William Grover (abt. 1845 - 1865)

Born about 1845 in United States [uncertain]

Died Feb 1865 at about age 20 in Florence, Florence, South Carolina, United States

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Biography

William Grover was born about 1845.

Occupations

• 1863: Farmer

Residences

• 1863: Hartford, Connecticut (military enlistment)

Military Service, Imprisonment and Death

During the Civil War, he served as a Private in Company E of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry of the Union Army, the first regiment in the United States made up entirely of enlisted men of color. He was about 18 years old, single and working as a farmer when he enlisted on 3 April 1863 from Hartford, Connecticut. He was captured 12 November 1863 near North Edisto in South Carolina. He survived until his death in the Florence Stockade while still a prisoner of war in February of 1865, one month before black soldiers were finally exchanged.^[1] Prior to the March 1865 exchanges, it was Confederate policy to refuse to exchange black prisoners of war as they were considered unequal to white prisoners of war.

Charleston Jail, Prisoner of War

Of Charleston Jail, Captain Samuel C. Timson of the 95th New York had this to say after his imprisonment in September 1864:

There were twenty-one negro soldiers, most of them belonging to Colonel Shaw's Fifty-fourth Mass. regiment of immortal memory, among the number. They were never to be exchanged, but were to be reduced to slavery. They were all that were left of the colored troops captured at Wagner. The rest were bayoneted and shot after they surrendered. Their rations were bread and water; still they would sing Union songs, pouring their melody through their prison bars for the entertainment of the Union officers in the prison and below.^[2]

Company Remarks

See also Images.

8 June 1865

Privates Hurley, Grover, and Butler died at Florence SC from exposure and ill-treatment.

Research Notes

Possible census match?

Year: 1850; Census Place: Chatham, Middlesex, Connecticut; Roll: M432_44; Page: 317B; Image: 322

William Grover / b. abt. 1848 Connecticut / Unspecified race / s. Eunice and William Grover

Projects

• 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry

Sources

1. ↑ Emilio, McKay Roster p. 361
2. ↑ Emilio, p. 415

• Emilio, Luis Fenollosa. History of the Fifty-Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 1863-1865, Boston, Massachusetts: Boston Book Co., 1891 (1st ed.) and 1894 (2nd ed.)
• Find a Grave: William Grover