Jeremiah Watts was an African American farmer from Maryland. He was five feet seven inches, and had dark eyes, complexion and hair. Watts was born in Washington D.C., and while he doesn’t have a birth date on file, we can assume that he was born approximately in the year 1838, since he was 25 years old when he died in 1863 (1).

Jeremiah watts enlisted in the army on June 4th, 1863. Watts was a private in the 55th Massachusetts Infantry (2). The 55th Infantry was a group of African American soldiers. With the establishment of the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln in the last part of the war, the opportunity for African Americans to join the war was opened. As a result of this, the Massachusetts 54th Infantry was formed and soon was overflowing, so the 55th Infantry was created as a sister regiment.

During the Civil War, there were many diseases present. Some of the major diseases included typhoid, measles, tuberculosis, malaria, and pneumonia. These diseases were able to spread rapidly and attack so many people because of the poor sanitation practices and contaminated water during the war(3). Jeremiah Watts was one of the victims of pneumonia. Watts died just six short months after enlistment, on the date of December 12th, 1863. He died in a hospital in Beaufort, South Carolina.

1."Jeremiah Watts: person, pictures and information." Fold3. October 30, 2013. Accessed May 30, 2017. https://www.fold3.com/page/638062615jeremiahwatts/photos/

2."Soldier Details." National Parks Service. Accessed May 25, 2017. https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-soldiers-detail.htm?soldierId=775A77DD-DC7A-DF11-BF36-B8AC6F5D926A.

3. "Civil War Diseases." Civil War Academy - American Civil War. Accessed June 06, 2017. https://www.civilwaracademy.com/civil-war-diseases.