24-year-old Alexander “Sandy” Sembly was a slave of Mary E. Race in Charles County, Maryland. He was married and had one child. On December 7, 1863, he escaped his master and enlisted in the 19th Regiment at Camp Stanton.

A request for furlough is included in his files:

3rd Brig 3rd Div 25th Corps

December 12, 1864

Sir:

I have the honor to apply for a furlough for 20 days for the following reasons.

My wife has a very young child and is ill herself. My mother is very old and feeble. They all live in Patuxent City, Charles County, Maryland. They have been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. My old master is dead and my old mistress says she can't afford to keep them no longer and threatens to turn them out of doors. I am very anxious to visit them believing that they will soon be reduced to the most abject suffering unless I do so. I also feel certain that I can get a place for them near Bryantown, Maryland where they can be supported by the labor of my wife, in addition to what I can save of my pay and assign over to the persons I intend applying to. I am equally certain that this much to be desired result cannot be obtained by writing or by any method except by my applying in person.

I am most respectfully

Your Servant

Sandy Sembly (X his mark)

Co. D, 19th Regt.

During his service, Sembly contracted rheumatism as a result of marching through deep snow and heavy rain. He also contracted scurvy from lack of proper food, and lost his teeth as a result.

After the Civil War ended, the 19th Regiment was transferred to Brownsville, Texas, where it was finally disbanded on January 15, 1867.

Sembly settled in Washington, D.C. after his discharge, working as a messenger for the War Department. In 1867, he married Lucy Eglin. It was the second marriage for both. Records do not indicate what happened to Sembly’s first wife. 

After Sembly died on October 4, 1892, his widow Lucy Sembly filed for a widow’s pension. In her affidavit, she said she was:

unable to furnish copies of public record of her marriage for the reason that there was no such record kept, as she was married during slavery…

Instead, she provided testimony from friends that she had married Sembly. Johannah Grey testified that:

She has been well and personally acquainted with Lucy Sembly for 46 years and that she was present at Aquasco, Maryland about June 1859 at the marriage of Lucy Perry and Alfred Eglin, that said marriage took place at the house of her master Peter Wood, Rev. Dr. Marlberry officiating. That said Alfred Eglin about 18 months after his marriage to Lucy Perry was sold, and sent to Georgia and she never saw him afterwards, but she heard several times that he was dead. She has every reason to believe this was true as he was very delicate at the time she last saw him. As near as she can remember he died about a year after he was sent to Georgia.

She was also present at the remarriage of Lucy Eglin to Alexander Sembly which which took place at Charles County, Maryland at the Episcopal Church about December 25, 1867, Dr. Wily officiating.

That she is able to state the above facts by reason of long and continuous acquaintance and from the fact that they all belonged to the same master. She also states that Lucy Sembly has not remarried since the death of Alexander Sembly.