The First Regiment, United States Colored Troops was organized and trained in the District of Columbia in the spring and summer of 1863. It was the "first such organization of its kind formally mustered into federal service".
It drew men of African descent not only from the District, but also from Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, New England, Canada and the West Indies. The regimental chaplain was the famed Henry McNeal Turner who pastored Israel Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church at the fooot of Capitol Hill.

I estimate that more than one fourth or more of its troops came from the State of Virginia, from various counties and towns, and most were escaped slaves/ contrabands.