A solemn commemoration was held in Mattapan’s Mt. Hope Cemetery last Thursday (June 19) — Juneteenth— to remember Civil War veterans buried there who helped bring liberation to Black Americans during the Civil War.

The evening ceremony was held at the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) plot sponsored by the William E. Carter American Legion Post #16, the Massachusetts Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, and the City’s Veterans Services Department. Also in attendance was City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune.

“Juneteenth is not about the picnics and celebrations,” said Mary-dith Tuitt, commander of Mattapan’s Carter Post. “It’s about these veterans, the men and women that gave all for something greater. We decided to do this first Juneteenth Memorial here and we will have it here next year and hope it only gets bigger.”

The federal holiday, first held in 2021, marks the date in 1865 when formerly enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, first learned of their emancipation from federal troops. Mt. Hope Cemetery is the final resting place of many Union Army veterans, including many Black soldiers who were known in that era as United States Colored Troops (USCT) – from the famous 54th Regiment and the 5th Calvary, the only Black mounted unit in the war.

Roderick Fraser, a former Boston Fire Department commissioner and leader of the Sons of Union Veterans, noted that there are at least 16 members of the 54th buried in Mt. Hope, most in the GAR plot. He also noted there is one soldier from the 5th Mass Calvary buried there.

Kevin Tucker, of Chelsea, who is the incoming national commander of the Sons of Union Veterans group, spoke at the ceremony. His third great grandfather, Charles Elwell, is buried in Mt. Hope. Sgt. Elwell was part of the 11th Mass Volunteers that formed in 1861 in Dorchester. The regiment saw action at Bull Run, Yorktown, Second Bull Run, Antietam, and Chancellorsville. He was injured severely during the fighting but survived and lived out his life in Massachusetts.

Tucker elaborated on the importance of Juneteenth not only for his own ancestor’s fight, but more importantly for those who had been enslaved, and we still held in bondage in Texas despite the war being over. In that way, he noted, Juneteenth is about the ongoing struggle for freedom even after the last shots have been fired on the battlefield.

Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation — which freed Blacks living in Confederate states— in 1863, more than two years before Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox, just days before the president was assassinated. But many enslaved people in the more far-flung reaches of the Confederacy— like west Texas— remained unaware of their legal freedom— until federal troops took on and defeated final elements of Confederate resistance.

“The past speaks to us here if we’re willing to listen,” Tucker said. “The men buried here wore blue and they fought in fields far from home and many of them, especially those Black soldiers of the USCT, fought not just for country but also for the idea that their children and children’s children might one day live free,” he added.

“Juneteenth is the realization of that fight and the recognition that freedom delayed is still freedom worth celebrating…The enslaved people of Texas were the last to hear what had long been law.”

Many slaveowners in the South had moved to Texas with their slaves, Tucker noted, in efforts to keep the institution alive farther west. When the Union Army under Gen. Gordon Grainger arrived in Galveston, it was with Black and white troops, and his General Order #3 officially freed all of the slaves there. It marked the end of their bondage.

“The sight of these soldiers, Black men in Union blue, marching in strength in the streets of Galveston was more than symbolic,” said Tucker. “It was a statement that the work of liberation was being carried out by the very people whose bondage had once defined the Confederacy’s economy and ideology.

“When the newly freed people of Texas saw men of their race in uniform, armed and in command, it was a powerful image of transformation. It was a promise fulfilled in word and in action,” he said. “The USCT soldiers stood as proof that Black men could be the defenders of freedom and not just its recipients…They were not just there to proclaim liberation, but to enforce it.”

The evening ceremony concluded with the laying of memorial wreaths and flowers, the firing of a salute by 54th Regiment re-enactors, and the playing of “Taps” during a reflective moment of silence.

The fledgling commemoration seemed to ring a high note of importance, with Council President Louijeune and Commissioner Santiago noting that it should continue.

After reading the text of Gen. Grainger’s Order #3, Santiago said, “We must continue to make sure that liberation is not just promised but delivered to every American in full.”