61st US Colored Infantry Regiment

The regiment began as the 2nd Tennessee Volunteer Infantry (African Descent), organized at La Grange in June 1863 and also called the 2nd West Tennessee. Its men guarded La Grange, Moscow and Memphis. On December 3, 1863, a skirmish at Moscow became the first engagement fought by any Tennessee Colored Troops unit. The next day, at the Wolf River bridge, they helped thwart Confederate cavalry under Stephen D. Lee who were trying to burn the railroad bridge. It became the 61st United States Colored Infantry in 1864.

What the plaque says

61st US Colored Infantry Regiment June 1862 In June 1862 the Union Army established a headquarters in Jackson. The provost marshal's office located at the court house was the recruiting station for the Union Army. In May 1863, during the Civil War, over 100 African American men from Madison County joined the Union Army to help establish the United States Colored Troops authorized by the War Department's General Order 143 on May 23, 1863. Enough men enlisted to form Companies A & B of the 6lst Regiment U. S. Colored Infantry Regiment. Originally known as the 2nd U.S. Infantry Volunteers (African Descent), in December 1863, at the Battle of Moscow, Tennessee, the 61st was one of the first Tennessee USCT units to see combat in the Civil War. Its men saw service in Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. During its service the regiment lost one officer; thirty-seven men were killed and mortally wounded; and two officers and 316 enlisted men succumbed to disease. The 6lst mustered out of active duty on December 26, 1865, after which some became a part of the regular US Army.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Pinson Mounds State Archaeological Park — 11 mi
  The largest group of Middle Woodland mounds in the United States, about two thousand years old, with the second tallest mound in the country, a museum and paved trails.
• Tina Turner Museum at Flagg Grove School — 25 mi
  The one-room Black school Tina Turner attended in Nutbush, moved to Brownsville in 2012 and opened as a museum in 2014 beside Sleepy John Estes's house.

More markers nearby

• Monroe Dunaway Anderson / Anderson, Clayton & Company — steps away
• Occupation of Jackson — steps away
• Mother Liberty CME Church — 0.3 mi
• Mabel Louise "Big Maybelle" Smith — 0.4 mi