2-833-304 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Black soldiers aiming rifles in a scene from the American Civil War. Dutch Gap refers to a Canal dug during the Civil War to cut off a bend in the James River controlled by Confederate forts. Digging of the canal started in late 1864 and among the workers were paid African Americans from the Freedmen's Colony of Roanoke Island. Freedmen in the USCT [United States Colored Troops], (including the 116th Regiment out of Kentucky) also took part in the military conflicts at Dutch Gap.