Civil War vet John Wesley Harper honored with headstone 104 years later

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Military funerals are about honoring service with a final salute.

After 104 years, a Black soldier for the Union Army in the Civil War finally had his.

In an unmarked grave since his death in 1920 in Minneapolis, FOX 9’s Kelcey Carlson joined his family to apply for a military headstone. On June 23, descendants gathered for a service.

John Wesley Harper served in the 54th Massachusetts Regiment – an all-Black unit that would see action on the front lines.

Harper was wounded at the Battle of Fort Wagner, and took a bullet to one of his limbs that he carried to the grave.

However, that did not stop him from joining a U.S. Army unit after the war – a group known as the Buffalo Soldiers across the country. They were all-Black units, and the first step to integrating the military.   

Harper was based at Fort Snelling, retired from the U.S. Army in the late 1890s, and called Minnesota home. 

Harry Davis Jr. is the great-great-grandson of John Wesley Harper, and proud to have his service recognized with the proper headstone.

"This finally showed everyone that this is his final resting place right behind the big tree," Davis told FOX 9.

Davis’ son Ramar, an Army veteran as well, feels the significance of his service in a very personal way.

"I’m sure socially they were not getting too many handshakes and smiles within the ranks of the white soldiers and probably not getting that much support," Ramar Davis says. "He might not have known what was going to happen with those two battalions that were Black, and how that changed America and later our future with future units and integration years from then."

Carlson met descendants of Harper last fall while profiling a genealogy project that traced early African Americans in Minnesota to their descendants who still live here today.

Retired Hennepin County Judge LaJune Lange is spearheading that project.

"Harry knew about the 54th, but didn’t know the magnitude of his service, that Frederick Douglass was a recruiter, that two of his sons served in the 54th, and how important to national history the 54th was," says Lange.

Seven generations have followed since Harper’s move to Minnesota with the Army.

Through blood and marriage, the family included many more members of the military, and a baseball player in the Negro Leagues.

His great-grandson, Harry Davis Sr. would become a Minneapolis School Board member – the first Black Minneapolis candidate for mayor, and a member of the U.S. Olympic boxing committee.

A non-profit called the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War is working to create a database of all Union soldiers in Minnesota, and identify those who still need headstones. They provided the service for Harper’s descendants.

"Being able to be here, see that, and being part of an event that was way bigger than I ever expected, it turned out really nice," says Lyman Myers, also a Harper descendant.

"All our resting relatives out here would be proud," Davis said.