Where Did The USCT Soldiers Go After The War?

Joshism

Captain
Joined
Apr 30, 2012
Location
Jupiter, FL
For the black enlisted men of the USCT who were from the South (i.e. seceded states) where did they go after the war? Did they mostly try to return to the area where they had previously been enslaved or to other parts of the South? o the North, the West, or Canada?

I know the short answer is "all of the above." I mean was one of those options more prevalent than the others?

Were there any USCT veterans communities formed? A town that wasn't just predominantly black, but that the adult male settlers were predominately USCT veterans.

Were the USCT celebrated and honored in postbellum black communities? Or did the experience of Reconstruction sour African Americans to the point that they themselves felt the USCT was no longer something worth celebrating?

So far as I know, the USCT veterans seem, to my limited knowledge, to have been a non-factor after the war. Contrast that to the GAR which was an active fraternal organization. There were white Union veteran towns in the South like Lynn Haven and St. Cloud, Florida.

Yes, Jim Crow, SCV, UDC, etc wanted to ignore or at least marginalize the USCT. I'm trying to understand whether it was more than just that. Did demographics, migration patterns, or other factors affect the memory of the USCT?
 
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