | 11 Aug 1907 | 5 Aug 1979 | |
Thomas, Matthew J. | 5 Jan 1888 | 4 Jun 1948 | Homemade marker - (Hard to read) |
Thomas, Walter Lee | 22 May 1905 | 18 Feb 1969 | |
Thurman, Blanche | 8 Jul 1900 | 4 Feb 1980 | Double maker with Sidney Thurman |
Thurman, Sidney | 2 Feb 1885 | 18 Jan 1970 | Double HS with Blanche Thurman |
Tucker, Inell E. | 20 Nov 1926 | 12 Nov 1990 | |
Vaughn, Sadie | 30 Nov 1905 | 20 Feb 1978 | |
Vaughan, Walter | 16 Feb 1894 | 10 Dec 1981 | PVT US ARMY - WORLD WAR I |
Walker, Louise Mason | 27 Mar 1901 | 12 Feb 1983 | |
Webb, E. W. | 20 Oct 1862 | 13 Sep 1895 | |
Wiggins, Charles Edison | 11 Feb 1944 | 16 Nov 1997 | |
Wiggins, Sam | 20 Jun 1920 | 27 Jul 1971 | |
Wiggins, Wanda Denise | 10 Apr 1963 | 30 Oct 1993 | |
Young, Jessie E. | 15 Feb 1906 | 20 Jan 1964 | "Reverend" Double HS with Sufronia B. Young |
Young, Nicie Campbell | 1894 | 1959 | |
Young, Sufronia B. | 24 Jun 1925 | 29 Jul 2004 | Double HS with Rev. Jessie E. Young |
Young, Walter Fenoy (Sgt.) | 10 Jul 1917 | 28 Feb 2007 | |
Young, William B. | 30 Dec 1888 | 10 May 1972 |