Beginning in March 1863, the federal government actively recruited black men for the Union Army, and a few months later the War Department created the Bureau of United States Colored Troops. United States Colored Troops regiments fought in Civil War battles and engagements from Virginia to Texas, and approximately 200,000 black soldiers and sailors served, roughly 10 percent of all Union troops. Twenty-five of these men received the Medal of Honor, and after the Battle of New Market Heights, Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler reported that their coolness, steadiness, determined courage, and dash had silenced doubters of their soldierly capacity. The Union Army established eight camps in northern states to train black regiments, and Camp William Penn, located 8 miles north of Philadelphia in what is now Cheltenham Township, was the first and largest. It opened in June 1863 under the command of Col. Louis Wagner, an abolitionist and veteran of early Civil War battles, and before it closed on August 14, 1865, it produced eleven regiments of 10,940 soldiers and 400 white officers. In Philadelphia, a school opened to screen and train white officers to lead the new United States Colored Troops, while black officers were not appointed until the end of the war. Regiments trained at Camp William Penn distinguished themselves in action throughout the conflict, were among the first to enter Richmond in 1865, and were present at the Confederate surrender at Appomattox Courthouse. During the Civil War, approximately two soldiers died of disease for each one who died of battle wounds, and common ailments included dysentery, rheumatism, typhoid fever, and pneumonia. Although black troops in theory received the same medical care as white troops, United States Colored Troops regiments were frequently understaffed and undersupplied in medicines and hospitals, resulting in a higher mortality rate. Black soldiers and sailors who died in the Philadelphia area during the war were originally buried in Lebanon Cemetery, one of the city's black-owned burial grounds. In 1885, the remains of more than 300 United States Colored Troops were moved to Section C of the newly created Philadelphia National Cemetery, while veterans who died after the war were often buried in Section G. About half of all United States Colored Troops graves in the cemetery are for soldiers who trained at Camp William Penn.
