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From: "Ernest Everett Blevins" <>
Subject: [SUVCW] Press Release for Turner Memorial
Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 20:58:06 -0500


Elias Moon Camp #2

Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War

Snellville, Georgia



Contact:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SVC Ernest E. Blevins

110 Evergreen Way

Villa Rica, Georgia 30180

678-517-2352





HENRY MCNEAL TURNER TO BE HONORED BY SONS OF UNION VETERANS



The Elias Moon Camp #2, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW) will
host a memorial and GAR Marker dedication to the first black US Army Chaplin
who served in Co. B, 1st United States Color Troops at 11:00 AM on Saturday,
9 February 2008 at his graveside in South-View Cemetery, 1990 Jonesboro
Road, Atlanta, Georgia.



Henry McNeal Turner was born in 1834 as a freeman at Newberry Courthouse,
South Carolina. In 1853 he received a preachers' license and traveled
throughout the South, often in Georgia preaching revivals. He eventually
settled preaching in Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C. where he
befriend several powerful congressional Republicans on the eve of the War
Between the States.

At the outbreak of the war, on his church yard he raised and served as
the chaplain
for Company B of the First United States Colored Infantry serving mostly in
Virginia. After the war President Johnson appointed Turner to a new
regiment in Atlanta. Finding there was already a Chaplin he resigned, but
remained in Georgia traveling the state organizing the Freedman into
the African
Methodist Episcopal Church.

Turner served in the Freedman's Bureau in Macon. He served in the Georgia
House of Representatives for Bibb County, and participated in state
constitutional convention. He moved to Savannah where he returned to
concentrating on the ministry eventually rising to Bishop. In October 2000
the post office at 451 College Street in Macon was named for Turner by
congressional act.

He was one of the founders of Morris Brown College in Atlanta serving as one
of its early chancellors. Turner died in 1915 while visiting Windsor,
Ontario, Canada while on church business.



For more information on Henry McNeal Turner, SUVCW, or interviews please
contact Commander Eric Peterson at 678-344-6893 or
or Senior Vice Commander Ernest Blevins at
678-517-2352 or .


--
Ernest Everett Blevins, MFA • Blevins Historical Research
110 Evergreen Way • Villa Rica, Georgia 30180
• 770-456-1876

Historic Preservation Consultant -- Historical and Architectural Research --
Genealogical (Family) Research -- Preservation Planning and Documentation --
House History

Member: American Planning Association, New England Historic Genealogical
Society, Sons of the American Revolution, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Sons
of Union Veterans, and member of numerous other lineage and heritage
societies. .


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