From Battlefield to Community: How Prince Greer and the Civil War Shaped Black Funeral Service
The Civil War created an unprecedented challenge as thousands of soldiers died far from home, and families increasingly sought to have their loved ones returned for burial. The need to preserve and transport the fallen gave rise to widespread embalming and permanently changed how Americans cared for their dead.
Dr. Thomas Holmes is often recognized as the father of American embalming for helping popularize arterial embalming during the Civil War. While preservation of the dead existed long before this period in other parts of the world, embalming had not yet become common American practice. Within this historical moment emerges the story of Prince Greer, widely regarded as the first historically documented African American embalmer.
Prince Greer was enslaved during the Civil War when his enslaver, a Confederate officer, was killed in battle. Seeking to have the body preserved and returned home, Greer was led to Dr. W. R. Cornelius, an undertaker operating in Nashville, Tennessee, one of the war’s major hospital and transportation centers. Through this encounter, Greer was introduced to the emerging science of embalming.
When Cornelius later lost an assistant during the war, Greer offered to remain and learn the work. Through apprenticeship and hands-on experience, he became skilled in embalming and continued working throughout the remainder of the war. His willingness to learn during a time of national crisis helped open the door for African Americans entering funeral service during Reconstruction.
At the time, those caring for the dead were commonly known as undertakers, individuals who undertook the responsibility of preparation, burial, and transportation of the deceased. As embalming science advanced in the late nineteenth century, the term mortician gained popularity, reflecting a growing desire to elevate the profession’s identity and professional standing. Eventually, the title funeral director emerged as the role expanded to include ceremony, coordination, and family-centered service.
Following the Civil War, undertaking became one of the first stable Black-owned professional businesses in the United States. Newly freed African Americans sought occupations that provided independence, skill, and service to their communities. Funeral service provided all three. In an era when segregation often denied African American families equal treatment, Black undertakers ensured dignity in death when dignity in life was often denied.
Funeral homes soon became trusted spaces within African American communities — places of gathering, organization, and care during Reconstruction and the Jim Crow era. The Civil War did more than introduce embalming to American funeral practice; it created the conditions that shaped the modern funeral profession itself. Black funeral service grew alongside that transformation, grounded in service, resilience, and the enduring commitment to care for families with dignity.
Prince Greer’s story stands at the beginning of this legacy. Though much of his personal history remains unknown, his work represents a turning point — a bridge between battlefield necessity and community service that continues to define funeral service today.
Gratefully submitted in service to our profession,
Earline E. Blumhagen