2026 Mail

Charles Anderson, previously writing as Charles Anderson Robinson, is a valued contributor to the Afrolumens Project, having supplied much of our information on Huntingdon County artist and political activist John G. Chaplin.

Hello Mr. Nagle, I hope I'm finding you in good health and that you are still engaged in your research projects. This is Charles Robert Anderson, used to be Charles Robinson. It has been some years since I shared with you some of my family history. Since 1995, over the past 20-plus years, I have been fully engaged in my Chaplin/Nesbit ancestors. I have uncovered so much more of my ancestors' history, it's going to be impossible to update you on everything, but if you are willing to update some information of the section you have on Afrolumens concerning my ancestors, I'd be pleased to help.

I don't remember knowing that you were from Harrisburg. If I did, I have forgotten. I actually participated years ago in a reenactment of the USCT ceremony held in Harrisburg. I was in full Civil War gear for the event and marched in the entire parade.

Since last speaking to you, a lot of exciting discoveries have occurred for me concerning my ancestors. One in particular that you may or may not have heard about was the event of 1917 in Houston Texas, which was dubbed back then the "Camp Logan Riot." Long story short, My cousin William C. Nesbit was one of the 13 soldiers hanged on December 11, 1917.

I no longer live in Ohio and have moved to Texas, Lampasas, Texas to be exact, in order to be close to what was taking place in the Clemency process for the Buffalo Soldiers Unit that was prosecuted for the event that took place on August 23, 1917 at Camp Logan in Houston Texas. There is a documentary on YouTube that kind of gives the story about the incident. It's worth watching because it does give a decent idea of the events of that night, albeit with a lot of discrepancies. I would have been also featured in that documentary, but the folks that put it together didn't know or were unable to locate descendants of the 1st 13 soldiers that were executed by hanging. They did locate me after the documentary had been published. I am the 1st cousin twice removed of William C Nesbit, and yes, he is the grandson of William Nesbit, who had a lot to do with the passing of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments of our Constitution, and is the same grandfather that traveled and exposed the scheme of the ACS [American Colonization Society], and wrote a scathing depiction of that organization once he cleverly was able to make his way back to America. I have his pamphlet, called American Colonization Exposed; also, it's in a book called Liberian Dreams, and can be found on Amazon.

Well I'm not much for typing, but if you would like a few updates, I would be pleased to help out. I have a much better photo of my 2x great grandfather John G Chaplin, I'll actually attach it to this email. I hope to hear back from you.

Sincerely Chuck Robert Anderson.

June 20, 2026. Follow-up Letter from Charles Anderson:

The family photo is of the Nesbit family. Left to right is Florence Chaplin Nesbit, then her sons John Oscar Nesbit and then William C Nesbit, with middle name being Charles. He was with the 24th infantry unit of the Buffalo Soldiers, and was hanged with 12 other soldiers from the first of 3 trials. There were 2 more trials where 6 more soldiers were hanged. It was the largest court martial case in military history, and still stands to this day.

The other photo is of my Great Great Grandmother Ida Chaplin. She was married 3 times: 2 husbands died of natural causes and then her last husband was William Henry Robinson, from where I erroneously was handed down that surname through him. Because Ida and William raised my Grandfather and his sister under his name Robinson, but my grandfather's surname was Anderson. Ida took her grandkids to raise as infants, due to a hardship that had been placed on their mother to raise them herself, because her husband George Walker Anderson skipped out on her and his kids, but eventually came back into her life. Meanwhile I decided to legally change my name to Anderson.

June 25, 2026. Charles Anderson on the William Nesbit Family:

I did find myself in the line up from a couple of your photos [from the 2010 Grand Review in Harrisburg], I also have a ton of photos from that event. I will look for them, and send some to you. I had a young lady taking photos for me. Her name is Marlene Branson, she’s quite a historian of Black history of Pennsylvania, maybe you know her. I will attach the photos I found of me in your photos and if you would know anything about the Camp Logan incident please let me know. I was part of the Clemency ceremony at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, and I received everything for William C Nesbit. I will also forward to you the ceremony.

One photo is of me standing next to a mural dedicated to Grandpa William Nesbit.

So you're not confused, Grandpa William Nesbit, had several kids. He had a son, William W. Nesbit, that fought with the famous 54th Mass. and then his son Charles Nesbit, who is the father of William C Nesbit. Charles gave his son his father's first name of William and his middle name he gave as his name Charles. Now the grandson William C Nesbit fought with the 24th Infantry of the Buffalo Soldiers unit, and he was also in the Philippines. William C. Nesbit was one of the 13 that were hanged on December 11, 1917, I'll add a few photos of him as well.

A self portrait of John Chaplin, a photo of me kneeling at William C. Nesbit's headstone in Fort Sam Houston Cemetery. This was the headstone that had been in place at Fort Sam Houston from the time they interned them from the original location of their hanging in I believe it was 1937 or 1947, when they moved the remains of 17 of the 19 soldiers hanged to Fort Sam Houston's cemetery. Those 17 soldiers ironically ended up being the first blacks to intergrate that cemetery. They have since been given all new headstones and Clemency for all the soldiers. This story had hardly been spoken about and not many people knew about the incident, even most Houstonians. Its been years of hard work to get to the point of Clemency for all 100+ soldiers. About 105 years.

We were only able to locate 3 descendants of the 13 soldiers hanged in the first trial. [Links to videos of the ceremony below]

Documentary intro and video of the ceremony (about one hour)

CBS Sunday Morning Feature Article (about 10 minutes)

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