Born enslaved in Texas on August 1, 1844, Milton M. Holland was brought in 1851 by his friend and owner to the integrated Albany Manual Labor University, where he learned the trade of shoemaker. From 1861 to 1863 he served as a servant to Colonel Nelson Van Vorhes. In the summer of 1863 he formed Company C of Athens County men for the 5th United States Colored Infantry at these fairgrounds and eventually attained the rank of Regimental Sergeant Major. After rallying the regiment at the Battle of New Market Heights on September 29, 1864, he received the Congressional Medal of Honor, the Butler Medal, and a battlefield commission to Captain, though the latter was later denied by the War Department on the basis of color. After the war Holland returned briefly to Athens, then lived in Columbus for three years and married Virginia Dickey before spending the rest of his life in the Washington D.C. area. He held several positions in the U.S. Treasury Department, earned a law degree from Howard University in 1872, worked in various capacities for the Ohio Republican Party, belonged to the Washington Emigrant Aid Society, worked on numerous civil rights issues, served on the local school board, and helped form several early black-owned businesses, including the Capitol Savings Bank, the Industrial Building and Savings Company, and the Alpha Insurance Company. He died on May 15, 1910, in Silver Springs, MD, at the age of 66 and was buried with honor in Arlington National Cemetery.