On September 11, 1846, Gooding was enrolled as a student in the New York Colored Orphan's Asylum, a prominent school and boarding house run primarily by Quaker women.
As he approached adulthood he made the decision to hide his past as a slave, and began telling people he was born free in Troy, New York.
[1] Six days before Gooding's marriage, President Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect January 1, 1863, and opened the door for the enlistment of African Americans into the Union armies.
Gooding fought steadfastly with the regiment, in the midst of the assault on Fort Wagner in Charleston Harbor on July 18, 1863, and in the battle of Oustlee, Florida, on February 20, 1864, where he was shot and presumed to be dead.
Unknown to him at the time of his death, Congress had passed the law in June 1864 granting equal pay to African American soldiers.