Nelson Browning (abt. 1844)

Born about 1844 in Hinds, Mississippi, United States

Biography

Corporal Nelson Browning served in the United States Civil War.
Enlisted: 21 Jun 1863
Mustered out: 29 Aug 1865
Side: USA
Regiment(s): Company A, 55th Regiment, Massachusetts Infantry (Colored)

Nelson Browning is a part of US Black heritage.

Nelson was born about 1844 in St. Louis, Missouri.^[1] He was a farmer when he enlisted in the United States Army during the Civil War.^[1] He was reduced in rank by courts martial for mutiny 13 August 1863.^[1] He was sentenced to hard labor at Fort Clinch for the term of his enlistment, forfeiture of all pay and allowance due or to become due, and to be dismissed dishonorably at the expiration of his term of enlistment.^[2] He wrote a letter pleading to be returned to his unit because he had a mother that depended on his salary.^[2] He claimed that all he did was hide overnight on a boat.^[2] He was released 2 September 1865 and sent to Hilton Head, South Carolina.^[2]

Research Notes

There was a black Nelson Browning, farm laborer, living in Mississippi in 1900, married with children.^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Fox, Charles Barnard. Record of the Service of the Fifty-Fifth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (Cambridge, Massachusetts : Press of John Wilson and Son, July, 1868), pg. 114.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} Courts martial: "U.S., Colored Troops Military Service Records, 1863-1865", database with images, Ancestry Sharing Link - (Ancestry Record 1107 #1837 : accessed 7 April 2023); citing The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Compiled Military Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers Who Served with the United States Colored Troops: 1st through 5th United States Colored Cavalry, 5th Massachusetts Cavalry (Colored), 6th United States Colored Cavalry; Microfilm Serial: M1801; Microfilm Roll: 2.
3. ↑ "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-6Q73-D9B?cc=1325221&wc=9B79-7MK%3A1030553801%2C1030626701%2C1030599001 : 5 August 2014), Mississippi > Bolivar > ED 2 Beat 1 > image 68 of 87; citing NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).