“Cleveland, Ohio, was an important Northern city during the American Civil War. It provided thousands of troops to the Union Army, as well as millions of dollars in supplies, equipment, food, and support to the soldiers. The city was also an important national center for the abolitionist movement.”

“Sharing its southern border with two slave states, Ohio was a key player in the operations of the Underground Railroad in the years leading up to the Civil War. Many different routes runaway slaves followed crisscrossed the state with several ultimately passing through Cleveland, or "Station Hope" as it was codenamed, a city that teemed with abolitionists and Underground Railroad conductors. Once in Cleveland runaways were sometimes guided eastward to Buffalo and onward to Canada or west towards Sandusky and into Canada by that route but steamers docking in the city's harbor often ferried the fugitives across Lake Erie to freedom.”

“The CIVIL WAR transformed Cleveland from a commercial village to a city dependent on manufacturing. Migrating Connecticut settlers, one historian holds, transplanted their religious, political, and social ideals to the WESTERN RESERVE, including the abhorrence of slavery. “

“BLACK MILITARY UNITS, prohibited by state officials and Ohio's militia law of 1803, served in the CIVIL WAR nonetheless. However, legal restriction of militia service to whites was not removed in Ohio until 1878. Beginning in 1861, Cleveland blacks (see AFRICAN AMERICANS) eagerly sought to take up arms against the slaveholding Confederacy, repeatedly urging Ohio governors to form black military units, to no avail. (One exception, a local light-skinned African American, John H. Cisco, enrolled as a white soldier in the 124TH OHIO VOLUNTEER INFANTRY and was promoted to colonel in Aug. 1861.)”

“The names of 107 Colored Troops veterans were read aloud during a ceremony that announced their inclusion to the Roll of Honor at the Cuyahoga County Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument on Public Square on Wednesday. The veterans will join the names of 9,000 other Civil War veterans from Cuyahoga County who are already listed and enshrined.”

“Whether as soldiers, spies, recruiters or medical personnel, African Americans made crucial contributions to the Union cause.”