July 21 - In 1861, Augustus Collins attempts to raise an insurrection

In 1861 Augustus Collins attempts to raise an insurrection

Augustus W. Collins lived a remarkable life. He was born into slavery around 1830 in the Simpsonville area of Howard County. He was freed at the age of 21.

At some point – most likely during the 1850s – Collins worked for trans-Atlantic steamship companies, and he traveled through Europe.

In 1861, Collins was back in Simpsonville. On July 21, 1861, early in the Civil War, two white men reported that Collins had said, “that if the slaves had raised he would have assisted them … and from his conversation it was his intention to encourage insurrection among the negroes.” Others were allegedly involved, including Mary Wilson and Nancy Kennedy. This led to a charge that Collins had attempted to raise an insurrection. When authorities went to arrest Collins two days later, he and family members resisted, which led to a charge that he actually had raised an insurrection (an offense that carried the death penalty).

Collins got the case transferred to Anne Arundel County by asserting that he couldn’t get a fair trial in Howard County. The case was tried in January 1862. Collins acted as his own lawyer and was described as having “extraordinary intelligence and impertinence”. He was convicted only of attempting to raise an insurrection and was sentenced to be sold into slavery for seven years. His sale was scheduled for March 18, 1862.

Somehow a Union military recruiter reputedly bought his freedom. In November 1862 Collins enlisted in the U.S. Navy and he served on the ironclad USS Patapsco until mid-1863.

In 1880 Collins went to Colorado to locate mines. He left the job site in 1881 and may have gone to New Mexico or Idaho.  Collins’s wife Agnes stopped hearing from him. In 1890 Agnes applied for a Civil War widow’s pension. This triggered an extensive investigation to determine if Collins was alive or dead. The pension claim file reads like something from the Wild West, with one person of interest killed in a stagecoach robbery, and a potential witness killed by Indians. Ultimately, it was ruled that Collins was presumably dead and Agnes was awarded a pension.

By Jerry Ueckermann

HCHS Collection