Righting the past: Veteran Henry Stalburt, champion of freedom, dead

​​Editor’s note: This is the seventh in a series of historical obituaries written today to honor the men and women of the past who were denied the honor at the time of their death because of discrimination due to their race and/or gender.

Henry Stalburt, a formerly enslaved man who escaped to Pensacola twice, joined the United States Army, and saw combat in the Civil War, died between February 1893 and June 1896. A mystery in death, he lived a remarkable life.

Mr. Stalburt was born in Sparta, Alabama, around 1833. He was likely enslaved by James and Mary Burnett, who owned a nearby plantation. In 1860, the Burnetts held 40 enslaved men, women, and children in bondage. In August 1863, during the third summer of the Civil War, Stalburt escaped from the plantation and made his way 100 miles south to Pensacola.

Stalburt’s journey on the Underground Railroad began seven months after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Issued on Jan. 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was the fourth military measure taken by Lincoln to weaken slavery in the Confederacy. It also authorized Black enlistment in the U.S. military. But thousands of enslaved people did not wait for Lincoln or U.S. forces to liberate them. Like Stalburt, they escaped bondage and headed to safety and freedom behind U.S. lines.

Stalburt found Pensacola mostly empty of people. Many structures had been partially or wholly destroyed after two years of war. Rather than make his way to Fort Barrancas, a Federal Army post near Pensacola, Stalburt sheltered in an abandoned house. He did not remain free for long.

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Two weeks after arriving, Stalburt woke one morning surrounded by Confederate soldiers. They marched him back to the Burnett plantation. During the trip, the Confederates beat Stalburt “until the blood spirited out in many places from his lacerated flesh.” Collapsing to the ground, his captors “continued their blows upon the soles” of his bare feet, “making them swell enormously.”

Upon his return, Mary Burnett had an iron bar attached to Stalburt’s right ankle. The bar extended below his right foot, forming a hook that made it hard to stand or walk. While wearing the iron bar, the enslaver forced Stalburt to split rails every day. If he complained, he faced more punishment by a whip. Such abuse was allowed by Alabama state law.

Stalburt escaped from the Burnett plantation again in November 1863 − the same month that Lincoln declared “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom” in his Gettysburg Address. Using a rag to lift the iron bar, Henry embarked on another 100-mile journey to Fort Barrancas. He traveled through swamps and woods, hid during the day, and ate off the land. At one point, he almost drowned trying to cross a stream.

In the first week of December, a small crowd of soldiers standing in a grove of trees near Fort Barrancas, looked on in disbelief as Stalburt suddenly appeared before them. “By the lantern light,” one witness wrote, “I observed that a piece 18 inches long of a large wagon tire was riveted around the [enslaved man’s] right ankle, so tightly that it could not turn…” The scene illustrated both the cruelty of American slavery and offered a vivid example of the courage, hope, and persistence of freedom seekers.

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Staburt met allies at Fort Barrancas who ensured his freedom. A soldier used the “liberator’s hammer” to remove the torture device from the freedom seeker’s leg. Once freed, Stalburt rose and voiced thanks for his blue-clad saviors. He shared the story of his journey to freedom with them. Then he joined the U.S. Army.

On Dec. 5, 1863, Stalburt enlisted in the 14th Regiment, Corps d’Afrique, a segregated unit later known as the 86th United States Colored Troops (USCT). Unable to write his name on his enlistment form, the 30-year-old recruit signed an “X” over his name.

Stationed at Fort Barrancas, the 86th USCT participated in small expeditions across the northern Gulf Coast. In 1865, they joined the Mobile Campaign. During the Battle of Fort Blakeley, on April 9, Stalburt and the 86^th USCT charged Confederate lines, helping deliver a U.S. military victory in one of the final major battles of the Civil War.

Stalburt survived the war, but military service had taken a toll on his health. Suffering from liver disease, the Army discharged him on Sept. 10, 1865. He moved to Louisiana after the war and married a woman named Laura.

Henry was one of the thousands of freedom seekers who actively resisted American slavery. Later, he became one of 209,145 Black soldiers who fought to destroy slavery, restore the United States, and advance the cause of human liberty and equality.

Gulf Islands National Seashore’s Fort Barrancas Area is listed with the National Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program. This listing provides present and future generations with opportunities to learn about the cruelty of human slavery and courageous people like Henry Stalburt.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Righting the past: Veteran Henry Stalburt, champion of freedom, dead