Emory and Henry College Hospital - End of The 5th USCC

End of The 5th USCC

The 5th USCC remained on duty for almost a year after the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox. On March 16, 1866, the 5th USCC held its final formation in Helena, Arkansas where the fifty missing soldiers from the ranks of the regiment were recognized. Although the likely location for the murdered black soldiers at Wiley Hall would be what is now the Holston Cemetery on Campus, this cannot be proven. Repetitious names from similar units, such as a John Willis of both the Federal and Confederate 5th Kentucky Regiment, bring some doubt as to the accuracy of the marking of the Confederate graves on the campus. This happens on several occasions, and may be due to duplication of a name, or the mislabeling of a grave. Many soldiers of the 5th USCC, who were scraped together from former slaves, freedmen, and liberated slaves, paid the ultimate price for their long fought freedom.