author
Frederick W. Browne
1841–1917
A Civil War veteran turned memoirist, he left a concise but vivid firsthand account of serving as a second lieutenant in the 1st U.S. Colored Cavalry. His writing offers a rare personal view of the war, military life, and the experiences of Black troops in Union service.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Massachusetts in 1841 and later associated with Cincinnati, Frederick W. Browne is remembered for My Service in the U.S. Colored Cavalry, a paper he read before the Ohio Commandery of the Loyal Legion in 1908. The work was later published and has endured as his best-known contribution.
In that memoir, Browne writes from direct experience as a second lieutenant in the 1st U.S. Colored Cavalry during the Civil War. The piece is brief, but it stands out for its eyewitness perspective and for the light it sheds on a regiment made up of Black soldiers serving in the Union Army.
Browne died in Cincinnati in 1917. Though not a prolific literary figure, he remains of interest to readers of Civil War history because his surviving work preserves one veteran's personal account of service, leadership, and wartime memory.