Joshua M. (Joshua Melancthon) Addeman

author

Joshua M. (Joshua Melancthon) Addeman

1840–1930

A Civil War veteran, lawyer, and longtime Rhode Island public official, he also left behind a firsthand account of service with Black troops during the war. His life stretched from a New Zealand birth in 1840 to a long public career in Providence.

1 Audiobook

Reminiscences of two years with the colored troops Personal Narratives of events in the War of the Rebellion, being papers read before the Rhode Island Soldiers and Sailors Historical Society. No. 7, Second Series

Reminiscences of two years with the colored troops Personal Narratives of events in the War of the Rebellion, being papers read before the Rhode Island Soldiers and Sailors Historical Society. No. 7, Second Series

by Joshua M. (Joshua Melancthon) Addeman

About the author

Born in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, Joshua Melancthon Addeman was brought to Providence, Rhode Island, as a child and later graduated from Brown University in 1862. Soon after college, he entered Union service during the Civil War.

Addeman is especially remembered as the author of Reminiscences of Two Years with the Colored Troops (1880), a memoir drawn from his experience with Rhode Island’s Black regiments. That background gives his writing unusual immediacy, combining personal observation with the wider history of the war.

After the war, he studied law and went on to a long career in Rhode Island public life, serving as the state’s Secretary of State from 1872 to 1887. He died in 1930, leaving a legacy that connects military service, public duty, and historical memory.