Isaac J. Hill

Born in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, in 1826, Isaac J. Hill grew up in difficult circumstances and later became a minister in 1852. Available historical research also describes him as one of eleven children of Isaac and Rachel Hill.

During the Civil War, Hill served as a private in the 29th Connecticut Colored Regiment. After the war, he moved to Woodbury, New Jersey, where he wrote A Sketch of the 29th Regiment of Connecticut Colored Troops, completed in 1866 and published in 1867. The book is notable as an early firsthand regimental history centered on Black soldiers who served the Union.

Hill died in 1882. Though not widely known today, his surviving work gives readers a direct window into the experiences of Black troops in the Civil War and preserves a story that might otherwise have been lost.