SAMARIAN CEMETERY

A traditional black cemetery, Samarian Cemetery is the final resting place for 19 African American soldiers who fought for freedom and the Union during the Civil War. Black soldiers and sailors of New Richmond supported General Grant’s siege of Vicksburg in 1863. Five New Richmond men served in the same infantry unit, Company K of the 27th U.S. Colored Troops. Silas Owens, Joseph King, Jacob Thomas, Ila Houston, and Alex Adams fought valiantly at Petersburg in July of 1864. After the war, many African American Union veterans established New Richmond as their home. The National Park Service has officially included Samarian Cemetery, burial site of two documented African American Underground Railroad “conductors”, Henry, and Louisa Picquet, in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom list. Mary Lumpkin, who inherited an infamous “slave jail” in Richmond, Virginia is also buried here.