Douglas Syphax (1842 – 4 February 1890) or Douglass Syphax was an African American from Virginia who resettled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania after the American Civil War. A military veteran, he was active in the Grand Army of the Republic in the late 19th century, and he also became a property developer in Philadelphia. He was one of the few African Americans to gain commissions as sergeants in the US Colored Troops serving in the American Civil War. Background As a relative of Charles Syphax, Douglas Syphax was related to an African-American family in Virginia who were granted land in Arlington County, Virginia. In the 1940s it became part of Arlington National Cemetery. The family was descended from Martha Washington (1731–1802), wife of President George Washington (1732–1799). The family, considered part of the elite in African-American society, traces its origins to Mariah (with an "h") Custis, the mixed race daughter of planter George Washington Parke Custis (1781–1857), the only grandson of Martha Washington. Mariah's mother was Ariana Carter, one of Custis's house slaves. When Mariah Custis asked her father for permission to marry Charles Syphax, one of his slaves, he freed them both, held a wedding for them in his Arlington mansion, and gave them fifteen acres of his Arlington estate. Mary Custis (1808–1873), Mariah's white half-sister, was to marry the Confederate General Robert E. Lee (1807–1870). Mariah and Charles had ten children, several of whom were given important political positions from the 1850s onward. Their eldest son, William Syphax, was eventually appointed superintendent of Washington's black segregated school district. Life Douglas Syphax was born in Arlington, Alexandria, Virginia in 1842. In 1864 he entered the Union Army, serving for ten months before being honorably discharged and reaching the rank of sergeant. He settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which had been a center of free blacks since the Revolutionary War. There Douglas Syphax married Abbie McKee, daughter of the wealthy African-American businessman John McKee, known by the honorific of Colonel. A free man of color, McKee had migrated to Philadelphia from Virginia in the 1840s. There he started work as a waiter, later becoming the owner of restaurants. He also moved into real estate and reputedly became a very wealthy man. In the late 1800s Syphax also became involved in speculative real-estate, as Philadelphia industry was attracting many new residents. He hired African-American architect Calvin Brent to design houses for him. He