Those who went on to serve in the U.S. Colored Troops during the Civil War were honored during a Memorial Day tribute to Timbuctoo, the site where freed slaves established a haven in the 1820s. An excavation of the site led by Temple last year unearthed 15,000 artifacts. Anthropology professor David Orr said that a house recently excavated on the site was home to a soldier who is buried just yards away in the cemetery.