From the Jan. 12, 2014, Murphysboro, Ill. Southern "Civil War Time Line: Dalton was a forgotten veteran" compiled by P. Michael Jones, director of the General John A. Logan Museum in Murphrysboro.
Early 20th century obituaries were not as common as they are today, but there was one for Samuel H. Dalton, who died June 7, 1920 in Murphysboro. This man led a very interesting life. Dalton, a black man living in a segregated world, served in the Union Navy.
He was born a slave near Richmond, Virginia, about 1839. At the beginning of the war, he was a field hand in Bolivar County, Mississippi and technically became a free man on January 1, 1863, when Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation took place.
Actually, it was nine more months before Dalton achieved his freedom when he ran away and joined the Union Navy at White Station, Mississippi. Afterwards, he served on the USS Juliet for seven months patrolling the Yazoo River as an escort for other ships.
--Old B-Runner
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