Wilmont Kreis

George de Baptiste was a driving force of the Underground Railroad and active member of the Black Baptist Church of Detroit in Book Six, De Baptiste was active with William Lambert in developing the 1st Michigan Colored Infantry. With the help of Henry Barns, editor of the Detroit Tribune, the organization of nearly 900 men was drawn from Detroit and Ontario from where many former runaway slaves returned to the United States to fight the Confederacy. In 1863 they trained at a farm in Detroit and later became known as the 102nd Regiment United States Colored Troops. They lost 10 percent of their troops fighting the Confederacy in the south in 1864.