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Sgt. Maj. Milton M. Holland The year was 1864 in war torn Virginia. A young Black soldier from the 5th Regiment, U.S. Colored Troops shared his account of the contributions of the Negro solider mustered into the Union in the waning years of the Civil War.
In his personal accounts of war, Medal of Honor winner Army Sgt. Maj. Milton M. Holland became a man of record for the courage, bravery and actions of trailblazing colored troops who marched through the South alongside White counterparts flying Old Glory and liberating slaves.
Born a slave near Austin, Texas in 1844 on the Holland Family Plantation, Holland was the first African American in Texas to earn the Medal of Honor while serving with Company C, 5th U.S. Colored Troops.
The 5th Ohio was mustered in Ohio and commanded by General Benjamin F. Butler. The troops saw considerable action in the swamps of North Carolina and in Virginia “capturing forage and emancipating slaves” under the Emancipation Proclamation.
According to the Arlington National Cemetery Website, this great Texan fought in the Petersburg campaign in Virginia during 1864 and at Fort Fisher, North Carolina, in January 1865.
However, his most notable actions happened as a first sergeant between September 28 and 30, 1864, according to ANC records.
Holland’s unit was ordered to assault a Confederate position. When all of the White commanding officers were killed, wounded or had become disabled during the engagements at Chaffin's Farm and New Market Heights, Virginia, Holland assumed command and continued to lead the Black troops in battle despite being wounded.
The fighting was fierce with shells raining down in front of Black troops, but despite the odds, his black brigade was able to capture the important Confederate position.
Before his days of glory on the battlefield, Holland was the son of a slave woman and a prominent White man.
He and his three brothers were the chattel property of Bird Holland, a former Texas Secretary of State, who sent them out of state to be schooled at the Albany Enterprise Academy in Ohio in the late 1850s, according to Stephen F. Austin State University Civil War expert scholar and historian Dr. Archie P. McDonald.
Holland had big dreams of being a soldier. According to McDonald, when the Civil War began, young Holland attempted to enlist in the army, but was turned back mainly because Blacks were not allowed to serve in the military at the time.
The obstacles did not dim his spirits. His desire to serve led him to a civilian job in the quartermaster’s department in the Ohio Volunteer Infantry.
Holland was a quick learner and absorbed everything he could about military life while performing mundane tasks of unloading supply wagons and handing out rations and supplies to soldiers.
With the fight with the South intensifying and the desire to preserve the Union growing, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, giving Holland the chance he’d been waiting for. With Blacks permitted to enlist and despite his father serving in the Confederacy, Holland joined the Union Army at age 19, becoming part of a long list of as many as 400,000 other brave Black Americans who served the Union during the war.
After his training, Holland and his fellow troops were thrown in the thick of the war. He wrote letters about the experiences of him and his fellow troops.
In one letter written in January 1864 provided by civil war historians at Hill College in Hillsboro, Texas, Holland spoke of the endurance and difficult tasks and conditions colored troops worked under saying, “I must say of the 5th, that after 20 days of hard scouting, without overcoats or blankets, they returned home to camp … making 25 and 30 miles per day. Several of the white cavalry told me that no soldiers have ever done as hard marching through the swamps and marshes as cheerfully as we did, and if they had to follow us for any length of time, it would kill their horses.”
Holland went on to talk of the raids where colored troops killed White Confederate troops and rescued countless thousands of Black slaves. In one raid, Holland said, “During that raid, thousands of slaves belonging to rebel masters were liberated…the colored man makes no distinction so I may say all belonging to slaveholders were liberated.”
As first sergeant of Company "C", Holland was with the James River fleet in its advance on Richmond when his company was ordered to make the attack. They struck the first blow at Petersburg by capturing the Confederate flag, the signal station, and the officers at the station.
Holland wrote about many other skirmishes where colored troops fought valiantly in the march across Virginia in 1864. His heroics on the battlefield were recognized by General Butler, who was so impressed with his leadership and bravery that he made him captain on the spot and gave him a medal. Because of racism, sergeant major was the highest ranking a Black solider could attain. Before the war ended, Holland rose to the rank of regimental sergeant major.
He later received the Congressional Medal of Honor from President Abraham Lincoln April 6, 1865, for his bravery in Virginia and mustered out of the army on September 20, 1865.
Holland’s passion and insightful vision for a brighter tomorrow for Black people is evident in his letters underlining the reasons why he and so many other colored troops gave up so much to serve under difficult conditions. Highlighting it, he said, “The boys are generally well and satisfied though they are deprived of all the comforts of home, and laboring under great disadvantages as regards to pay and having families to support upon less wages than white soldiers, still trust that when they do return, they will be crowned with honors, and a happier home prepared for them when they will be free from the abuses of northern and southern fire-eaters…There is a brighter day coming for the colored man, and he must sacrifice home comforts, it necessary to speed the coming of the glorious day.”
After the war, he was employed by the United States Government in the Auditor Office, eventually becoming chief of collections for the Sixth District.
Before the end of the century, he founded the Alpha Insurance Company in Washington, D.C., one of the earliest insurance companies owned by an African American.
Holland died of a heart attack in May 1910 and is buried in Section 23 of Arlington National Cemetery. The Texas Heritage Museum on the campus of Hill College in Hillsboro, Texas has a special display honoring Holland and his achievements.