Black Civil War veterans in an abandoned Chester County cemetery deserve a memorial

Soon, in preparation for Memorial Day, hundreds of soldiers will fan out at Arlington National Cemetery with backpacks full of American flags, placing them on every grave.

In communities around the country, many civilians will be doing the same, placing an American flag at the grave of their loved one who served in the military in defense of our great nation. But not all of our nation’s fallen soldiers are able to be honored in this way.

For example, in Westtown Township, near West Chester, there is a half-acre cemetery on a suburban road that no one would mistake for a burial ground. There are no tombstones visible on the overgrown property where groundhogs and rabbits have dug their homes — at times unearthing the bones of those buried there.

The cemetery was once part of a thriving African Methodist Episcopal congregation, Shiloh AME Church, founded in 1817 and thought to be one of the first AME churches outside of Philadelphia. Over time, with the death of congregants and people moving away, the parish closed its doors in the 1920s; the deteriorating church was razed in the 1960s.

The cemetery, with about 140 graves, did not move with the congregation. And in that cemetery are the verified burials of 14 United States Colored Troops Civil War veterans. We know a little about some of these veterans: Isaac Winters, a soldier in the 43rd U.S. Colored Infantry F Company, did his training at Camp William Penn and was sexton at Shiloh AME Church for more than 60 years. Thomas Henry was a private in Company B of the 3rd United States Colored Troops.

Shiloh AME Church was also home to Jarena Lee, who was born in 1783 in Cape May and became the first Black female preacher in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Shiloh AME cemetery represents a profound history for both the community and the country.

We don’t know where the veterans of Shiloh AME Church are buried because a previous owner had the remains of the church bulldozed and the tombstones removed. All the headstones are gone except for the headstone of Alfred Bye, Company A, 32nd U.S. Colored Regiment, which was rescued and preserved by a neighbor. We have no idea of the location of the headstone for his brother, Richard, who served in the same regiment and is also buried at Shiloh.

Right now, entry to the Shiloh AME Church cemetery is strictly prohibited by the owner. No one will be allowed to lay flowers or place a flag on the graves this Memorial Day.

This situation, with individual variations, is playing out across Chester County and the country. More and more abandoned or neglected Black cemeteries are being discovered (many with U.S. Colored Troops burials), and efforts are being made to preserve and restore them.

In Chester County alone, at least eight unkempt graveyards with U.S. Colored Troops burials have been identified. In 2022, Congress passed the African American Burial Grounds Preservation Program, authorizing the National Park Service to establish a $3 million grant program to aid preservation efforts of historic African American burial grounds.

Yet, this amount is woefully insufficient. According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, a grant competition last year drew proposals from 5,400 Black cemeteries seeking a total of some $650 million — more than six times the amount available.

Shiloh AME cemetery represents a profound history for both the community and the country. There is evidence this Black congregation aided fleeing enslaved people in their race to freedom, and the church sits only a few miles from several historic Quaker establishments along the Underground Railroad.

The least we can do is encourage our elected officials to provide access to and maintain the cemetery. We must create a memorial in Westtown Township to honor the U.S. Colored Troops dead.

Gail Guterl and Stephen Lyons are volunteers with Friends of Shiloh AME Church and Cemetery, a local organization working to preserve the memory and accessibility of the church. shilohamefriends@gmail.com