John Calvin Black was born in September 1846 in North Carolina. He may have been born in or near Mecklenburg County, based on the fact that he served as a private in Company C of the 37th Regiment of the North Carolina Infantry during the Civil War. This unit (Company C) was raised in Mechlenburg County.
2nd Junior Reserves Regiment
Near the end of the Civil War, the Confederacy experienced a manpower shortage. There was already a military conscription that included all able bodied men between 18 and 45 (State officers, physicians, ministers of the gospel were exempt). On 17 February 1864 the Confederate Congress passed a law which created Junior and Senior Reserves consisting of men between 17 and 18 in the former and men between 45 and 50 in the later. The Junior Reserves were organized in April and May of 1864. Many of the soldiers in the Junior Reserve were transferred to other units when they reached 18 years of age.
The 2nd Junior Reserves Regiment of North Carolina was orginally organized in December 1864 by consolidating the previously formed 2nd and 5th Junior Reserves Battalions. It consisted entirely of "men" between the ages of 15 and 18 from the counties of Wayne, Duplin, Rowan, Lincoln, Gaston, Cleveland, Rutherford, Cabarrus, Union, Greene, Lenior, Beaufort, Hude, and Tyrrell.
Hometown counties of the
2nd Jurior Reserves Regiment
37th North Carolina Infantry
37th Infantry Regiment, organized by Colonel C.C. Lee, was assembled at High Point, North Carolina, in November, 1861. The men were raised in the counties of Buncombe, Watauga, Mecklenburg, Wake, Ashe, Alexander, and Gaston. The unit fought at New Bern , then moved to Virginia in the spring of 1862. It was assigned to General Branch's and Lane's Brigade, Army of Northern Virginia. The 37th saw action at Hanover Court House and particpated in many campaigns of the army from the Seven Days' Battles to Cold Harbor . It continued the fight in the Petersburg trenches and around Appomattox . This regiment reported 125 casualties during the Seven Days' Battles, 15 at Cedar Mountain , 81 at Second Manassas , 93 at Fredericksburg , and 235 at Chancellorsville . Of the 379 engaged at Gettysburg , more than thirty percent were disabled. It surrendered 10 officers and 98 men.
Nothing is known about John's family, either parents or siblings. I have been unable to determine any verifiable information on the Blacks in North Carolina. John Calvin was a common name and there are several John Calvin Blacks that lived in North Carolina in the early to mid 1800's. There is a family tree on ancestry.com that indicates he was born in Kannapolis, Cabarrus County, NC, the son of Joseph Sedlee Black and Mary McEachern. However I have not been able to verify this. His tombstone in Tipton County, TN gives his name as John C. Black, Jr. leading one to think that perhaps his father was also John C. Black, although it was often the practice to use the suffix Junior when there was another, older person with the same name in the community even if the two were not father and son.
We do know that John Calvin Black was a private in Company C of the 37th North Carolina Infantry. He originally enlisted in (or was drafted into) Company E, 2nd Jurnior Reserves Regiment, North Carolina Infantry, and transferrd to Company C, 37th Regiment North Carolina Infantry on 11 October 1864. This is consistent with him turning 18 years old in September 1864.
We also know that he was in Tennessee by 1872.