Army Grants Sergeant Thomas Fraction Honorable Status, After 155 Years

BALTIMORE - Aug. 12, 2021 - PRLog -- A request to the United States Army for a correction to the military record of United States Colored Soldier Thomas Fraction, who fought for the Union during the Civil War, was granted on July 7th, 2021. Thomas was a Civil War soldier who fought alongside his brother Othello Fraction for the 40^th U. S. Colored Infantry out of Tennessee after escaping from slavery in Blacksburg, Virginia.

During his service, Thomas Fraction would grow in rank from Private to Sergeant (a rarity for Black soldiers and especially enslaved peoples at that time). During a 30-day furlough visiting his family Thomas was shot by his former enslaver, Confederate soldier Robert Preston, and then jailed. The Union Army demoted Thomas from Sergeant to Private and dishonorably discharged him for the incident. Thomas would attempt to have his record corrected up until his death in Salem, Virginia in 1892. Dr. Kerri Moseley-Hobbs, the 4^th great-grand daughter of Thomas Fraction,  petitioned the U.S. Army to review Thomas' case 4 years ago,

Upon reviewing the case, on July 7^th, the U.S. Army provided a Certificate of Honorable Discharge for Thomas Fraction with a letter acknowledging the correction to his military record, and the reinstatement of his rank as a Sergeant.

Dr. Kerri Moseley-Hobbs tells the amazing story of the Fractions at Smithfield and Solitude plantations in a creative nonfiction book titled "More Than a Fraction: Based on a true story." Thomas Fraction went on to become, what a local Salem, Virginia newspaper called, a "well-known colored man" and land owner (an amazing achievement for the time-period).

Dr. Kerri Moseley-Hobbs is available for interviews and appearances to talk about this monumental move by the U. S. Army in correcting an injustice committed 155 years ago against Sergeant Thomas Fraction. Email FreeAssocInc3@aol.com for more information.