Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

Samuel Debtor (b. circa 1848 - d. circa ?)
MSA SC 5496-050573
Enlisted with Company B, 39th Regiment, USCT, in Montgomery County, 1864

Biography:

Eighteen-year-old Samuel Debtor (also spelled Dettor) was born into slavery on Josiah W. Jones' farm in Olney, Maryland, around 1848. In 1853, Montgomery County slave assessment records listed "Sam" as four years old and worth seventy-five dollars. That year, Josiah W. Jones' ten slaves included one woman, thirty-one-year-old Eleanor, who may have been Samuel Debtor's mother. By 1860, Samuel was one of thirteen slaves living in the farm's two slave quarters.1

On March 22, 1864, Debtor enlisted as a private with Company B of the newly-formed 39th Regiment, Maryland Volunteer Infantry, under Colonel Samuel M. Bowman.2 The 39th's muster rolls erroneously named Debtor's owner as Joseph Jones.3 The regiment participated in the battles of Petersburg, Spotsylvania Court House, and the Crater.4 He received his final pay on June 30, 1865. Other Montgomery County soldiers in Company B included Bazel Ciphas, Bazil Hall, Richard Harriday, Luke Letcher, and Robert Lincoln., at least five of whom had escaped slavery.

When Debtor enlisted in 1864, he left behind seven other slaves with the Debtor surname: Tilghman and Mary, both seventeen; Martha, age twelve; Elias, age eight; and Anne, age two. Josiah W. Jones reported that Tilghman Debtor had also enlisted with the U.S.C.T. Like his brother, Tilghman had joined the 39th Regiment, serving in Comany G. The state recompensated Jones with one hundred dollars for each of the two enlisted slaves.5

Neither Samuel nor Tilghman Debtor appeared in census records for Maryland following the Civil War. However, the 1870 census showed that Martha and Elias Debtor had remained with Josiah W. Jones as domestic servants.

Debtor' name appears (as "Samuel Detter") on plaque C-54 among the 209,145 names listed on the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington, D.C.6
 

1.     Josiah W. Jones was listed as "Isaiah W. Jones" in 1850 and 1860 slave census records.
        U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Isaiah W. Jones, Slaves, 1860, Montgomery County, District 1, Page 4, Line 31 [MSA SM61-239, M 7230-2].

2.     ADJUTANT GENERAL, (Muster Rolls), 1863-1866, U.S. Colored Troops, [MSA S936-50]. Samuel Debtor, Company B, 39th Regiment, Line 20.

3.     ADJUTANT GENERAL, (Muster Rolls), 1864-1865, Slaves mustered into U.S. Colored Troops, [MSA S936-51]. Samuel Detter, Montgomery County, Folder No. 38.
        MONTGOMERY COUNTY, BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, (Assessment Record, Slaves), 1853-1864, [MSA C1112-1]. Josiah W. Jones, 1st Election District.

4.     L. Allison Wilmer, J. H. Jarrett, and Geo. W. F. Vernon. History and Roster of Maryland Volunteers, War of 1861-65. Vol. 2 (Baltimore, MD: Guggenheimer, Weil & Co., 1899) 261.

5.     MONTGOMERY COUNTY COMMISSIONER OF SLAVE STATISTICS (Slave Statistics) MSA CM750-1, Accession No.: CR 12255-2. Josiah W. Jones, May 2, 1867. Page 7 (Page 2 electronic).

6.     "Samuel Detter." Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System. National Park Service. http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/soldiers.cfm.
        "The African American Civil War Memorial." African American Civil War Memorial Freedom Foundation and Museum. http://www.afroamcivilwar.org/.
  

Researched and written by Rachel Frazier, 2010.

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