Grave of Black veteran of War of 1812 receives headstone

Samuel Neale lies in rest just down the street from where he lived for decades, a longtime resident of Frederick and Black veteran of the War of 1812.

Neale was honored Saturday with the dedication of a headstone at his grave in St. John's Cemetery along East Street in Frederick, part of an effort to recognize the service of Black veterans of the war.

Saturday's event was the culmination of three years of work, said Louis Giles, president of The Society of the War of 1812 in the State of Maryland.

One of the society's missions is to find and mark the graves of veterans from the war, he said.

About 15,000 Marylanders served in the war, and the society has located about 8,000 of them, he said.

Several years ago, they noticed there were no Black veterans recognized, and set out to find where some of them were buried, he said.

They put in a request with the Veteran's Administration to provide a headstone for Neale's grave, but the request was denied, he said.

They filed an appeal and had a hearing in June, but the issue became mostly irrelevant when Lough Memorials, of Frederick, agreed to provide the headstone, Giles said.

Samuel Neale, War of 1812 veteran

The gravestone for Samuel Neale, a Black veteran who served as a surgeon's mate in the War of 1812, shortly after being unveiled Saturday at St. John's Cemetery in downtown Frederick.

But he said he would still like to have a ruling on the case to provide a precedent for future situations.

St. John's Cemetery has graves of soldiers from every war dating back to the French and Indian War, said Chuck Foltyn, a member of the cemetery's Board of Directors.

Neale served in a cavalry unit from Washington County during the War of 1812 as a steward and assistant to the unit's surgeon, according to a pamphlet distributed at Saturday's ceremony.

It's not clear whether he was enslaved while he served, but in 1824 he purchased his enslaved 5-year-old son Joseph from a local attorney, suggesting that either he or his wife Nellie, or both, had been enslaved at one point, according to the pamphlet.

Neale's application for a pension from the state, which was certified by Frederick County judges, outlines his military service, including participating in the battles of Bladensburg and Baltimore.

The unit's muster rolls from the National Archives confirm his service from the unit's activation on Aug. 11, 1814, in Hagerstown through its discharge in Baltimore on Sept. 20 of that year.

After the war, Neale moved to Frederick and worked as a laborer and porter.

He and his wife bought a house on the corner of what are now Third and East streets in Frederick, where they raised eight children.

He died on June 15, 1872, and is buried in the cemetery with other members of his family.

The fact that Neale was an assistant to a surgeon really registered with Maj. General Paula Lodi, commanding general of the U.S. Army Medical and Research Development Command at Fort Detrick, she said.

Lodi's father served in World War II as a driver for a doctor, making Neale's story a remarkable one that she can really relate to, she said.

The story of Neale's service has remained untold for too long, said Seaven Gordon, vice president of the African American Resources Cultural and Heritage Society.

The society is grateful to the Society of the War of 1812 in the State of Maryland for its work on identifying the grave site and obtaining the headstone, he said.

About 1,500 Black soldiers fought in the Battle of Baltimore, making up about a quarter of the city's defenders, said Robert Stewart, acting superintendent of the Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, part of the National Park Service.

“In our nation, we are all connected, we just might not know it,” he said.

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