Wesley Broadway (b. circa 1844-1847 - d. 1931)
MSA SC 3520-4436
USCT Soldier, Kent County, Maryland
Biography:
Note:
This is a brief summary of Wesley Broadway's life. Two extensive
biographies written by Washington College students are accessible on
this page. Please consult the attached essays for a more complete
and descriptive case study.
Wesley Broadway was born a slave on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. His birth date is not specifically known, but is estimated to be between 1844 and 1847. Belonging to a prominent landowner, William Emory, it is safe to assume Broadway was born at one of Emory's plantations on Spaniards Neck in Queen Anne's County. However, when William Emory passed away in 1860, Broadway was transferred to serve as a farm hand for Emory's son, Stewart R. Emory. He was valued at $600 at the time.1 Because of his age and the environment into which he was born, Broadway would have served as a laborer on the farm, participating in the cultivation of crops like tobacco, wheat, and corn.
At nineteen years of age, Wesley Broadway enlisted in Company A of the 7th Regiment of the United States Colored Troops. He is described as having curly black hair, a black complexion and brown eyes.2 Another slave from Stewart R. Emory's farm, William Moody also enlisted with Broadway. They mustered in on September 26, 1863 in Baltimore, Maryland under Colonel William Birney. As the Union increased its recruitment of African American soldiers, slave owners saw the appeal in allowing their slaves to enlist. Stewart R. Emory received a $100 bounty for each slave that enlisted.
While serving with the 7th Regiment, Broadway traveled to different areas of Maryland like Charles County and St. Mary's County. Unfortunately while at Camp Stanton in Benedict, MD his comrade William Moody passed away, most likely due to the poor health conditions at the camp. Broadway traveled even further with the regiment; they served in Hilton Head, South Carolina, Jacksonville, Florida, John's Island, South Carolina, and on the James River in Virginia. The regiment was very highly respected and was called to assist in the Second Battle of Deep Bottom. It was there that on August 26, 1864, Broadway sustained an injury; he was shot in his right hip, which lead to his complaints after the war of chronic rheumatism. Then, despite the end of the war, perhaps due to the obligation of their length of service, the 7th Regiment was stationed to Indianola, Texas where they encountered deadly outbreaks of cholera and Broadway suffered from dyspepsia.3 Fortunately, the troops did not stay at this location for very long.
Broadway was mustered out of service in Baltimore on November 2, 1866. He then moved back to the Eastern Shore, specifically to Chestertown where he began his life as a free man. He married Martha Woodland and served as a hostler. In 1880 the two rented their a home and Broadway was then working as a laborer.4 After a mutual decision between Broadway and Martha to separate, she moved to Wilmington, Delaware in 1890. Sadly, she died there in 1896. Broadway married his second wife, Annie, who worked as a chamber maid in 1897.5 There is no extant marriage record, suggesting the marriage was not legal, however, the two lived at 332 Cannon Street together and in close proximity to another USCT veteran, Thomas Carmichael. Annie died in 1910 and Broadway became a widower.
As Broadway adjusted to life as a free man and a Civil War veteran he became well known in the Chestertown community. He participated in the 1899 reunion of the Grand Army of the Republic in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and played an active role in the Charles Sumner Post located in Chestertown.6 Broadway was listed on the Board of Trustees for the post, along with four other veterans: Perry H. Landen, William H. Barrett, Thomas Carmichael and George Jones. The deed for the post was signed in 1895.7 In 1909, Broadway served as a marshal for Decoration Day when he led a procession to the cemetery to honor the lives of deceased veterans.8 Unfortunately, a man named William E. DeFord attempted to pass the procession and Broadway refused to let him, explaining that this action was offensive to the military dead they were honoring. DeFord pressed charges against Broadway for what he saw as an indignity, thus complicating our understandings of race relations in Chestertown in the early 1900s.
Broadway and his third wife, Mary lived at 228 South Queen Street a few houses down from the Sumner post in 1915. James A. Pearce - a Chestertown judge - died in 1922 and left $25 to Broadway. At the time, Wesley was a servant for a private family, so may have had some connections to the white community because of his job. Broadway died on March 15, 1931 and was buried two days later at Jane's Cemetery on Quaker Neck Road.9 Mary Broadway took care of the funeral proceedings and then applied to the government for help in covering the expenses.10 She moved to Philadelphia afterward where she died a year later. She is buried with Broadway and so are her children from a different husband.
Broadway's death was noted in the local paper, The Entreprise, he was thought to be the last known veteran of the Charles Sumner Post.11 Clearly, residents associated Wesley Broadway with the G.A.R. post and he was well known in the community. Local efforts to restore and investigate the history of the post will assure that the lives and experiences of veterans like Broadway who depended on the post for camaraderie and familial support will be properly remembered.
For extended biographies written and shared by Washington College students enrolled in the course "Chestertown's America" HIST 394, Spring 2013, taught by Adam Goodheart, please follow these links:
From Slave to Soldier to the Last Man Standing: The Life of Wesley Broadway by Jeff Truitt
Brass Letters and a Blue Cap: William Wesley Broadway's Life in Transition by Kathy Thornton
Return to Wesley Broadway's Introductory Page
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