(MILITARY CIVIL WAR) Datcher Francis A member of Washington

Sale 2534 - Lot 310

Price Realized: $ 562

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Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900

(MILITARY--CIVIL WAR.) Datcher, Francis. A member of Washington's black community protests the destruction of his cemetery by troops. Autograph Letter Signed "Fr Datcher" to Seth Williams, assistant adjutant general of the Army of the Potomac, with Autograph Note Signed by General Williams ("S. Williams A.A.G.") on verso. 2 pages, 8 x 5 inches, on one sheet; folds, minimal wear. [Washington, DC], 19 December 1861

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Francis Datcher (1795-1862) was a leading member of Washington's free black community. A barber and messenger for the War Department, he was listed with $4,200 in assets in the 1860 census, and had survived an attempt to kidnap him into slavery in 1839. He was also president of the newly established Columbian Harmony Cemetery, and had recently deeded a personal plot to his A.M.E. minister (see Wayman, My Recollections of African M.E. Ministers, page 74). When hordes of Union soldiers began to arrive in the area, they sometimes clashed with local residents. Datcher sent the following letter to a leading officer: "Will Gen'l Williams oblige us by getting the Colonel of a regiment called the Chasseurs to restrain his men from destroying the property of our cemetery? The trees are being cut down & carried away & the fences also. Our cemetery, near Mrs. Gale's farm."
General Williams (quite possibly not knowing that he was defending a "colored" cemetery) immediately took action, forwarding the letter to another general with this note: "Respectfully referred to General Keyes with the request that he will please give such instructions as will effectively prevent further depredations upon the cemetery property within alluded to." The cemetery remained in active use for almost a century more, with luminaries such as dressmaker Elizabeth Keckley buried there. In 1960, the bodies (but tragically not the headstones) were all moved to a new site. The cemetery Mr. Datcher had guarded is now the site of the Rhode Island Avenue–Brentwood Metro station and a Home Depot.