Thomas Morris Chester

Thomas Morris Chester
Chester circa 1870 at the age of 36.
Born	(1834-05-11)May 11, 1834 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	September 30, 1892(1892-09-30) (aged 58) Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Resting place	Lincoln Cemetery, Penbrook, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Journalist, lawyer and soldier

Thomas Morris Chester (May 11, 1834 – September 30, 1892) was an American war correspondent, lawyer and soldier who took part in the American Civil War.

Chester was born at the corner of Third and Market Street in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on May 11, 1834, the fourth child of George and Jane Marie Chester. At the age of 16, Chester attended Akron College, an African-American academy in Pittsburgh. As a student there, his classmates included Jeremiah A. Brown, Benjamin Tucker Tanner, and James T. Bradford. In May 1853, he moved to Monrovia, Liberia where he attended Alexander High School. In September 1854, he returned to the United States and enrolled at Thetford Academy in Vermont, where he graduated in 1856. He then returned to Liberia where he taught school to Africans of former American slaves. He left Africa around the start of the American Civil War in 1861, first moving to Liverpool and London, England, and then to the United States.

During the upcoming of the civil war Chester served as a recruiter of black troops and raised the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. Later, he led two Black emergency militia regiments to defend a potential attack of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania during the famous Gettysburg Campaign in June–July 1863, the first time that Pennsylvania had issued weapons to African Americans. From August 1864 to the end of the Civil War in May 1865, Chester worked as a war correspondent for The Philadelphia Press, which was a major daily newspaper at that time.