[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 56 (Monday, April 9, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E405]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING EDWARD McLAUGHLIN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. DWIGHT EVANS

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, April 9, 2018

  Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Edward McLaughlin, 
military historian, for his dedicated voluntary service to our veteran 
community.
  Edward McLaughlin has dedicated the last four years researching and 
cataloging the internment of over 1,000 Civil War Soldiers and Sailors 
of African American descent, who are buried at Philadelphia National 
Cemetery, within the Second Congressional District of Pennsylvania. 
They were soldiers of the United States Colored Troops, a fierce force 
of nearly 180,000 men that made up one-tenth of the Union Army during 
the Civil War.
  As a volunteer historian, Edward McLaughlin spent a year downloading 
approx. 25,000 records, mostly from the National Archives as well as 
other sources. He then copied, sorted, and compartmentalized these 
records, and then had the information transferred into a book form. 
Edward McLaughlin's research contains a 2 to 5-line history of all the 
African American Civil War soldiers and sailors at the cemetery, 
photographs of each headstone, as well as a name to plot number. What 
makes this achievement all the more remarkable is the fact that this 
history had never been uncovered, until now.
  After a study of the information for the first year, Edward 
McLaughlin realized that a storyboard needed to be erected to tell this 
story and went on a local speaking tour at libraries, historical 
societies and veteran's groups requesting letters of support for a 
story board, of which I lent my support. Because of his efforts, the 
National Cemetery Administration has constructed and installed a 
storyboard dedicated to the memory of the United States Colored Troops 
interned at Philadelphia National Cemetery. The storyboard is installed 
in Section C, which along with the bottom half of Section G, contains 
the burial plots of the United States Colored Troops interned at 
Philadelphia National Cemetery.
  This storyboard joins three others that were installed three years 
ago at the Philadelphia National Cemetery. One chronicles the 155-year 
history of the cemetery, founded to receive the bodies of Civil War 
veterans already interred in nearby graveyards. The other two are 
dedicated to soldiers buried there: Valley Forge native Galusha 
Pennypacker, at 20, the youngest-ever brigadier general, and 184 
Confederate soldiers wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg who died at 
nearby hospitals. Without Edward McLaughlin's expertise and tireless 
efforts, this proud chapter in American History would surely have been 
lost.
  The 2nd Congressional District of Pennsylvania extends gratitude to 
Edward McLaughlin for his dedicated support and service to the Second 
Congressional District of Pennsylvania.

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