Wilson J. Lincoln (b. circa 1835 - d. circa 1895)
MSA SC 5496-050582
Drafted into Company G, 28th Regiment,
USCT, in Montgomery County, 1864
Biography:
Wilson J. Lincoln was born around 1836 in Montgomery County, Maryland. He was likely enslaved on Ulysses Griffith's farm near Unity, appearing in 1853 and 1855 slave assessment records as "Willson."1 In 1857, Wilson and Perry Lincoln purchased farm animals and farm equipment from William B. Gaither and Henry Dwyer. The 1850 census for Montgomery County identified Perry Lincoln as a free black,2 and he was likely Wilson's brother, although born in Prince George's County.3 According to the land record, Wilson and Perry paid one hundred and fifty dollars to Samuel Griffith, who in turn paid Gaither and Dwyer.4 Their purchase included three horses, three cows, twenty pigs, six plows, two wagons, a crop of potatoes and a crop of wheat.
Wilson Lincoln was free by 1860, when he and his brother Benjamin lived next door to William B. Gaither's mill and Henry Dwyer's stone masonry shop south of Unity. That year, the two brothers worked as "pump makers." They probably built pumps for Gaither's mill, which stood on Hawling's River.5 In 1860, Benjamin owned $150 in personal property, while Wilson owned $25 in property. The census also listed Wilson's wife, Eliza A. Bond, along with their first three children. The Lincolns had nine children: Perry T. in 1857, Ann in 1858, Wilson in 1860, Martha J. in 1864, Mary in 1866, Abraham in 1869, Isaac in 1871, Joseph W. in 1873, and Eliza E. in 1879.6
In May 1864, Wilson Lincoln was drafted by the Union army. Although the first draft that year took place in March,7 the President had ordered a second conscription "of an additional 200,000 men," beginning in May.8 On May 24, the Baltimore Sun published a list of the sixty-three men drafted from the First District of Montgomery County, including "Wilson Linklon, colored."9 Lincoln arrived in Ellicotts Mills, Maryland, on June 20, 1864. Colonel John C. Holland, a U.S. provost marshall, mustered Lincoln into Company G, 28th Regiment, U.S.C.T.10 Although the 28th was part of the Indiana Volunteer Infantry, the men recruited in Maryland were "credited to Maryland [by the] War Dept., Washington D.C."11 The 28th Regiment participated in the Battle of the Crater and the Siege of Petersburg.12 Lincoln served with the company as a private for the remainder of the Civil War. Wilson Lincoln appears among the 209,145 black soldiers commemorated on the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington, D.C. His name appears on plaque B-44 on the Wall of Honor, along with the name of his brother, Perry Lincoln.13
Perry had enlisted as a substitute with the 28th Regiment in 1864, serving in Company I as a sergeant. After being "absent sick" in October, Perry Lincoln died from the final stages of "phthisis pulmonalis," or tuberculosis, on November 9, 1864 at the L'Ouverture Hospital in Alexandria, Virginia. The physician noted that "of His past history nothing is known."14 It is also unknown for whom he had substituted. Perry Lincoln was buried in Alexandria's newly-established Freedmen's Cemetery, in grave number eighty-eight.15
Wilson Lincoln was likewise recorded as "absent sick" in November 1864, the same month that his brother died. Wilson was again sick in March of 1865, this time at the mobile "Flying Hospital."16 However, he recovered enough to perform detached service in May. He was discharged in Norfolk, Virginia on June 10, 1865.
Following the war, Wilson Lincoln returned to Montgomery County, where he worked as a farm laborer and, by 1870, as a farmer.17 That year, Wilson Lincoln and Thomas R. Bond jointly purchased one hundred and twenty-five acres of a tract called "Green Spring Resurveyed." The land stood north of Unity near the Patuxent River. Approximately ten acres were in neighboring Howard County.18 The acreage bordered the land of a wealthy African American landowner named Enoch George Howard, with whom Lincoln and Bond mortgaged their land.19 Like Wilson Lincoln, Howard may have been a former slave of the Griffith family.
In 1880, the agricultural census recorded "Wilce J. Lincum" as owning
an eighty-four-acre farm that grew corn and wheat, and potatoes. Lincoln
also owned a two-acre apple orchard, although he did not harvest the fruit.20
In 1883, Wilson and Eliza Lincoln again mortgaged their land through Enoch
George Howard, this time for three years.21 Seven years later,
Wilson and Eliza Lincoln were still living on their farm in Unity.22
Lincoln received a pension for his Civil War service in 1893.23
He likely passed away before 1900, since he did not appear in the census
for that year.
1. MONTGOMERY COUNTY, BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, (Assessment Record, Slaves), 1853-1864, [MSA C1112-1]. Slaveholder: Ulysses Griffith. Slave: Willson. Page 81.
2. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Robert Linkum, 1850, Montgomery County, Cracklin District, Page 41, Line 10 [MSA SM61-142, M 1499-1].
3. U.S. Colored Troops Military Service Records, 1861-1865, Perry Lincoln, 28th United States Colored Infantry. The Generations Network, Inc., 2007. www.ancestry.com.
4. MONTGOMERY COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT (Land Records), Liber JGH 6, Folio 194, [MSA CE 63-7]. William B. Gaither and Henry Dwyer to Perry Lincoln and Wilson Lincoln, March 12, 1857.
5. U.S. Census Bureau (Census
Record, MD) for Henry Dwyer, 1850, Montgomery County, District 1, Page
25, Line 10 [MSA SM61-142, M 1499-1].
U.S. Census
Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Wilson Linkrim, 1860, Montgomery County,
District 1, Page 3, Line 6 [MSA SM61-213, M 7223-1].
U.S. Colored
Troops Military Service Records, 1861-1865, Wilson Lincoln, 28th United
States Colored Infantry. The Generations Network, Inc., 2007. www.ancestry.com.
6. U.S. Census Bureau (Census
Record, MD) for Wilson Lincoln, 1870, Montgomery County, District 5, Page
25, Line 31 [MSA SM61-275, M 7256].
U.S. Census
Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Wilce J. Lincum, 1880, Montgomery County,
Cracklin, District 107, Page 1, Line 49 [MSA SM61-324, M 4748-2]. Continued
on next page.
7. "The Draft—Colored Volunteers." Baltimore Sun 14 March 1864: 1. Baltimore Sun Historical Archive. Enoch Pratt Free Library.
8. "Another Draft Ordered."
Baltimore
Sun 16 March 1864: 1. Baltimore Sun Historical Archive. Enoch Pratt
Free Library.
"Local Matters--The
Draft in Maryland." Baltimore Sun 3 May 1864: 1. Baltimore Sun Historical
Archive. Enoch Pratt Free Library.
9. "The Draft in Maryland—First Congressional District." Baltimore Sun 24 May 1864: 1. Baltimore Sun Historical Archive. Enoch Pratt Free Library.
10. ADJUTANT GENERAL, (Muster
Rolls), 1863-1866, U.S. Colored Troops, [MSA S936-49]. Lincoln Wilson,
Company G, 28th Regiment.
"The Draft
in Maryland—Fifth Congressional District." Baltimore Sun 8 July
1864: 1. Baltimore Sun Historical Archive. Enoch Pratt Free Library.
Scharf, J.
Thomas. History of Baltimore City and County, From the Earliest Period
to the Present Day (Philadelphia, PA: Louis H. Everts, 1881) 369.
11. Stephen A. Vincent. Southern
Seed, Northern Soil: African-American Farm Communities in the Midwest,
1765-1900 (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1999) 101.
ADJUTANT
GENERAL, (Muster Roll Record), 1863-1864, Colored, [MSA S343-4]. 28th Regiment,
Page 96.
12. John F. Schmutz.
The Battle
of the Crater: A Complete History (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company,
Inc., 2009).
Vincent
101.
13. "Wilson Lincoln." Civil War Soldiers
and Sailors System. National Park Service. http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/soldiers.cfm.
"Perry Lincoln."
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/.
14. U.S. Colored Troops Military Service Records, 1861-1865, Perry Lincoln, 28th United States Colored Infantry. The Generations Network, Inc., 2007. www.ancestry.com.
15. Ibid.
"Record of
Deaths and Burials Among the Freedmen in Alexandria, Virginia ("The Gladwin
Record")." The Friends of Freedman's Cemetery. http://www.freedmenscemetery.org/burials/burials.pdf
16. Stephen B. Oates. A Woman of Valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War (New York, NY: The Free Press, 1994) 268.
17. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Wilson Lincoln, 1870, Montgomery County, District 5, Page 25, Line 31 [MSA SM61-275, M 7256].
18. MONTGOMERY COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT (Land Records), Liber EBP 8, Folio 107, [MSA CE 63-18]. Alexander H. Crowder to Wilson J. Lincoln and Thomas R. Bond, September 6, 1870. Bill of Sale.
19. MONTGOMERY COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT (Land Records), Liber EBP 8, Folio 11, [MSA CE 63-18]. Wilson J. Lincoln and Thomas R. Bond to George Howard, September 5, 1870. Mortgage.
20. U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, (Census Record, MD), 1880, Agriculture, [MSA S1184-36]. Wilce Lincoln, Montgomery County, Cracklin District, Line 5.
21. MONTGOMERY COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT (Land Records), Liber EBP 29, Folio 276, [MSA CE 63-39]. Eliza A. Lincoln and Wilson J. Lincoln to George Howard, September 5, 1883.
22. U.S. Veteran Schedule (Census Record, MD) for Wilson J. Lincoln, 1890, Montgomery County, District 127, Page 2, Line 15 [MSA SM61-364, M 28-9].
23. "Pensions Issued."
Baltimore
Sun 29 April 1823: 2. Baltimore Sun Historical Archive. Enoch Pratt
Free Library.
Return to Wilson J. Lincoln's Introductory Page
|
Tell Us What You Think About the Maryland State Archives Website!
|