Mark Wagner, professor, SIU Carbondale Center for Archaeological Investigations, and George Hunt, a doctoral student in history, look over a copy of an 1867 lithograph of Cairo. (Photo by Russell Bailey)
January 29, 2024
SIU researchers work to place Southern Illinois Black heritage sites on National Register
CARBONDALE, Ill. — Work by Southern Illinois University Carbondale researchers in recognizing significant Black heritage properties in the region could also reveal more information about a Union Army military camp that hosted up to 5,000 freed Blacks in Cairo at one point during the Civil War.
The work is part of a project led by Mark Wagner, a professor in SIU’s Center for Archaeological Investigations and anthropology department. Wagner and his team of graduate students will produce National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) nominations for several locations in Southern Illinois associated with Black history and amend existing National Register nominations for three other sites in the region. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) announced the $75,000 grant in late November. Wagner hopes all of the applications can be completed by the end of the semester in May.
“It brings these heritage sites into prominence,” Wagner said. “They come to greater public knowledge by being identified as important sites to the history of the country that need to be preserved.”
1860s Camp Defiance map is pivotal
The camps, referred to during the Civil War as contraband camps, were refugee camps for Black men, women and children who escaped slavery and made it to the protection of the Union Army. One such area was within Camp Defiance, a Union Army camp in Cairo during the Civil War.
Wagner believes records found in the Cairo Public Library and the National Archives in Washington, D.C., will help buttress the NRHP nomination. The documentation includes specifics from an original Army map of the camp and surrounding area drawn sometime after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862 and the end of the war in April 1865.
The map shows numerous buildings owned by the Army’s Quartermaster Corps, including barracks believed to be used by freed Blacks working for the Army during the war who also remained there once the Army left Cairo and headed south to continue the fight against the Confederacy.
National Archives records important
Wagner received photocopied sections of parts of the map — housed in the Cairo Public Library — which includes street names and building locations, while working on an unrelated project 20 years ago.
The camp area itself lies along both the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Wagner learned during a recent trip that the National Archives has written records related to the camp but not a copy of the map. Buildings identified from written records include a mess hall, hospital, feed store, carpenter shop and offices, with notations recommending the buildings be given to the freed Blacks.
“It would be really difficult to do what we are doing without that map,” Wagner said. “It is amazing that wherever it was that it survived. All of the other records regarding that Quartermaster Corps, all of the written records, are in the National Archives. It is surprising to me that those things were not thrown away at the end of the Civil War.”
Excited about the project
George Hunt, a second-year doctoral student in history, is one of several students working with Wagner on the applications. Hunt, who is from Brooklyn, Illinois, earned a dual bachelor’s degree in history and political science and a master’s degree in history from SIU Carbondale. His dissertation will focus on African American settlements in Southern Illinois.
“At first, my interest was Black towns in Illinois that were created during the early 19th century,” he said. “This project mostly focuses on a lot of those 19th century settlements, but also I’ve been really interested in the Cairo contraband camp. At the time, there were so many enslaved people especially after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued that many flocked to the Union lines, so the Union had to establish camps all across the northern states to house all of these free and enslaved people who were coming.”
Hunt said potentially 5,000 Blacks were at the camp working at jobs there during the fall of 1862 and spring 1863. The camp was one of the first times Illinois gained a major Black population, he said.
While much of his work is with the Cairo research, Hunt is excited to see the project unfold.
“It’s great to increase the number of sites associated with African American history on the National Register of Historic Places,” he said. “It’s important because I’ve been told that the number of sites is underrepresented, especially in Southern Illinois, so the state historic preservation office is really interested in increasing the number of Black heritage sites on the National Register.”
First time the ‘whole story’ will be told
While the grant contract is for Wagner and his students to work on National Register nominations for about a half-dozen Black heritage sites in the region, the initial work could make it possible to pursue another grant for preliminary archeological work, Wagner said. The goal is to pull the archival and historical information together to provide the basis for further work “so that will be the first time that the whole story is being told.” This will be the first new information on the Cairo camp since the 1980s, Wagner said.
The area in Cairo that interests Wagner is along Cedar Street, between 10th and 12th streets. Wagner said he likes doing public archaeology with the support of residents.
“The people of Cairo want us to go down there and want us to do some exploration to see if anything survived,” he said. “The whole idea is to see if we actually have Civil War artifacts in this area the contrabands would have had.”
Collaboration is vital
Don Patton, president of The Cairo Historical Preservation Project Inc. (TCHPP), said the not-for-profit organization is working with Wagner and SIU. TCHPP has nominated the former camp location to the U.S. National Park Service’s Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Project.
“Collaboration is integral to our approach to enhancing the information around our buildings and properties in Cairo,” Patton said. “As an SIU grad, I am always proud to work with my alma mater. Contraband camps have a unique importance in American history. At the time, Cairo was an organized relocation hub for Black Americans making their way to freedom.”
Patton added that “community engagement is vital in doing preservation work.”
“Cairo is an extraordinary place from the historical perspective as it relates to geography and events that have occurred over a period that has impacted the state of Illinois and the region,” he said.
Work on other NRHP nominations
In addition to Cairo, Wagner’s team is working on nominating additional locations for NRHP consideration:
- Miller Grove, a pre-Civil War freed slave community in Pope County.
- Bostick Settlement, a post-Civil War settlement in Jackson County.
- Camp Pomona, a 1930s Civil Conservation Corps camp in Jackson County.