At my recent talk at the Two Mississippi Museums, one of the audience members mentioned Peter Crosby in their question. I had never heard of Peter Crosby, and I felt a slight gasp from my audience when I admitted I did not know his story. Now, I know why they reacted that way. In fact, the very next day after my talk, on Juneteenth, there was to be a historical marker erected to him in Vicksburg.

I was both embarrassed and a little ashamed that I did not know about his story. But now I know why I missed it. Although he served in the 5th U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery at Vicksburg, he enlisted in 1864. So he was not a Milliken’s Bend veteran. In addition, most of my post-war story concentrated on circumstances in north Louisiana, not in Mississippi and not, to any great extent, in Vicksburg itself. (Christopher Waldrep’s work, Vicksburg’s Long Shadow, tells that story well.) So for these reasons, I had missed the bulk of Crosby’s story.

But let me tell it here, for it is an important one.

After the war, as black men gained the right to vote, Crosby was elected Vicksburg’s first African American sheriff in 1873. A year later, a white mob jailed him and forced him to resign. Black militia came to town to reinstate him, at the urging of the Republican governor. Violence broke out and between 150 and 300 Black men were killed in what came to be known as the “Vicksburg Massacre.” In 1875, Crosby survived an assassination attempt, when he was shot in the face.

An article at the American Battlefield Trust site summarizes his legacy and importance this way: “Peter Crosby defied prejudice and [sought] … a better life and community for himself and his family. His election as sheriff and the Vicksburg Massacre brought civil rights violations during the Reconstruction Era to national attention.”