Fleetwood, Christian Abraham, 1840-1914

Fleetwood was born in Baltimore on July 21, 1840, the son of Charles and Anna Maria Fleetwood, both were free persons of color. He received his early education in the home of a wealthy sugar merchant and chairman of Baltimore's chamber of commerce, John C. Brunes, and his wife. The latter treated Fleetwood like her son and taught him to read and write. He continued his education at the Maryland State Colonization Society, went briefly to Liberia and Sierra Leone, and graduated in 1860 from Ashmun Institute (later known as Lincoln University) in Oxford, Pennsylvania. He established and published The Lyceum Observer, said to be the first newspaper in the Upper South to be owned and operated by an African American.

When the American Civil War disrupted travel by ship to Liberia, Fleetwood went to Baltimore's Camp Birney and enlisted into Company G of the 4th Regiment United States Colored Infantry, Union Army, on August 11 or August 17, 1863. Due to his educated background, Fleetwood was given the rank of sergeant upon enlistment and was promoted to sergeant major on August 19. His regiment, assigned to the 3rd Division, saw service with the 10th, 18th, and 25th Army Corps in campaigns in North Carolina and Virginia, particularly on July 16, 1864, in the Battle of Petersburg and on September 29–30, 1864, in the Battle of Chaffin's Farm.

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