15 YEAR-OLD MAX SHAVERS TO LEAD 155TH ANNIVERSARY REMEMBERENCE FOR KEY WEST’S FORGOTTEN SOLDIERS

Program commemorates Key West citizens’ Civil War service with Harriet Tubman in the 2nd Regiment South Carolina Volunteer Infantry (African Descent)

Key West, FL – As the nation celebrates Black History Month and the prominent role of African Americans in U.S. history, Victor Maxwell B. Shavers, the 15 year-old descendent of one of Key West’s “Forgotten Soldiers,” will travel from his home in Richmond, Virginia to Key West, Florida to commemorate the lives of his great, great, great grandfather, Peter Shavers, and 125 other black men from Key West who served in the Union army during the Civil War. Eight Shavers men were drafted from Key West and one, Frederick Shavers, died while serving.

The ceremony will take place at 3:00 p.m. on Friday, February 16, 2018 at the The Forgotten Soldier statue in the Key West Veterans Memorial Garden at Bayview Park, Jose Marti Drive and Truman Avenue, in Key West. The event is free and open to the public.

President Abraham Lincoln, in response to the Union’s pending loss of the Civil War, made a military decision to legally allow black men – both free and enslaved – to join the Union’s war efforts. In July of 1862, Congress passed the Militia Act of 1862. On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Lincoln and the War Department publicly authorized the recruiting of African Americans.

On February 16, 1863, Col. James Montgomery of Kansas issued a special order for all black Key West men between the ages of 15 and 50 to report for transport to Hilton Head, S.C. on the U.S. Steam Transport “Cosmopolitan” on her return from the Tortugas. Official records show that 126 black men joined the Union army as members of the 2nd Regiment South Carolina Volunteer Infantry (African Descent) (34th USCI).  The regiment, along with special agent Harriet Tubman, led a famous raid down the Combahee River in South Carolina in June 1863 that freed over 800 enslaved people, destroyed Confederate supply lines, and added over 150 black soldiers to their regiment. February 16th marks the 155th anniversary of the start of their military service.

Max’s father, Victor R. Shavers, Jr., believes, “The freedom and democracy that all people of all races enjoy in the United States of America today were hard fought and earned, in large part, by the bravery and sacrifice of the black men, women and children who served the Union during the Civil War.”The official records of the Bureau of United States Colored Troops at the National Archives contain the names of the 209,145 black men and women who helped decide the outcome of the Civil War.  Key West’s 126 black soldiers were part of that victory.

Max, a budding historian and 2017 graduate of the U.S. National Park Services’ Maggie L. Walker Leadership Institute, was inspired by his grandfather, Col. (Ret.) Victor R. Shavers, Sr., to learn more about his Key West roots. The Shavers family is one of the oldest black families in Key West – six generations to be exact. “My 3rd great grandfather, Peter Shavers, was born free in Virginia, moved to Key West in the mid-1800s, joined the Union army in 1863 and fought in the Civil War. Another relative, Charles Shavers, was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1887 and served as a Key West Councilman from 1898 to 1901. Shavers Lane in Bahama Village is named after our family.”  Other prominent Key West family members include late jazz trumpeters Charlie Shavers and Theodore “Fats” Navarro and Ernest Hemingway’s longtime housekeeper, Catherine Shavers.

“I am proud that Max values his family history and is able to use it to understand today’s headlines,” says his mother, Gina Burgin Shavers. “History matters!”

Support for this event is being provided by Key West Commissioner Clayton Lopez and the City of Key West, Rev. Rochelle Pearson and Cornish Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church, Historian Tom Hambright and Monroe County Library, Diane E. Silvia, Ph.D and the Historic Florida Keys Foundation, Russell Brittain, Sexton of Historic Key West Cemetery and the African American Civil War Museum in Washington, DC.

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