Freedom Day
April 16, 1865 — the day the enslaved people of Columbus, Georgia woke as slaves and went to sleep free.
The Marker
April 16, 1865, was Freedom Day for the enslaved people of Columbus who awoke that day as slaves and went to sleep that night free. That evening Union cavalry under Gen. James H. Wilson defeated the Confederate forces of Gen. Howell Cobb in a night battle that ended on the eastern side of the 14th Street bridge. Near here, Frank Bambush, an African-born slave, owned by Randolph Mott, may have seen Confederate Col. C. A. L. Lamar shot from his horse as he rallied the Southern troops. In 1859, Lamar, Mott and others were indicted for illegally importing Africans, including Bambush, on the slave ship Wanderer. Lamar's death ended the last major military engagement of the Civil War and ushered in a new era for the city.
Erected by Daniel A. Bellware, Dr. Richard Gardiner, Mr. & Mrs. Arburn "Oz" Roberts, W. Harold Mayweather, MD and the National Civil War Naval Museum.
Erected by Daniel A. Bellware, Dr. Richard Gardiner, Mr. & Mrs. Arburn "Oz" Roberts, W. Harold Mayweather MD, and the National Civil War Naval Museum.
Where it is
Street View, oriented toward the marker.
Sources
- Battle of Columbus — Encyclopedia of Alabama
- Cumberland Landing, Va. Group of 'contrabands' at Foller's house — James F. Gibson · No known restrictions on publication; U.S. public domain.
- Fugitive African Americans fording the Rappahannock — Timothy H. O'Sullivan · No known restrictions on publication; U.S. public domain.
- Freedom Day · Marker text is public factual information; the photograph is © the project owner.
- Muscogiana: Journal of the Muscogee Genealogical Society (Fall 2019, vol. 30 no. 2) — Frank Bambush / Wanderer — Columbus State University ePress
- Wanderer — New Georgia Encyclopedia
- The schooner Wanderer — U.S. Naval Historical Center (now Naval History & Heritage Command) · Public domain — work of the U.S. federal government (U.S. Navy); CC Public Domain Mark 1.0.
- Battle of Columbus (1865) — Wikipedia
- Charles Augustus Lafayette Lamar — Wikipedia
- Randolph Mott — Wikipedia
- Wanderer (slave ship) — Wikipedia
About this film
The cinematic period scenes are AI-generated — a dramatized visualization, not real historical footage.
The narration is an AI-generated voice, not a human recording.
Archival imagery:
- The schooner Wanderer — public domain.
- Formerly enslaved people, 1862 — Library of Congress (public domain). Representative period photograph; not Columbus or Frank Bambush.
- Formerly enslaved people fording a river toward freedom, 1862 — Library of Congress (public domain). Representative period photograph; not Columbus.