The Saber and Scroll Journal Volume 1, Issue 1, April 2015 | Page 60

did not blame their colonel for their losses. They named their next principal fort
outside of Jacksonville Redoubt Fribley in his honor. Today, visitors can view
Fribley’s name on the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington,
D.C. and on the soldier’s monument in the Muncy Cemetery in Pennsylvania.
After the war, “the North sent ‘Yankee schoolmarms’ to the South to educate the
newly freed slaves.” 35 Kate honored Charles by becoming a “Yankee
schoolmarm” in Tennessee. Pennsylvania named the GAR post (in Williamsport,
Lycoming County) in his honor —Col. Chas. W. Fribley Post No. 390.
Fribley knew the risk of commanding a colored regiment— “he was
actuated by the desire of aiding the emancipation of an oppressed race, and of
fighting the battle of Freedom. . . . His blood has been poured out with that of his
black compatriots, upon a rebellious soil. They rest together in a common grave.
And when, hereafter, a grateful nation shall gather the commingled dust of these
her brave defenders, no name shall be more honored than that of the gallant young
soldier who believed that the cause of his country was the cause of Human
Rights.” 36 Although this regiment did not receive Medals of Honor for their
bravery, the “wounds they bore would be the medals they would show their
children and grandchildren by and by.” 37 Many gave their lives for the cause of
freedom.
Notes
1. George F. Linderman, Embattled Courage: The Experience of Combat in the American
Civil War (New York: The Free Press, 1987), 7.
2. Lt. Col. Michael Lee Lanning, Ret., The African-American Soldier: From Crispus
Attucks to Colin Powell (Secaucus, New Jersey: Carol Publishing Company, 1997), 34.
3. Ibid., 51.
4. Bernard C. Nalty, Strength for the Fight: A History of Black Americans in the Military
(New York: The Free Press, 1986), 45.
5. Soldiers for the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th USCT needed to be immune to tropical diseases
since they would be sent to the swampy regions in the South; however, this requirement did not apply
to white officers.
6. Charles Wesley Fribley, October 4, 1861, Charles Wesley Fribley diary, Manuscripts –
Civil War Miscellaneous Collection, U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks,
Pennsylvania.
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