With the Fourth of July approaching in a year that also celebrates the nation’s 250th birthday, there is perhaps no better time to highlight the historic significance of two area landmarks, a mission that longtime Erdenheim resident Ed McLaughlin has pursued for decades.

Philadelphia National Cemetery, at Haines Street and Limekiln Pike in West Oak Lane, and Camp William Penn in Cheltenham are worthy of far more notoriety than they receive as historic sites associated with soldiers who served the nation, some of whom made the ultimate sacrifice, McLaughlin said.

”I want to get recognition for hundreds of soldiers who died at Camp William Penn,” said McLaughlin, a self-described “historic documenter” who has written numerous books about U.S. military veterans with a special focus on Black veterans.

“More soldiers in the Civil War died of disease than in combat,” McLaughlin told the Local at his house, surrounded by a mountain of books and other documentary materials about veterans. “There are 125 ‘Buffalo Soldiers’ buried at Philadelphia National. I am trying to get information out to the public on Black soldiers because they deserve the recognition. In Philadelphia National, 400 of the buried soldiers may be ex-slaves. A list of their names is in the book “Slaves and Soldiers in the Cemetery.’”

Camp William Penn was the first training ground dedicated to African American troops who enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War. At least 11,000 men were trained here, including 8,612 from Pennsylvania, the most Black troops recruited during the war from any northern state. The camp was the largest training camp for African American soldiers.

After Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, thousands of formerly enslaved men, as well as those who had not been enslaved, stepped forward to fight in the army. Black men who enlisted faced discrimination, segregation and abysmal treatment.

About five miles away from Camp William Penn, Philadelphia National Cemetery was established in 1862 as nine leased lots in seven private cemeteries in the Philadelphia area. The current location consolidated the cemetery on land purchased by the government in 1885. The remains of soldiers from other lots were reinterred at the new West Oak Lane location. A U.S. National Cemetery, the 13-acre burial ground is administered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and managed by officials at Washington Crossing National Cemetery. It contains the remains of 13,202 soldiers.

Philadelphia National Cemetery contains monuments commemorating the reinterment of soldiers from the Battle of Germantown and the Mexican–American War. A Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument was dedicated in 1912 to honor the reinterment of 184 Confederate prisoners of war who died in Philadelphia area hospitals and camps during the Civil War. In 1997, the cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

McLaughlin, a Mt. Airy native, went to Holy Cross grade school and Cardinal Dougherty High School. He served in the Army infantry from 1962 to 1964 and is responsible for getting story boards placed at Philadelphia National Cemetery. He retired after working for General Electric for 43 years in King of Prussia and Valley Forge. “And I designed satellites on computer for Lockheed,” he said. “I am good at computers.”

McLaughlin has spent the last 20 years trying to bring the veterans’ stories to the attention of the public and to urge public officials to memorialize their sacrifices at events on July 4th, Memorial Day, Veterans Day and at other times of the year.

“I don’t watch TV,” McLaughlin said. “I’m not interested in blood and guts. War is awful. I have been to a lot of funerals because of it. I’ve had guys break down in tears. I have received letters from Gary Sinise (an actor who started a foundation to help veterans) and (famed documentarian) Ken Burns. Every family had heroes. I come from the Potato Famine Irish. I never thought I’d write books.

“Ben [Berry], my friend, is 102, a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge. He fumigated concentration camps,” McLaughlin continued. “I’m at the Chapel of the Four Chaplins (a 75-year-old foundation at the Philadelphia Navy Yard which honors the achievements of veterans) all the time. I thank the good Lord every day. We are very fortunate for the Greatest Generation. They all paid a heavy price for what we have. When I give certificates to soldiers, they’re in tears. Camp William Penn, where so many [trained and also died of disease], is sacred soil, but how many people in Montgomery Country even know about it?”

For more information, email Lbimorgan@comcast.net. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.