Hi . I'm dr Lori Rush . I'm the army
archaeologist at Fort Drum new york and
cultural resources manager . One of the
great privileges of this job is the
opportunity to study not just the
history of James Laurey or the story of
Pine Camp or even the indigenous people
of our region , but also the story of
the many , many people who have crossed
paths here and spent their lives on the
land that we now know as Fort Drum new
york . Several years ago we began to
study our Army historic cemeteries
that remained on fort drum in the
1940s , when the residents of five
villages and over 650 farms lost
their homes here as the installation
expanded to make training available for
our soldiers during the national
emergency . That was World War 21 of
those lost villages was the village of
sterling ville and sterling ville .
Once upon a time was a company town and
in fact it's iron foundry provided much
of the iron for the railroad cars of
the Union armies . During the course of
the Civil War . As we began to study
the gate cemetery , which was the
protestant cemetery associated with the
community of sterling ville , we
discovered the interment or grave
of Sergeant William Anderson , Sergeant
Anderson and his wife Elizabeth are
buried all alone on the edge of the
cemetery , back toward the woods and as
we closely read his epitaph , we
realized that he was a member of
company F of the 26th Regiment of the
U . S . Colored troops . Clearly we
don't use those kinds of terms anymore ,
but to the colored troops and their
regiments referred to african americans
who volunteered to fight with the Union
soldiers in order to be sure that
the northerners would be victorious
during the course of the secession of
the south . And so William Anderson at
the age of 40 and possibly leaving
behind Elizabeth , who was only in her
twenties , was courageous enough to
show up at Rikers island new york in
february of 18 60 for to volunteer to
join this regiment . These soldiers
only had about a month to get ready and
then they boarded a steamer and they
headed for Beaufort south Carolina .
During the course of Sergeant
Anderson's tour . We learned from his
records that he took ill in the camps
and that was a common problem for
soldiers during that time period
diseases ran rampant through the close
quarters . And I suspect that perhaps
he may have suffered from Giardia
because his neighbors who had the
greatest respect for him said that even
though he lived to the age of 90 , um
that he never did regain his health
after his tour in the American South .
But we also know from his records that
he was so courageous that he checked
himself out of the military hospital to
go and fight with his unit . And so
he fought at places like Battery
Pringle , Honey Hill , johns Island
burdens Causeway Tiffany Station
McKay's point . So he saw a lot of
action before the end of the war and
before his opportunity to move to
northern new york to spend the rest of
his life . Why is he the only
african american soldier that we know
of buried at Fort Drum ? The answer is
that his neighbors thought so highly of
him and Elizabeth that they demanded
that the word department meet their
obligation to Sergeant Anderson
probably providing a headstone upon the
time of his death . And so not only
does this stone mark the heroism of an
african american soldier and thus give
us the opportunity to learn more about
him and to petition for his war record
so that we learned of his heroic
behavior but also reminds us
of that community And those respectful
citizens who followed through with the
department of the army to make sure
that Sergeant Anderson and Elizabeth
were remembered . Our archaeology team
also went back to the historic Gates
cemetery and we used our modern
geophysics or remote sensing equipment
to really determine if William and
Elizabeth were all alone there at the
edge of the cemetery . And sure enough
our radar and our electrical resistive
Itty discovered additional evidence of
unmarked graves surrounding William and
Elizabeth . So now we know that they're
the only marked portion of the african
american community of sterling ville
who were also buried at the gate
cemetery and Fort Drum is proud that
we've extended our cemetery protection
boundary to be sure that all those
individuals graves are protected as
well . And so we all owe William
Anderson and the other african american
courageous soldiers that headed to the
american south a debt of gratitude for
their courage , sacrifice and service .
Thank you .