James Monroe Deems James Monroe Deems James Monroe Deems (1818–1901) was an American composer and music educator from Baltimore, Maryland, as well as a distinguished Union Army officer during the American Civil War. He served as lieutenant colonel of the 1st Maryland Cavalry. On July 26, 1866 President Andrew Johnson nominated Deems for appointment to the grade of brevet brigadier general of volunteers, to rank from March 13, 1865, and the United States Senate confirmed the appointment on July 27, 1866. Deems is remembered for his composition, "Nebuchadnezzar", which was the first American oratorio. His Capt. Watros Quickstep appears in the Manchester Cornet
James Monroe Trotter African Americans. His son William Monroe Trotter became a rights activist and was founder and editor of the "Boston Guardian", a progressive African American newspaper. James Monroe Trotter was born on February 7, 1842, twenty-five miles south of Vicksburg in the once-thriving community of Grand Gulf, Mississippi, in Claiborne County, Mississippi, although some sources give Trotter's date of birth as November 8, 1842. James was born into slavery; his mother Letitia was a slave and his father was her white master, Richard S. Trotter, then unmarried. After Richard Trotter married in 1854, he freed Letitia and their mixed-race children: James