ISRE Brings Reconstruction Era to Life Through Expanding Public History Initiative
In Beaufort—where the meanings of freedom, citizenship and education were radically reshaped during the Civil War and Reconstruction—USCB’s Institute for the Study of the Reconstruction Era (ISRE) is forging ahead with a groundbreaking public history initiative. The institute's work includes research and sharing information about the 1st South Carolina Volunteers of African Descent.
USCB faculty and students are playing a vital role in spreading awareness of their lives and legacy.
“We live in a region celebrated—in the nineteenth century and in our own time—for transforming the meaning of justice, self-determination and relief work in the United States,” said Dr. Mollie Barnes, USCB associate professor of English. “I deeply admire the ISRE's work to shine a light on the contributions of the First South Carolina Volunteers.”
The Union Army's first Black regiment in the Civil War, the 1st South Carolina Volunteers of African Descent (SCVAD) was formed in 1862 by General David Hunter and composed of formerly enslaved Gullah Geechee men in the Sea Islands. These soldiers, who became the 33rd United States Colored Troops (USCT), participated in crucial expeditions, including offensives in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and beyond. They famously received their colors on January 1, 1863, where they heard the first public reading of the Emancipation Proclamation.
The ISRE is celebrating and advancing the stories of these brave men, the women who served alongside them, and their families. Through archival research, public events, the ISRE's third annual symposium, and collaborations with USCB faculty and their students, this innovative public history project advanced in 2025.
Last month, to commemorate Veterans Day, the ISRE held a “Reading of the Names” event at the Grand Army of the Republic Hall in Beaufort. Local residents, command staff from the Port Royal Police Department, USCB faculty and students, alumni of the Mather School and other volunteers read aloud names of Civil War veterans from the 1st South Carolina Volunteers. The Beaufort event was co-sponsored by the Sons & Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War and the Women's Relief Corps and was part of a national effort organized by the African American Civil War Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.
The ISRE’s work has also gained ground through collaboration with university faculty and their students.
"We have worked with almost 200 students at USC, USCB and in public schools over the last four years to increase our understanding of the complex Reconstruction period and help build research skills among a new generation of historians," said Dr. Val Littlefield, the ISRE's interim director.
This fall, nearly 40 USCB Honors students enrolled in Barnes's ENGL B101: Rhetoric and Composition course took an in-depth look into pension files connected to soldiers of the 1st South Carolina Volunteers—later designated the 33rd U.S. Colored Troops—as well as the widows and children who sought federal recognition and support in the decades following the Civil War.
The students used primary sources gathered by ISRE staff, who made several trips to the National Archives in 2025 to digitize pension applications from the 33rd Colored Troops. ISRE staff have also made numerous trips to the South Carolina State Archives, where they have also digitized more than 500 Reconstruction-era school reports for a separate research initiative. Barnes decided that the pension records offered an ideal entry point for teaching rhetorical analysis.
Throughout the semester, students scoured the pension records, which revealed rhetorical strategies in Beaufort and the South Carolina Sea Islands during the Civil War, the Port Royal Experiment and Reconstruction.
They analyzed archival materials ranging from letters and newspaper articles to diaries, medical notes and even Harriet Tubman’s pension application. In the second half of the semester, ISRE staff became active collaborators with the class. ISRE research associate Elizabeth Laney visited Barnes’ classroom several times to teach students how to identify and interpret the many documents that comprise a pension file.
Based on student interests, Laney and Barnes organized groups and matched each group with a soldier, widow or child whose pension materials had been digitized by ISRE. For their final assignment, students created a “Pension Claims Recovery Package,” analyzing how individuals constructed arguments to the federal pension office.
Each group project included a required creative element, resulting in original songs, timelines, artwork, family trees and dramatic interpretations of pension narratives. Faculty and ISRE staff said they were “blown away” by the depth of engagement and quality of work.
“I asked students to think of their projects as ways to honor these families and communities—to humanize their subjects for a world beyond our specific classroom,” Barnes said.
She and other USCB faculty look forward to collaborating with the ISRE in the future to ensure that the stories of Reconstruction-era South Carolina continue to be studied, shared and honored.
The ISRE's 1st South Carolina Volunteers of African Descent project is supported by the ƹƵ's McCausland College of Arts & Sciences, as well as the Dick & Sharon Stewart Foundation, the Ernest A. Finney Cultural Arts Center, and the Lincolnville Preservation & Historical Society.
Save the Date
The Institute for the Study of the Reconstruction Era will host its Fourth Annual Spring Symposium, Securing the Economic Foundations of Citizenship.
- When: March 20–21, 2026
- Where: USCB’s Beaufort campus
- Why: The symposium will examine how, for millions of African Americans in the post–Civil War South, the transition from enslaved laborer to citizen depended not only on constitutional amendments, but on access to land ownership, wages, political rights, and economic independence. Centering on the experiences of veterans of the 1st South Carolina Volunteers of African Descent / 33rd U.S. Colored Troops and their families in the South Carolina Lowcountry, the event will revisit Beaufort’s role as a “Rehearsal for Reconstruction” and explore efforts by formerly enslaved people to secure financial assistance and pensions for their military service. Sessions will address topics including the struggle for land ownership, the promise and failure of the Freedmen’s Bank, and the economic impact of U.S. Colored Troops pensions.
- Learn More: USCB.edu/ISRE
- CW 12/22/25 -