| Lieut Col Liberty Billings |
| Liberty Billings Lt-Colonel Billings was born in Maine in 1823. At 25 years of age he became an ordained Unitarian minister. He enlisted in New Hampshire on July 29, 1862. He was commissioned an officer in Company S, New Hampshire 4th Infantry Regiment on the same date. At some date he was a provost marshall in St. Augustine under the 4th. He is listed however as the Chaplain in that unit. He mustered out on November 4, 1862. According to the record of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who commmanded the First South Carolina Volunteers, Billings enlisted in that regiment before it was renamed to 33rd USCT Infantry Regiment. See Army Life in a Black Regiment, written by Thomas Wentworth Higginson. At 39, Billings was promoted to Lt Colonel on 31 Jan 1863. He was dismissed by an examining board on July 28, 1863 He served on a recruiting mission to St. Augustine and brought back many of the soldiers listed with recruitment dates around January 14, 1863. March 28, 1863 at a landing at Palatka. He was just climbing up the wharf and had both hands up at the top of the ladder and a buckshot went simultaneously through the fleshy part of each hand withouth touching the bone. He turned to retreat and a spent bullet hit him lightly on the hip. The wounded officer was Lt. Colonel Liberty Billings, a New Hampshire abolitionist that neither Higginson nor Col. James Montgomery admired. Higginson wrote after the wounding: "I suppose Lt. Col. Billings will be a hero at the North. A wound is a wound no matter if one stumbles into it, as was undeniably the case with him. For myself I could spare him forever; he is absolutely worthless to me." Higginson wrote further: "The lieutenant-colonel all but cried to go home and show his martyred hands to the C---- ladies who had previously planned a festival for him in the City Hall! Heaven forgive me if I wrong him, but he is an uncommon baby, for his size...The crack some jokes on him, the officers; some say the rebels tried to crucity him; others that he knelt to pray for mercy and so the shots went through the uplifted hands." On to Jacksonville In the attempt of General Saxton to secure Jacksonville, the entrance to all of Florida, the First South Carolina Volunteers were among the regiments sent to occupy the state. They proclaimed freedom to the enslaved first at Jacksonville, and they worked to fortify the Union forces in order to take control of the entire state of Florida. Their occupation greatly antagonized the Confederates. As detachments moved further toward Palatka up the St. John's River, they were attacked by Confederate Captain Dickison and his forces. Billings was among those injured who survived, and the group returned to Jacksonville. According to a communication by Brigadier-General Finegan, Billings was wounded in four places. See Official records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 1861-1865. For a different view of Lieut Col. Billings Charlotte Forten Grimke a teacher at St. Helena's island writes about him in her journal on December 25, 1862: "After the gifts were distributed, they were address by Lieut. Col. Billings of the 1st reg. S. C. Vol. He is a N. E. man of very gentlemanly and pleasing manners. A good man, and much interested in the people, I sh'ld think. I liked him." By January 1 her view of him was dimming also: "....Dr. and Col were called away for a moment, and Lieut. col Billings coming in w'ld insistupon our going into his tent. I did not want to go at all, but he was so persistent we had to. I fear he is a somewhat vain person. His tent was very comfortabletoo, and I noticed a quite a large piece of "Secesh" furniture, something between a secretary and a bureau, and quite a collection of photographs and daguerres. But I did not examine them, for my attention was occupied by Col H....." "After being wounded in the Civil War, Billings was honorably discharged 1863 and in 1865 arrived in Fernandina and purchased property. Billings championed black rights in Florida and was a leader in Florida's Reconstruction politics. In 1870, he conducted the U.S. Census in Nassau County. From 1871 to 1877, he was a state Senator, representing Nassau, Duval and St. Johns Counties. Serving as president pro-tempore of the Senate, he died in Fernandina in 1877 According to Pablo RogersCo. A, 21st Regiment, United States Colored Infantry "Col. [Liberty] Billings had my discharge papers and he died with yellow fever and then his wife went-away and carried my discharge papers with her." April 27, 1893. Liberty Billings died Fernandina, Fla.,. |