John Payne Civil War collection

1858-1923

Veteran of the Civil War and agent of the Freedmen's Bureau. John Payne joined the Union army as a private in the 15th Regiment Iowa Infantry. Appointed second lieutenant to the 10th Regiment of Louisiana Volunteers of African Descent, he served as aide-de-camp to Brigadier General J.R. Hawkins of the 3rd Brigade, First Division, of U.S. Colored Troops. He took part in numerous military campaigns throughout the South, in Mississippi and Alabama, including the victorious battle of Blakely which led to the evacuation of Mobile, Alabama, by the Confederate army. After the war, he worked as an agent of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands in Mississippi. John Payne lived in Harrisburg, Indiana, before the Civil War and was raised as an orphan by his uncles Samuel and William Rees and by the family of William Thomas. Correspondence and military certificates documenting the Civil War service of John Payne, a volunteer of African descent who rose to the post of second lieutenant in the Union army and became an agent of the Freedmen's Bureau after the war. The collection consists of letters exchanged between Payne and his uncles, Samuel and William Rees from 1862 to 1868, four military orders (1865), Payne's letter of appointment as second lieutenant in the Lousiana Volunteers of African Descent (1864) and a pension certificate (1923). Payne's letters provide substantive details on the participation of African Americans in the Civil War and their enfranchisement during the Reconstruction period. (15 originals and 7 duplicates).