Benjamin Vann, 24th United States Colored Infantry: “please have it corected sose eye can get my pay”
Soon after private Benjamin Vann of the 24th USCI enlisted in Allegheny City in February 1864, the provost marshal of Harrisburg detailed the private to serve as a cook. Vann first worked at Pennsylvania’s Twenty-third Congressional District headquarters, then at Camp Reynolds near Pittsburgh. Almost eleven months later, Vann joined his regiment at Camp William Penn as a member of Company B. At some point that summer, he discovered that the time he labored before January 5, 1865, had not been counted towards his three-year military enlistment period.
In early April, 1865, Vann sought assistance from James W. Kirker, the provost marshal of the Twenty-third Congressional District.… Read more
