As the District is poised to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the emancipation of slaves on Monday, one 64-year-old D.C. native shares her family’s past in fighting for that goal in the Civil War.
I understand you have a relative who fought?
He was my great-grandfather and his name was Frank Garrett Hinton. … He served in what was known as the 12th Heavy Artillery Unit of the United States Colored Troops. … He was promoted to corporal by the time he mustered out.
How did you learn about him?
I was just playing around with some websites and a site came up called United States Colored Troops. … I typed in my great-grandfather’s name and there was a hit for a person named Frank Hinton. … I went to the National Archives a few days later and I looked at the military records.
Had anyone mentioned his service in your family?
No mention of it had been made in my family. I not only discovered that he had enlisted but that he had four brothers that my father didn’t know anything about. … All of them in September 1864 escaped from their master — I’m told through an obituary that I read about my great-grandfather — and enlisted.
What do you know about their time as slaves?
They were enslaved to a man named Thomas Henton.
Was the enslavement mentioned in the oral history?
No. … But this is another interesting part of my story. One day I went … to see if there were any descendents of the family that owned my family. And sure enough, two Hentons showed up, and, on top of that, the name of the street was the same as the street in the military records for my great-grandfather. So I wrote a letter to these people.
How did they react?
They welcomed us with open arms and we have a nice friendship. … They live in the same house on the same land where my ancestors were enslaved. … They’ve opened their home to us for family reunions. – Kytja Weir
