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Albert G. Walls was born about 1834. He was the child of Rachel Hall and William Walls. He served with the famous 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry during the American Civil War.
In 1850, he is attending school, probably in or near Lower Oxford, Pennsylvania.
During the Civil War he served as a Private in Company B of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first regiment in the United States made up entirely of enlisted men of color. He was 29 years old, single and working as a farmer when he enlisted on 14 March 1863 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He went missing on 16 July 1863 on the Gullah island of Sol Legare[1] during a skirmish, and is presumed killed in action.[2]
Note: There is also a Private Albert Gilbert Wall in Company G.
His first cousins James & Josiah Cole, and George, Wesley & William Jay all also served with Company B.
Philadelphia recruitment required extra care in protecting the new recruits who had been previously denied the right to volunteer and serve their country as free men. The race-motivated riots of the 1840s in Philadelphia were not yet forgotten, and the Massachusetts State Agent helping with recruiting in Philadelphia, a white man named Robert R. Corson, was obliged to buy the recruits' railroad tickets and arrange their arrivals in small parties to avoid undesired attention from detractors.[4]
Private Walls is remembered in Dr. Gooch's 2018 book Hinsonville's Heroes.
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Categories: USBH Free People of Color, Needs Linked | Pennsylvania, Free People of Color | 1850 US Census, Chester County, Pennsylvania | Oxford, Pennsylvania | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Killed in Action, United States of America, United States Civil War | 54th Regiment, Massachusetts Infantry (Colored), United States Civil War