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Nimrod
Burke (1836-1914) Rank: First Sergeant Unit: Company F, 23rd Regiment, U.S. Colored Infantry Born: Prince William County, Virginia, Residence:
Washington County, Ohio Parents:
Joseph and Hannah (Gaskins) Burke. Married:
Mary Freeman in1866 Died: 15 July 1914 Buried:
Fourth Row, Soldiers Circle, Green Lawn Cemetery, Chillicothe, Ohio. 4,400
men from Washington County, Ohio served with Union Forces during the American Civil War (1861-1865). When the Civil War started
in 1861, the Federal Government would not allow blacks to enlist. The general consensus was: “the Civil War was a white
man’s War”. This is the foundation for the present day claim that the American Civil War was not fought about
slavery. Of course could be further from the truth! States which seceded from the Union and fired the first shots of the Civil
War stated very clearly in their letters of secession, that the reason they were leaving the Union was to preserve their right
to own slaves. Every black person in the United States, whether enslaved or free were victims of slavery. Black men were
anxious to join the Union Army and fight because they knew the real cause for the Civil War was slavery. During the early
part of the Civil War, blacks were only allowed to serve as the Union Army as civilian laborers, teamsters, body servants
for high ranking Union officers and as in the case for my g-grandfather Nimrod Burke, as scouts. Until around 1795 Nimrod
Burke’s ancestors were enslaved on the [1]Robert Carter owned Leo Plantation, part of which was in Prince William County, Virginia near Manassas where
the First Battle of Bull Run was fought July 21, 1861.
Due to incessant lobbing from Frederick Douglass and other Abolitionist for the right of black soldiers
to join the Union Army and fight, by late 1862, President Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton, made the decision to allow
the enlistment of black soldiers in the Union Army. The qualification for Nimrod
Burke to serve as a scout for the Union Army was the fact that he was born in the Tidewater Region of Virginia in 1836, and
lived there for the first eighteen years of his life, before coming to Washington County, Ohio. Nimrod Burke was already familiar
with the area of Eastern Virginia when he came to Washington County, Ohio with his parents, Joseph and Hannah Burke, from
Prince William County, Virginia in 1854. Prior to the Civil War,
Nimrod Burke had been employed by [2]Melvin C. Clark, a prominent attorney in Marietta, Ohio. On April 12, 1861 when the Civil War erupted, Clark
rushed to form a Union Army unit in Washington County. Clark himself was commissioned as a Major, and soon promoted to Lieutenant
Colonel. Clarke had immediately hired Nimrod Burke as a civilian teamster and scout for the Union Army. The 36th
Ohio Volunteer Infantry was sent to fight Confederate forces in Virginia. The 23rd Regiment was organized
at Camp Casey, Va., from November 23, 1863, to June 30, 1864. At first Attached to 2nd Brigade, 4th Division, 9th Corps, Army
of the Potomac, from April to September, 1864, then to the 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, 9th Corps, until December 1864; next
assigned to the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Division, 25th Corps, until December, 1865. Finally the unit served the remainder of its
active duty with the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, 25th Corps, in the Dept. of Texas located on the Rio Grande River in Brownsville,
Texas. The 23rd fought combat
campaigns from the Rapidan to the James River in Virginia. In May and June 1864. They guarded wagon trains for the Army of
the The 23rd remained on Duty in the Department of Virginia until May, 1865 and then were moved to Brownsville,
Texas along the Rio Grande River during May-June, 1865. Nimrod continued duty with the 23rd at Brownsville until November
30, 1865 when the 23rd was mustered out of Military Service. The Regiment's losses during the Civil War, were 4 Officers and
82 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded. 1 Officer and 165 Enlisted men died from disease. Total casualties for the 23rd
Regiment, United States Colored Infantry were 252. [1] Between 1791 and 1804 Robert Carter III of Virginia freed over 500 enslaved African Americas
using a gradual emancipation plan. [2] Colonel Melvin C. Clarke, 36 OVI Regiment, was killed on Sept 17, 1862 during the Battle
of Antietam. [3] According to notes written by Robert Carter III (1728-1804), Robert E. Lee and Nimrod
Burke were genetic relatives. Forgotten Soldiers of the American Civil
War: Campaigns at the Wilderness and Spotsylvania
Court House in Virginia. By
Horace McCaskill, Colonel, USA (Ret.) Saturday,
September 5, 2009 at 7:27am Virginia's Historic
Heartland's Notes: 23rd USCT in Northern Virginia. Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of the Potomac commenced its Very early in the campaign, the Fourth Division experienced the likely outcome awaiting
USCTs captured by Confederate forces. On May 8th, several Fourth Division soldiers were captured by the Ninth
Virginia Cavalry near Chancellorsville and summarily executed on the spot. Also Corporal Charles Hopkins, First New Jersey Volunteer Infantry, captured on May 6th during fighting in the Wilderness,
described in his memoirs the hanging of a black soldiers in uniform on May 9th by his Confederate captors at Orange Court
House. In contrast, Confederate generals Edward Johnson and
George Stuart captured during combat at Bloody Angle (Mule Shoe Salient), Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, were guarded
and escorted unharmed by black soldiers, with weapons shouldered, to the rear on May 12, 1864 (see attached Frank Leslie’s
Illustrated Newspaper drawing, June 4, 1864). On May 15, 1864 the combat service support role
of the division’s 23rd USCT Regiment would briefly change. On that day, the regiment was thrust into combat when part
of Confederate Brigadier General Tom Rosser’s Virginia Calvary (Laurel Brigade), on a reconnoiter and probing mission,
surprised an outnumbered Second Ohio Cavalry unit that was temporarily camped off Catharpin Road, east of Piney Branch Church.
The Second Ohio Cavalry, attached to the Fourth Division, alerted Brigadier General Ferrero of their situation while fighting
a delaying action toward Plank Road. The 23rd USCT’s marching rapidly from nearby
Chancellorsville met the retreating Second Ohio at the intersection of Catharpin (Route 612) and Old Plank (Route 610) roads,
and fought Rosser’s dismounted cavalry. Rosser’s soldiers remounted their horses and withdrew down Catharpin Road.
Although the combat was light, and casualties were few, the 23rd USCT became the first African American troops to fight Confederate
soldiers of The Army of Northern Virginia on Virginia soil. Two days later, near Old Salem Church,
elements of the division’s 30th and 23rd USCTs fought back a foraging Confederate force that had briefly captured nearly
30 wagons returning from the Union’s main supply depot at Belle Plain. Later, on July 30, 1864, the Fourth Division
would suffer horrific casualties during the Battle of the Crater (Mine Explosion) on the outskirt of Petersburg, VA. Yet,
despite poor leadership, distrust of their soldierly skills, and the atrocities committed against them by Confederate soldiers
at the Crater on July 30, 1864, the USCT performed well over the course of the Overland Campaign. Locally, the USCT are the
forgotten soldiers of the battles of Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House. Their role, sacrifice and achievements are unsung and neither recognized nor acknowledged.
Among the many markers, battlefield park and shelter exhibits, and monuments that dot the local landscapes, not a single one
mention the USCT’s role in securing Rapidan River crossings and their vital combat and support roles in the pivotal
battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House. After the war, they faded away in the fog of racial politics, poverty,
and the North-South divisiveness and accommodations. All, in varying degrees, either precluded or hindered any positive recognition
of the USCT’s role in the Civil War, and acknowledgement of their personal sacrifices in ending slavery, and ensuring
the continued existence of the Union. The broader context of the skirmishes at the intersection of Catharpin and Orange Plank
Roads, and near Old Salem Church, was that nearly 180,000 African Americans fought or performed various combat support functions
in a number of Civil War battles, with over one-third either dying in combat, or from wounds and various diseases. The 23rd USCT first fought in
Spotsylvania County, VA on May 15, 1864. From: Terry Dougherty <TDougherty@spotsylvania.va.us Sir, (Credits for the primary sources of information are: Robert Beecham’s Civil War from the Iron Brigade to the Black Regiments
(Edited and Introduced by Michael E. Stevens) provides an eyewitness account of the Fourth Division and its 23rd USCT Regiment
from the Rapidan River to the Crater; and The Andersonville Diary & Memoirs of Charles Hopkins (Edited By William P. Styple
and John J. Fitzpatrick), and Henry Robert Burke’s account of 1st Sgt Nimrod Burke. Company F, 23rd
U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment.)
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