Tobias Trout was a Private in  Company C, 31st US Colored Troops. He was born enslaved in North Carolina, and enlisted January 25th 1863 in New Haven, Connecticut.  He was wounded at the infamous Battle of the Crater in Petersburg, Virginia,  on July 30, 1864 and sent to Alexandria’s hospital for Black soldiers, L ’Overture General Hospital.  The nature of his wounds are not given, but he remained in the hospital several months.  It appears that part of his duties there was being part of burial details for Black soldiers as the fife player.  The profile image of Trout on this site is taken from a group photo of the funeral detail, and while none of the soldiers in the photo were  named, this soldier is likely Trout because he was the only one holding a fife.
On December 27, 1864, Trout was one of 443 Black soldiers to petition the government for the right to be buried with White soldiers in Alexandria National Cemetery.  He died April 15, 1865 (the same day as President Lincoln) of gangrene of the lungs, age 34.  He was buried at Alexandria National Cemetery April 17th.  His personal effects at time of death were a watch, a pair of shoes, five U.S. cents and “one fife.”

Alexandria National Cemetery, VA

National Memorial Cemetery at Quantico

Tobias Trout's tombstone is one of the most visited of about 240+ tombstones of US Colored Troops who fought for the Union Army during the Civil War.  Tobias was a fifer in the honorary USCT team that escorted numerous remains of Civil War dead to their final resting places at both Alexandria National Cemetery (opened in the summer of 1862) and later at the Arlington National Cemetery (opened in 1864).  Tobias's tombstone is adorned with a fife and Civil War Flag, placed there in December 2024 by Don Francisco, the notable fifer of the George Washington Estate at Mt. Vernon, and a Life Member of VFW Post 609-Alexandria which meets there in the Montgomery Meigs caretaker's lodge.  Posted 1-4-2026 by G.P. Krueger

TOBIAS TROUT

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