It is unclear whether he was born a slave or free, and he left no explanation for when and how he came to reside in Philadelphia. His father was Louis Caine, but his mother’s name is unknown. This is his story.Īlexander Caine was born on April 1, 1841, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Thanks to his pension file, we are able to recreate much of his life after the war. Returning to New York with his ship in 1868, Caine settled down permanently in the city of brotherly love. His two tours of duty show how the war expanded the horizons of many Virginian-born black sailors, with Caine being one of the most well-traveled African Americans from Albemarle in the 19th century. Even after leaving the navy in February 1865, Caine quickly signed up for another tour of duty, traveling to every major port in Europe and the Mediterranean. Caine, a barber living as a freeman in Philadelphia at the war’s outbreak, joined the Union navy in 1862 as a landsman and served on an ocean-going sloop called the U.S.S. Of the six Albemarle-born men who joined the Union navy during the Civil War, no one left behind a larger paper trail than Alexander Caine.
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