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J. R. Kealoha

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For others with the same surname, see Kealoha.
J. R. Kealoha
Died March 5, 1877
Buried
Oʻahu Cemetery, Honolulu, Oʻahu, Kingdom of Hawaiʻi
Allegiance United States
Union
Service/branch Union Army
Years of service 1864–65
Rank Private
Unit 41st Regiment United States Colored Troops
Battles/wars American Civil War

J. R. Kealoha (died March 5, 1877), a citizen of the Kingdom of Hawaii, was among a group of more than one hundred documented Hawaiian and Hawaii-born combatants who fought in the American Civil War while Hawaii was still an independent nation. He served in a United States Colored regiment, participated in the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign and was present at the unconditional surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.[1][2]

Life

After the outbreak of the American Civil War, the Kingdom of Hawaii under King Kamehameha IV declared its neutrality on August 26, 1861.[3] Many Native Hawaiians and Hawaii-born Americans—mainly descendants of American missionaries—abroad and in the islands volunteered and enlisted in the military regiments of various states in the Union and the Confederacy. Native Hawaiians participating in the American wars during its period of independence was not unheard of; Individual Native Hawaiians had served in the United States Navy and Army since the War of 1812, and even more served during the American Civil War.[4] Many Hawaiians sympathized with the Union because of Hawaii's ties to New England through missionaries and the whaling industry, and the ideological opposition of many to slavery.[5][6][7]

Little is known about the life of J. R. Kealoha before the war. He enlisted in 1864 as a private and was assigned to the 41st Regiment United States Colored Troops (USCT), a colored regiment formed in Camp William Penn, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, between September 30 and December 7 of 1864 under the command of Colonel Llewellyn F. Haskell.[1][8][9] Most Native Hawaiians who participated in the war were assigned to the colored regiments because of their dark skin color and the segregationist policy in the military at the time.[7][10] Kealoha is one of the few Hawaiian soldiers of the Civil War whose real name is known;[11] many combatants served under anglicized pseudonyms because they were easier for English-speaking Americans to pronounce than Hawaiian language names. They were often registered as kanakas, the 19th-century term for Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, with the "Sandwich Islands" (i.e. Hawaii) noted as their place of origin.[7]

File:Samuel C. Armstrong on horseback (PP-67-5-036).jpg
Samuel Chapman Armstrong was one of the highest ranking Hawaiian combatants in the Civil War and was in command of the 9th USCT and 8th USCT.

From October 1864 to April 1865, Kealoha fought in the Richmond–Petersburg Campaign, which is better-known as the Siege of Petersburg.[1][2][12] During the campaign, Kealoha and another Hawaiian named Kaiwi, of the 28th Regiment United States Colored Troops, came across Samuel Chapman Armstrong, a son of an American missionary and a native of Maui.[7][10][13] Armstrong wrote of the encounter in a letter home that was later published in the Hawaiian missionary newspaper The Friend in 1865:

Yesterday, as my orderly was holding my horse, I asked him where he was from. He said he was from Hawaii! He proved to be a full-blood Kanaka, by the name of Kealoha, who came from the Islands last year. There is also another, by the name of Kaiwi, who lived near Judge Smith's, who left the Islands last July. I enjoyed seeing them very much and we had a good jabber in kanaka. Kealoha is a private in the 41st Regiment US Colored Troops, and Kaiwi is a Private in the 28th U.S.C.T., in the pioneer corps. Both are good men and seemed glad to have seen me.[14]

Kealoha survived months of trench warfare during the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign and fought with the 41st USCT at the Battle of Appomattox Court House; he was present at the unconditional surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.[2][12] The 41st USCT regiment was mustered out of service November 10, 1865 at Brownsville, Texas and was discharged December 14, 1865 at Philadelphia.[8][9]

After the war, Kealoha returned to Hawaii. He died on March 5, 1877, and was buried with eighteen other Native Hawaiians in an unmarked grave in Section 1, Lot 56 of the Oahu Cemetery, Honolulu.[1][15] During the Hawaii Territorial period, Kealoha's Civil War service was recorded by the United Veterans Service Council (UVSC), a precursor of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, which included his name in their records as a "Deceased Veterans" and listed the location of his burial place.[1]

Memorials

For 137 years, Kealoha's burial site remained unmarked until a Hawaiian group affiliated with the organization Hawaii Civil War Round Table, consisting of Anita Manning, Nanette Napoleon, Eric Mueller and Justin Vance, started an effort to give him a grave marker. The group petitioned the United States Department of Veterans Affairs for a marker for Kealoha but the request was denied because there was no next of kin to approve the request.[2] After the request's denial, Honor Life Memorials, a local monument maker, donated a granite marker for Kealoha.[11][16] The marker was formally dedicated and unveiled on October 25, 2014; the Civil War Round Table of Hawaii and others took part in the dedication ceremony at Oahu Cemetery.[11][17][18][19] The marker is inscribed with his name, regiment, death date, and the text in Hawaiian and English: "He Koa Hanohano, a brave and honorable soldier".[15]

Other Hawaiian veterans of the Civil War are honored in Honolulu's National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific with a bronze memorial plaque that was erected in 2010 in recognition of the "Hawaiʻi Sons of the Civil War", the more than one hundred documented Hawaiians who served for the Union and the Confederacy.[20][21][22] As of 2014, researchers have identified 119 documented Hawaiian and Hawaii-born combatants from historical records. The exact number remains unclear because of the lack of records.[11][23] Of the 48 identified Native Hawaiian combatants, including James Wood Bush and Henry Hoʻolulu Pitman, Kealoha is the only one buried in Hawaii whose gravesite is known.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Manning & Vance 2015, pp. 138–141.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Kuykendall 1953, pp. 57–66.
  4. ↑ Schmitt 1998, pp. 171–172.
  5. ↑ Manning & Vance 2014, pp. 145–170.
  6. ↑ Okihiro 2015, pp. 88–89.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Cox 2013, pp. 489–490.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Bates 1871, pp. 1066–1080.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Raphael-Hernandez & Steen 2006, p. 321.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Manning & Vance 2015, pp. 161–163.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Bibliography

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Further reading

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