Private, 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry
St.Mary’s River
Georgia-Florida Border
January 1863
Officially organized on January 31,1863 making it the second black unit to be mustered into US service. The unit began as a company formed at Hilton Head, South Carolina in May of the previous year by Major General David Hunter. The original company was largely composed of runaway slaves. As word spread of the probable Proclamation of Emancipation by President Lincoln, other black men eager to serve the Union came forward.
Boston minister Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a fervent abolitionist, assumed command in Novemner of 1962 of the new regiment.. His strict program of drill and instruction filled both the soldiers and their white officers with a great deal of pride.
On New Year’s Day 1863, as the anticipated Emancipation Proclamation took effect, the regiment received a set of regimental colors confirming them as Union soldiers.
They are the only regiment to see service before being officially organized as a military unit.Their first action along the Georgia-Florida border was a skirmish with Confederate cavalry in Township, Florida.
Their first uniform was as shown with scarlet trousers. Which were not p opular among the men as they felt it set them apart from other Union soldiers.
By February, petitioned by Colonel Higginson, they received the same sky blue trousers as all the other Union soldiers.
Figure has Eddie Strong HS and body(reduced). All the equipment and uniform parts are from BGT. Added the eagle breast plate from a SST piece to a BGT cartridge box strap that did not have it. Waist belt, cap pouch and bayonet/frog from SST.
No weathering as the figure represents a soldier in a some sort of ceremonial duty as per a Don Troiani print. Very little equipment, no haversack, back pack or water bottle for the same reason.
