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In 1863, when the U.S. War Department established the Bureau of Colored Troops, James T.S. Taylor became one of about 240 African-Americans from Albemarle County to join the Union Army in the Civil War. During Reconstruction, Taylor went on to be a county delegate at the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1868.

The Charlottesville City Council on Monday plans to honor Taylor for his service 150 years ago to the state and the country.

Rosanna Bencoach, the city’s voter registrar, requested the proclamation, council Clerk Paige Rice said. Bencoach said she came up with the idea while doing research for a potential proclamation for the anniversary of the 1867 election, the first in which blacks were allowed to vote.

“I found his story to be inspirational and thought that others would, too,” she said.

Taylor was born in Berryville in 1840 to Fairfax Taylor, who purchased his freedom years before the Emancipation Proclamation, and he later moved to Albemarle. Educated by a private tutor and trained as a cobbler, Taylor served as a commissary sergeant in the U.S. Colored Troops and sent letters to the Anglo-African, a prominent black publication based in New York.