Civil War soldier from U.S. Colored Infantry's grave uncovered near Bulle Rock development

HAVRE DE GRACE, Md. — Trapsing through the woods across from the Bulle Rock development, preservationists found evidence of a forgotten family plot.

“I live there across the street,” said Sue Nappi, a cemetery preservationist, “Passed it every day. Never knew that was a cemetery. Just thought it was a patch of woods.”

Combing through historical records, Nappi soon discovered Louis H. Hill had served as a private with the 30th U.S. Colored Infantry.

“He was in the siege of Petersburg, which was a big, big battle in the Civil War,” Nappi told us, “and he served all the way through the end when the Confederates stopped fighting.”

With other plots and cemeteries holding similar secrets throughout the area, a foundation named for the county’s most famous U.S. Colored Troop, Sergeant Alred B. Hilton, approached the city for help preserving their graves.

“There’s a lot of overgrowth, a lot of brush that needs to be pulled out,” said City Administration Director Dr. Christopher Ricci, “There’s just a lot of debris so the city’s going to take on that responsibility of clearing it all out.”

Then it will be up to the foundation and its volunteers to fill in the gaps of history that surround the forgotten markers and troops, some of whom were fighting for their freedom, in the service of their divided country.

“There is such an effort going on right now to erase a lot of history and go back and say, ‘Oh, we don’t need to keep those portions of history,’” said Foundation Recording Secretary Roxann Redd-Wallace, “but in the United States, we are a melting pot and we need to include everyone’s history.”

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