Prince Romerson
19th-century American Civil War Union soldier / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Prince Romerson (c. 1840 – March 30, 1872) was a Union Army soldier of Native Hawaiian descent. One of the "Hawaiʻi Sons of the Civil War", he was among a group of more than 100 documented Native Hawaiian and Hawaii-born combatants who fought in the American Civil War while the Kingdom of Hawaii was still an independent nation.
Prince Romerson | |
---|---|
Born | c. 1840 Hawaii Island, Kingdom of Hawaii |
Died | March 30, 1872(1872-03-30) (aged 31–32) Fort Griffin, Texas, United States |
Buried | |
Allegiance | United States Union |
Service/ | Union Navy Union Army United States Army |
Years of service | 1863–72 |
Rank | Sergeant |
Unit | 5th Regiment Massachusetts Colored Volunteer Cavalry 25th United States Infantry Regiment |
Battles/wars | American Civil War American Indian Wars |
Living in the American Northeast before the war, Romerson enlisted in the Union Navy in 1863 as part of the Blockading Squadrons responsible for maintaining the blockade of the ports of the Confederacy. After being discharged from naval service, he reenlisted in the Union Army under the 5th Regiment Massachusetts Colored Volunteer Cavalry, a United States Colored (USCT) regiment, and was promoted to the rank of sergeant on June 1, 1864. Romerson fought with the 5th USCC until the end of the war. Illness prevented him from continuing with his regiment's reassignment to Clarksville, Texas, and he was mustered out in 1865. After the war, like many former USCT veterans, he remained in the army on the frontier as one of the Buffalo Soldiers. He died in 1872.
Romerson's military career shows the diverse attitudes of officers to the Native Hawaiians and people of color who served on segregated units during and shortly after the Civil War. In 2010, the Hawaiʻi Sons of the Civil War were commemorated with a bronze plaque erected along the memorial pathway at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.