Joseph T. (Joseph Thomas) Wilson

Born in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1836, Joseph T. Wilson was enslaved in childhood and later became a soldier, writer, and activist. He served in the Union Army during the Civil War with a United States Colored Troops regiment and went on to build a public career in the years after emancipation.

Wilson is best known as the author of The Black Phalanx, an early and influential history of Black soldiers in the wars of the United States, especially the Civil War. Drawing on his own experience and a wide range of historical material, he helped document the courage, service, and sacrifices of African American troops at a time when their contributions were often ignored or minimized.

After the war, he remained active in civic and political life, including work connected to journalism and public service. He died in 1891, but his writing continues to matter because it preserves firsthand-era memory and gives Black military history a strong voice from the nineteenth century itself.