John Columbus Wheatley

(c 1845 – 1910)

John Anthony LeCompte Radcliffe purchased John Columbus Wheatley and his brother Augustus in 1849, likely coming with the Spocott property John purchased that year. Born about 1845, they helped John build his schooners before the Civil War when John and his brothers operated a boatyard. Stories conflict about whether John freed the two brothers; he told his son that he released them before the Civil War, but there is no manumission record. They were probably free to go but never formally freed. Likely, John was conflicted; he seemed somewhat of an abolitionist, yet with little money, he could never have built his ships without enslaved labor.

John stopped building ships just before the start of the war as he split with his two brothers, both of whom were Confederate sympathizers; Nehemiah Radcliffe died from an injury or disease incurred fighting for the South. William could not fight due to a disability but harbored Confederate spies in Dorchester County. Columbus, as all called him, tried farming on his own for the first part of the war, but when the Bureau of Colored Troops was formed in May of 1863, the door was open for him to help the Union cause. Christmas Day of that year, he enlisted in Company C of the 19th Regiment of the U.S. Colored Infantry at Camp Stanton in Benedict, MD, on the first day the regiment was being formed. He was soon transferred to Camp Birney.

On April 17, 1864, before the regiment saw action, he transferred to the Navy as a Landsman, serving on three ships for the duration of the war:
      - USS Alleghany at Baltimore, MD
      - USS Princeton at Philadelphia, PA
      - USS New Hampshire at Port Royal, SC.

He was discharged on June 15, 1965, and returned to Dorchester County. Initially, he tried farming independently, but John AL Radcliffe soon recruited him back to Spocott. Always a favorite of John, Columbus lived out the remainder of his life at Spocott as a farmer and master craftsman.

He married Adaline Morris, always a free black and Spocott resident, on June 13, 1868, and the two raised their seven children at Spocott, living in the cottage now situated in the Windmill Village. All knew him as “Uncle Columbus,” a term of affection for a man who became an outstanding and active member of the local community. He was beloved for his eternally good nature, a remarkable sense of humor, and his classic stories, always highly exaggerated for comic effect. By the end of his life, his creative stories had wholly rewritten the historical facts of the Civil War. One of his favorite stories concerned his participation in the Battle of Boston … which never happened.

As a carpenter, Columbus left his mark on the community. Using the skills he learned in the Spocott Shipyard before the War, he helped John build the Castle Haven Schoolhouse, still standing in the Windmill Village, the major addition to the Spocott residence, numerous barns and outbuildings, and work on community churches and houses. Sadly, he never learned to read or write, but John cherished his intelligence and experience. How ironic that he helped build a schoolhouse his children could not attend. There never was a more talented worker at Spocott.

Columbus died at Spocott on Nov. 23, 1910, and is buried in the Zoar Church Graveyard in Cornersville. His grave marks his service to the country in the Civil War. Almost a century later, his remarkable stories are still being passed on.