Memorial Day
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Memorial Day 2024: Flag Ceremony Held To Honor Black Civil War Veterans Who Lost Their Lives

@SpectacularMag

TRENTON, N.J. – A flag placement ceremony was held at Locust Hill African American Cemetery in Trenton Memorial Day weekend.

Locust Hill, Trenton’s largest remaining African American burial ground, was neglected for many years but is now the subject of a restoration effort.

The cemetery on Hart Avenue is the oldest remaining segregated cemetery in New Jersey’s capital city, serving the community between 1861 and 1911. The names of those buried there were lost, including 10 soldiers who fought in the Civil War.

In recent years, six of the soldiers were identified, and now, finally, in 2024, all 10 soldiers’ names were recited at the ceremony.

“These were African Americans who were faced with the proposition that the country was being split apart and one part would be enslaved. Their families, many of them, were still enslaved,” said First Sergeant Algernon Ward, Jr., of the Sixth Regiment U.S. Colored Troops. “They decided to put up, to pay the price for citizenship, to represent the four million Blacks living enslaved in the country at that time.”

The Trenton Army JROTC and the Sixth Regiment Colored Soldiers Reenactors led the flag placement and gun salute ceremony.

Trenton Mayor W. Reed Gusciora said this ceremony sets an example for future generations of Americans to take their freedom seriously, even though it comes at a cost.

“This is a spot that we chose to honor all the brave men and women who have served our country and lost their lives in battle,” said Mayor Gusciora. “This truly will be a gathering place, and we hope that during America’s Semiquincentennial celebration, they will come and visit this cemetery and just see the history of the capital city.”

The Locust Hill African Cemetery and Museum Project, with the support of the Trenton Historical Society, uncovered the names of the final four soldiers.

Algernon Ward, a historian and reenactor with the 6th Regiment United States Colored Troops, started the Locust Hill Project with other history buffs and reenactors to uncover the significant history lost over the years as the cemetery was abandoned and fell into disrepair.

With some help from Amazon’s Black Employee Network, the Locust Hill Project was able to secure $400,000 in funding from the state to develop the museum and restore the cemetery to an appropriate memorial to the people buried there.

Feature photo credit: Sixth Regiment U.S. Colored Troops reenactors stand outside the Locust Hill African Cemetery. (John Berry — The Trentonian)