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Lesson 7: African Americans in the Civil War (1861-1865)
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Lesson 7: African Americans in the Civil War (1861-1865)
Objectives
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
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list reasons why African Americans volunteered to fight for the Union and describe their experiences
interpret President Lincoln’s views on slavery and emancipation and how they influenced his actions
summarize the political and social opposition to the Emancipation Proclamation
explain the short-term and long term effects of the Emancipation Proclamation
describe how African American soldiers were treated by both the Union and the Confederacy
assess the achievements of African American soldiers and sailors in the Civil War
describe the importance of African American spies to the Union war effort
Glossary
Reading Guide
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Introduction
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The Civil War is one of the most important events in African American history. The war, which lasted more than four years, remains the
country’s bloodiest and most destructive conflict. The war’s most obvious impact was the destruction of slavery in the United States and
the liberation of millions of African Americans. However, when the war began in 1861, few could foresee how dramatically it would shape
American history.
The war began after several Southern states broke away from the U.S., or the Union, and formed their own government. Southerners said
that they desired to preserve their rights as individual states. In practical terms, this meant they wanted to guarantee the practice of
slavery, a system critical to the Southern economy but unpopular in the North. Though the war did not start because of slavery, it would
become the central issue of the conflict. By the end of the war, the U.S. government had committed to ending the practice.
This lesson tells the stories of the many African Americans who participated in the Civil War. African Americans experienced the war in
many diverse ways, both on the battlefield and on the home front. Many African Americans, whether enslaved or free, volunteered to fight.
Many fought bravely and won honors. Others supported the war effort behind the front lines. As this lesson reveals, freedom was neither
immediate or without struggle for those who survived. However, the end of slavery remains one of the greatest victories in African
American history.
The Road to War
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Slavery was an extremely important political topic in the U.S. during the 1850s. The Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Dred
Scott decision, John Brown’s raid, and several other events sharply divided Americans over the issue of slavery. In Kansas and Missouri, the
problem had already created a small civil war, known as Bleeding Kansas, between settlers. However, most politicians in Washington still
believed a peaceful solution to the issue of slavery was possible. Some framed the issue of slavery in terms of states’ rights. They believed
individual states had the right to decide the issue for themselves rather than submit to a national law.
The presidential election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 convinced Southerners that the debate over slavery and states' rights had been lost.
In the minds of many Southerners, Lincoln, a Republican, seemed determined to eliminate slavery. Southerners felt they had lost the ability
to determine their political future. The South acted swiftly, forming a confederacy of Southern states in February 1861. A confederacy is a
group of individual states that enter into an alliance with one another while maintaining relative independence. The original Confederate
States of America consisted of South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana, with Texas joining soon after. The
confederacy elected Jefferson Davis of Mississippi as its president and abruptly seceded from the Union. They also took control of ports,
military bases, and customs houses that had previously been occupied by federal forces.
There were two important principles in the Constitution of the Confederate States of America. One was that slavery was allowed in each of
the states. The second was that each state had sovereignty, or political control, over its own territory.
Lincoln declared the South’s secession unlawful, but he also made clear that he did not intend to take military action against the
Confederate forces, or rebels. Instead, it was the South that first attacked Union forces and started the Civil War. In April 1861, the rebels
fired on the U.S. Army’s base at Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay, South Carolina. Faced with the prospect of a real war between the North
and the South, Lincoln called for volunteers to crush the rebellion. Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee sided with the
secessionists. Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware, all states in which slavery was legal, sided with the Union.
Each side expected a short and decisive war that would be easily won. Each side underestimated the other. This misjudgment was
devastating for both Northern and Southern forces. The five years of war which followed produced massive destruction and caused the
largest number of casualties in any American conflict, before or since.
The Union and the Confederacy
At the start of the war, the North held overwhelming advantages over the South. It possessed a more developed industrial complex, more
material resources, and greater manpower. With 31 million people spread across 23 states, the Union had a much larger population than the
Confederacy, which had only 9 million free citizens in 11 mostly rural states. The Union had more railroads to transport troops and more
factories to produce guns, food, and uniforms. The North was also the home of the banking and shipping industries, which were sources of
money that helped to fund the war. In addition, the Union could employ the resources of the U.S. Navy, which allowed it to blockade
southern port cities throughout the war.
However, the South also held some advantages. What it lacked in resources, it made up for in excellent military leaders and strong public
support for the war effort. The South’s economy was highly dependent on the cotton crop, which was often exported to Europe for
trade. Because enslaved people were needed to harvest cotton, African American labor was the basis of the Southern war effort. When the
Union tapped the navy to put an end to trade on the high seas, the Southern economy suffered greatly.
African Americans at the Onset of War
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During the war, President Lincoln was under constant pressure from abolitionists, black and white, to free African Americans. Lincoln
resisted these pressures because his primary goal was to save the Union, not to destroy slavery. Lincoln feared that making slavery the
focus of the struggle would mean losing public support for the war in the North. He also did not want to embitter Southerners who
opposed the Confederacy’s decision to secede or to drive Union Border States into joining the Confederacy. These states remained loyal to
the Union throughout the war. There were also many from the Confederacy who supported or even volunteered to fight for the Union in
the name of keeping the country united. The president desperately needed to find a cause the majority of citizens could unite around.
Shortly after his inauguration, Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to join the army and end the Confederate rebellion. African Americans
volunteered in large numbers and formed militias in several states. In Washington, one free African American, James Dodson, organized a
militia of "300 reliable colored free citizens." However, Dodson’s militia was refused service. Federal and state governments asked the
African American militias to disband and refused to let them serve in the army.
Lincoln and leaders in Congress did not enlist African American soldiers because they worried that sending black troops into battle would
alienate racist northerners. Racism was not limited to enslavers and the South. Prejudice against African Americans, free or otherwise, was
rampant among the Northern public. Even white abolitionists in the North who opposed slavery often held racist attitudes against African
Americans.
Lincoln's refusal to condemn slavery had terrible consequences for enslaved African Americans. Lincoln's government vowed not to
liberate any enslaved people. The Union Army even returned escaped African Americans to their enslavers. In the passage below, Frederick
Douglass explains the optimism of some abolitionists and African Americans about the war, despite the decisions the government made:
From the first, I, for one, saw in this war the end of slavery and truth requires me to say that my interest in the success of the North was
largely due to this belief. True it is that this faith was many times shaken by passing events, but never destroyed. When Secretary
Seward [Lincoln's Secretary of State] instructed our ministers to say... "the status of no class of people of the United States would be
changed by the rebellion—that the slaves would be slaves still, and the masters would be masters still"—when General McClellan and
General Butler warned the slaves in advance that if any attempt was made by them to gain their freedom, it would be suppressed with
an iron hand—when the Government persistently refused to employ coloured troops...—when slaves were being returned from our
lines to their masters—when Union soldiers were stationed about the farm houses of Virginia to guard and protect the master in
holding his slaves...I still believed, and spoke as I believed, all over the North, that the mission of the war was the liberation of the slave,
as well as the salvation of the Union.
Frederick Douglass, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (London: Christian Age Office, 1882), 292-3.
Douglass's position reveals the other side of Lincoln's political gamble. The president figured that he could afford to reach out to racists
and slave owners because he already had the abolitionists and African Americans on his side. In the end, Lincoln's careful strategy was key
to keeping Border States like Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware in the Union. Though Tennessee and Virginia joined the
Confederacy, parts of both states later seceded from the South and sided with the Union.
The First African Americans in the Civil War
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The Civil War was long and bloody. The number of men killed in early battles shattered illusions of a quick and easy victory for either side.
The South won the first few skirmishes, inflicting huge casualties on the North. Even in the battles it was winning, the North was losing
thousands of men to death and injuries. Off of the battlefield, poor medical facilities led to casualties from illness and disease. These losses
forced the U.S. government to find other sources of able-bodied men. In July 1862, the U.S. Congress passed a law approving the
recruitment of African American men for the war effort.
African Americans officially began fighting in combat more than two years after the war began. However, African Americans had found
ways of contributing to the war effort from the beginning, even without an army uniform. They performed heroically in naval combat, in
support roles for the army, and as civilian irregulars. There were even African American spies who informed Northern intelligence officers
about the movement and condition of Confederate forces.
The Union and Slavery
Despite President Lincoln’s reluctance to put the Union in jeopardy by freeing slaves, he recognized that slavery was the key to the
Southern economy. By disrupting the slave system, he could severely disrupt the Southern war effort. In 1861, Congress passed the
first Confiscation Act, which gave Union soldiers the authority to seize enslaved people ascontraband, or confiscated enemy property. As
contraband, African Americans helped the Union armies build fortifications. Likewise, the Confederates were using enslaved African
Americans for engineering jobs and as support staff in order to free up more white soldiers for combat. The Confiscation Act was a political
compromise acceptable to both abolitionist and pro-slavery groups in the North.
Some Union commanders were proactive in applying the Confiscation Act. As a politician before the war, Benjamin Butler had been a
dedicated abolitionist. As a general in the war, Butler frequently opted to label escaped African Americans as contraband, and often ran
into trouble for his actions. Generals John C. Frémont and David Hunter were even bolder in their application of the new law, using it to
actually free enslaved African Americans in Missouri and South Carolina. Other Union commanders, such as Generals Don Carlos Buell and
Joseph Hooker, held sympathies toward Southern slaveholders and were happy to return escaped African Americans to their former
owners. Even the first supreme commander of the Union Army, General George McClellan, promised to crush any attempt at slave uprising
in the occupied South “with an iron hand.”
In practice, President Lincoln was less willing than some of his generals to use the Confiscation Act to free African Americans. He vetoed
the orders of Hunter and Frémont and demanded that the African Americans they freed be returned to their owners. Lincoln declared that:
“neither General Hunter, nor any other commander, or person, has been authorized by the Government of the United States, to make
proclamations declaring the slaves of any State free.”
These events were just a few examples in which the administration backed the practice of slavery for political safety.
However, Lincoln soon recognized that returning enslaved African Americans to the South was providing the enemy with manpower for
the war effort. Soon, updates to the Confiscation Act were passed which made it unlawful for army or navy commanders to return any
escaped African Americans to enslavement.
African American Sailors
At the outset of the war, navy commanders readily employed African American sailors such as Charles Batties on their ships. Library of Congress
Although some Union Army generals returned escaped African Americans to their enslavers, naval commanders generally treated them
better. As the war began, African Americans were already serving in the U.S. Navy in support roles, but some had the chance to perform in
battle. Shortly after the war began, many enslaved African Americans fled to Union ships in southern waters. Secretary of the Navy Gideon
Welles chose not to return African Americans to their enslavers. He made it navy policy to employ them on ships.
The army segregated African American soldiers during the Civil War and for years after, but segregation was impossible on cramped navy
ships. The navy valued the skills of African Americans. They were recruited, integrated, and promoted with little discrimination. An
estimated 16% of the navy was composed of African Americans during the Civil War.
These letters show Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles encouraged his commanders to employ formerly enslaved African Americans. “To return them would be
impolitic as well as cruel,” he wrote. Official Record of the Confederate and Union Navies Ser. I vol. 6, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1897, 8-10.
The heroic actions of one African American sailor, Robert Smalls, even gained national attention. Enslaved in Charleston, South Carolina,
Smalls was made helmsman on the Confederate ship, the Planter, in 1862. Smalls devised a scheme to free himself along with several other
African American sailors and their families. One night, while the white officers were on shore, Smalls and his fellow conspirators seized
the Planter and sailed away. Smalls was able to fool Confederate sentries and pilot the ship to a wharf where the families of crew members
were waiting. He then sailed for the Union fleet surrounding the city, and to freedom. His story was featured in the country’s major papers.
When the African American sailor Robert Smalls captured the Confederate ship Planterin 1862, Harper’s Weekly and other Northern media seized on the story.
Smalls’s actions helped change the perception of African American contributions to the Union war effort.
Smalls’s knowledge of the ship and the surrounding area was invaluable to the navy. He was familiar with the harbor defenses around
Charleston, South Carolina, including forts, mines, and torpedoes, as well as the local geography. He also spoke the Gullahdialect of the
South Carolina coast, which enabled him to act as an intermediary between Union troops and Gullah-speaking African Americans. Shortly
after Smalls's escape with the Planter, he met President Lincoln and was awarded $1,500 in prize money as his share of the value of
the Planter and its contents. In the 1860s, $1,500 was a fortune equivalent to over 100 times the monthly salary of a Union Army private.
Smalls asked Lincoln to allow African Americans to serve in the army. He also convinced President Lincoln to let formerly enslaved African
Americans establish and defend a free community in the Port Royal Islands of South Carolina. The heroism of Smalls and others helped
change white people's public opinion about the bravery and ability of African Americans.
The First African Americans to Serve
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While Smalls was gaining attention in the press, African Americans were getting involved in the Civil War in many other ways. From the
beginning, President Lincoln did not authorize the use of African American troops. However, after the start of the war, African Americans
seized opportunities to join the fight against the enemy.
A few determined African Americans managed to break the color barrier and serve in white army units. Some, such as George Stephens,
signed on as personal cooks for officers. Another, William Henry Johnson, served in the 8th Connecticut Infantry and was present at the
Battle of Bull Run, one of the first battles of the war. Both men documented their experiences by writing to African American newspapers
back home.
This map shows places where African Americans participated in the Civil War even though they were not yet allowed to enlist in the regular army.
In Kansas in the summer of 1862, General James Lane recruited African Americans in defiance of official orders. Within 60 days, 500 soldiers
had been recruited and trained. These troops, the First Kansas (Coloured) Volunteer Infantry, fought and defeated Confederate soldiers in
a skirmish at Island Mound, Missouri, on October 29, 1862. Lane wrote:
We encamped within Toothman’s yard, throwing up a rail barricade and raising a flag. We named the place “Fort Africa.” Sending back
for cavalry and for the balance of the regiment, we skirmished two days. ... It is useless to talk any more of negro courage. The men
fought like tigers, each and every one of them, and the main difficulty was to hold them well in hand.
Report from the Daily Conservative (Leavenworth, Kansas), November 4, 1862.
This skirmish was the first test of African American soldiers in battle as a whole unit. The fact that they performed well in a difficult situation
and with little training was a testament to their passion.
African Americans in the Rebel Armies
Before the Civil War, New Orleans was the site of a vibrant community of freed African Americans. When the war began, a small number of them joined rebel
forces, whether by coercion or because of economic concerns. Cover of Harper’s Weekly, Jan. 10, 1863
As strange as it may seem, African Americans enlisted to serve in the Confederate armies too. In New Orleans, free African Americans
volunteered to fight for the rebel cause in a unit known as the Native Guard. Southern newspapers devoted a great deal of publicity to
stories about African Americans fighting against the North. The Northern public was also fascinated by this concept. However, the number
of African Americans serving in Confederate forces was extremely low. As of 1860, there were only about 22,000 free African Americans of
fighting age in the South. Of these, 440 formed the rebel Native Guard in New Orleans, a unit which later switched sides and fought for the
Union.
Considering common Southern attitudes toward race and slavery, why did these men enlist? Some claimed to have been coerced, or forced
to fight. Yet others especially free African Americans, joined of their own initiative.
Others, such as Francis Dumas, were business owners who hoped that their service to the South would win them favor with wealthy whites
and lead to opportunities after the war. Dumas was a black plantation owner from Louisiana who employed more enslaved people than
any man in the state. He viewed the blockade the North had placed on Southern commerce much as the wealthy white people did—as an
economic pain that was bad for business. Needing to preserve business relationships with the people who bought his crops, Dumas joined
the Native Guard. Like other wealthy people in New Orleans, he did not expect the war to last long or to change things. He viewed his
enlistment as a shrewd business move.
Although they were part of rebel armies, enslaved African Americans were relegated to support roles. These jobs were crucial to the war
effort but brought little glory. During the Civil War, it took five or six soldiers working behind the lines to support every one solider on the
front. Instead of firing guns or fighting in battle, African Americans carried food and ammunition to and from the front lines. They chopped
wood for heat, shoveled coal to fuel trains and ships, and built trenches and other fortifications.
In Their Own Words
Frederick Douglass laments how the South uses African American soldiers, even as the North refuses to do so.
The slaveholders have not hesitated to employ the sable arms of the Negroes at the South.... They often boast, and not without
cause, that their Negroes will fight for them against the North. They have no scruples against employing the Negroes to
exterminate freedom, and in overturning the Government…. Oh! that this Government would only now be as true to liberty as
the rebels, who are attempting to batter it down, are true to slavery.
Frederick Douglass, "How to End the War," Douglass' Monthly, (May, 1861), quoted P.S. Foner, ed., Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings (Chicago: Lawrence Hill
Books, 1999), 448-9.
Union generals often saw enslaved African Americans supporting the rebel armies. They knew how much the South needed this workforce
and that removing it would hurt the Southern war effort. The South had a small population and depended on enslaved African Americans
to run farms, factories, and the economy while white men were fighting in the war. Several Union generals proposed recruiting enslaved
African Americans, not only to increase the Union’s numbers, but to cripple the South. Near the end of the war, as the situation became
desperate for the South, General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, asked that enslaved African
Americans be enlisted as troops. However, this decision was only made late in the war, when the South was very close to total defeat.
The Union Native Guard
After the Union Army occupied New Orleans early in the war, they recruited African Americans for their own Native Guard. When General
Butler and Union forces invaded New Orleans, the rebel Native Guard disbanded. In August 1862, several former officers of the Native
Guard approached Butler about forming an African American unit to fight for the Union. Unable to get reinforcements from Washington,
Butler established a new Native Guard. On September 27, 1862, the First Regiment Louisiana Native Guard became the first official all
African American unit in the U.S. Army.
The highest-ranking officer to switch from the rebel Native Guard to the Union Native Guard was none other than Major Dumas, the African
American plantation owner. When Major Dumas switched and fought for the Union, he urged the enslaved African Americans working his
own plantations to also sign up and fight. Although it kept some from the Confederate Native Guard, the new unit was mostly composed of
fresh recruits. Other Native Guard units followed. Most of the lower-ranking officers (lieutenants and captains) were African American, but
Major Dumas was the only African American field officer (colonels, lieutenant colonels, and majors).
The first true combat the Native Guard took part in was an attack from sea on Pascagoula, Mississippi, in April 1863. The commander,
Colonel Nathan Daniels, recorded his impressions of the battle:
Great credit is due to the troops engaged, for their unflinching bravery and steadiness under this, their first fire, exchanging volley after
volley with the coolness of veterans; and for their determined tenacity in maintaining their position, and taking advantage of every
success that their courage and valor gave them.
Frank Moore, The Rebellion Record: A Diary of American Events vol. 6 (New York, New York: G. P. Putnam, 1863), 526.
The Native Guard fought an even more celebrated battle in May 1863, at Port Hudson on the Mississippi River. Captain Andre Cailloux died
in the battle and became one of the first nationally known African American war heroes. The New York Times reported that thousands
attended Cailloux's funeral, held in his hometown of New Orleans. The article went on to ask the following:
Are these men, who have been regenerated by wearing the United States uniform—these men, who have given their race to our armies
to fight our would-be oppressors, are these people, can these people ever again be handed over to the taskmaster?
"Our New Orleans Correspondence," The New York Times August 8, 1863, 8.
The heroic actions of the Native Guard in the field of battle were changing public opinions about African American troops. As the war
dragged on, and the outlook was increasingly bleak for the Union, stories of African American courage in battle gave hope to many. It also
convinced politicians in Washington that there was a valuable role to be played by African American troops in the war.
The successes of African American soldiers in Louisiana and Kansas were bittersweet. Major Dumas fought with distinction at Island
Mound, but a new Union general forced the major and many other African American officers to resign. New units of African American
troops were created, but no African Americans served as officers in them. Despite the pressure and prejudice they faced, some African
American officers continued to serve some Native Guard units until the end of the war.
Think About It
The U.S. military has officially refused to enlist homosexuals and has expelled troops when they have been identified as gay or lesbian.
Why do you think homosexuals still try to fight for a country which treats them unequally? Is their experience at all similar to the
African American volunteers in the early days of the Civil War? Why did so many African Americans volunteer to fight for a country that
refused their service, denied them their rights, and was so prejudiced against them?
The Emancipation Proclamation
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By mid-1862, there had been calls from many in the Union to fight the practice of slavery and end it once and for all. President Lincoln was
careful not to upset the slaveholding states in the Union at the outset of the war. Recall that he often contradicted the orders of generals
who freed enslaved people in the South using the Confiscation Act, which had been passed in 1861 as a political compromise. However, as
the war continued, the president and his cabinet began to realize the importance of slavery to the Southern economy.
At the beginning of the war, President Lincoln had been hesitant to make the conflict about the issue of slavery, but with the Emancipation Proclamation, he
put aside these concerns. The proclamation gave the Union the moral advantage in the war and inspired African Americans in their fight for freedom. The Strobridge
Lith. Co., Cincinnati, c1888
In July 1862, Congress passed the Second Confiscation Act, which freed any African Americans whose enslavers had "engaged in rebellion
against the United States." Around the same time, Lincoln began talking with his cabinet about issuing an act that would free all enslaved
people in the South. Lincoln figured that such a move would give the Union a moral advantage in fighting the war. Freeing all enslaved
African Americans might also help cripple the Southern economy, which ran on African American labor.
Lincoln did not want emancipating enslaved African Americans to be seen as an act of desperation, so he waited for the Union to win a
major victory before announcing it. After the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam in September 1862, Lincoln delivered
the Emancipation Proclamation, which would free enslaved people in Confederate states on January 1, 1863 (see the text in the In Their
Own Words section). Although it was an important statement, the proclamation essentially freed people in places where Lincoln's
government had no power. By letting three months pass before the order went into effect, Lincoln hoped to give the rebellious Southern
states a reasonable deadline to surrender. Unfortunately, none of them decided to give up the war.
The Emancipation Proclamation did not free many people immediately. Among those whom the act affected were African Americans who
had escaped from the South and who were living as contraband. Under the order, they were now officially free. However, for the millions
who continued to toil in slavery in the rebel states, there was little hope of escaping to freedom. For most, true emancipation would have
to wait until the war was over.
The Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order issued by the president and did not have the legal weight of a law passed by
Congress. Despite its legal limitations, the Emancipation Proclamation gave the North definite advantages in the war. Even though it was
primarily a military tool designed to do damage to the Southern economy, the Emancipation Proclamation made the Union appear as if it
was fighting for a just and noble cause. The war was being observed closely around the world. Great Britain and France had remained
neutral in the Civil War, but leaders in each country had been debating whether or not to recognize the Confederacy as a legitimate
government. Many in Europe wanted to see a Confederate victory. However, most countries in Europe had already outlawed the practice
of slavery in their territories. Once slavery became the main issue of the Civil War, popular opinion among Europeans slowly turned against
the South.
In Their Own Words
One of the most important parts of the Emancipation Proclamation was the section laying out the territories where the order applies.
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-In-Chief
of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United
States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, and in
accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the first day above
mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof, respectively, are this day in
rebellion against the United States the following, to wit:
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James,
Ascension, Assumption, Terrebone, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi,
Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties designated as West
Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northhampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including
the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were
not issued.
And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said
designated States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be, free; and that the Executive Government of the United
States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense; and I
recommend to them that, in all case when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.
And I further declare and make known that such persons of suitable condition will be received into the armed service of the
United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.
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Lincoln’s act of emancipation quickly became common knowledge throughout the North, and word soon spread throughout the South.
African Americans continued to escape to Union lines. As Union armies advanced into Southern states over the next few years, enslaved
African Americans were freed. Booker T. Washington remembered when Union troops arrived at the plantation in Virginia where he grew
up:
Some man who seemed to be a stranger (a United States officer, I presume) made a little speech and then read a rather long paper—
the Emancipation Proclamation, I think. After the reading we were told that we were all free, and could go when and where we pleased.
My mother, who was standing by my side, leaned over and kissed her children, while tears of joy ran down her cheeks. She explained to
us what it all meant, that this was the day for which she had been so long praying, but fearing that she would never live to see.
Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery: An Autobiography (New York, NY: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1901), 20-21.
By the end of the war, the Emancipation Proclamation had freed most—but not all—of the enslaved people in the United States. Yet most
people at the time—including the enslaved, slave owners, abolitionists, and observers around the world—understood the proclamation as
the first step toward ending slavery in the United States for good.
Some insight into Lincoln's thinking is found in a letter he wrote to A. G. Hodges. Hodges was a Kentucky journalist who disagreed with
emancipation and with recruiting African Americans for service. Lincoln wrote up his arguments in a letter:
I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think, and feel. And yet I have
never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling. I claim
not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me.
Lincoln's Letter to A. G. Hodges, April 4, 1864 from Abraham Lincoln, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 7 (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1953),
281-282.
Lincoln knew that the Emancipation Proclamation was not enough to ensure slavery would end. It offered no permanent guarantees for
the African Americans to whom it promised freedom. Lincoln worked to pass the Thirteenth Amendment, which outlawed slavery. After
the Civil War, this amendment became part of the United States Constitution. However, Lincoln would be assassinated before it became
law.
Practice Questions
Take some time to answer the following questions and to write your answers down in your notebook. Then click the "Check Your
Answer" button to see a suggested answer. Some of these questions may be asked in the submission for this lesson.
Read the following excerpt from a message to Congress issued by Abraham Lincoln on March 6, 1862. Explain in two sentences what
Lincoln proposed in the speech.
Fellow-citizens of the Senate, and House of Representatives,
I recommend the adoption of a Joint Resolution by your honorable bodies which shall be substantially as follows:
"Resolved that the United States ought to co-operate with any state which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to
such state pecuniary aid, to be used by such state in its discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences public and private,
produced by such change of system"...The leaders of the existing insurrection entertain the hope that this government will
ultimately be forced to acknowledge the independence of some part of the disaffected region, and that all the slave states North
of such part will then say "the Union, for which we have struggled, being already gone, we now choose to go with the Southern
section.'' To deprive them of this hope, substantially ends the rebellion; and the initiation of emancipation completely deprives
them of it, as to all the states initiating it. The point is not that all the states tolerating slavery would very soon, if at all, initiate
emancipation; but that, while the offer is equally made to all, the more Northern shall, by such initiation, make it certain to the
more Southern, that in no event, will the former ever join the latter, in their proposed confederacy. I say "initiation" because, in my
judgment, gradual, and not sudden emancipation, is better for all. In the mere financial, or pecuniary view, any member of
Congress, with the census-tables and Treasury-reports before him, can readily see for himself how very soon the current
expenditures of this war would purchase, at fair valuation, all the slaves in any named State. Such a proposition, on the part of the
general government, sets up no claim of a right, by federal authority, to interfere with slavery within state limits, referring, as it
does, the absolute control of the subject, in each case, to the state and it's people, immediately interested. It is proposed as a
matter of perfectly free choice with them."
Check Your Answer
Why did the federal government refuse to enlist African Americans at the beginning of the war?
Check Your Answer
How did the Union Navy employ African Americans during the Civil War? Was it different from the Union Army, and if so, how?
Check Your Answer
What was Robert Smalls best known for?
Check Your Answer
Did African Americans serve in the Confederate Army, and if so, how?
Check Your Answer
The Sea Islands of South Carolina
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The Emancipation Proclamation had immense symbolic value to African Americans, but in reality few could risk escaping to freedom in a
hostile Confederacy. However, in one area of the South, emancipation had already begun. Since 1861, the Sea Islands of South Carolina had
been under control of Union forces. The islands were the headquarters for Union Army and naval operations in the South and often housed
more than 10,000 Union soldiers and nearly as many African Americans. Because the Union had almost complete control of the seas, they
were able to maintain this foothold in the South throughout the war.
In the Sea Islands, Lincoln and his administration had already begun an experiment in liberating enslaved people. In November 1861, Union
forces first captured several of the Sea Islands. Plantation owners fled before the advancing troops, leaving behind thousands of African
Americans on about 200 plantations. Thousands more enslaved African Americans escaped to the islands over the next few months.
Because so much of this territory belonged to Southerners in support of secession, the government decided to break up these estates and
sell them to free African Americans. The African Americans worked the plantations, dividing the profits among themselves and selling the
cotton to the government. Many African Americans in the Sea Islands worked and volunteered for the Union Army. With the profits from
farming and other work, Sea Island African Americans bought land and built houses and farms. These communities were proof for many
Northerners that formerly enslaved people could build a community and thrive in freedom. Historians today sometimes refer to this
community as the Port Royal Experiment.
Local army officials on the Sea Islands asked for support from churches in the North. These churches sent teachers, volunteers, and
supplies. Missionaries set up churches, schools, and hospitals. Robert Smalls, who was born in the Sea Islands, helped raise awareness and
money. The plantations were run by liberated farm workers. In May 1862, General David Hunter issued an order freeing all enslaved workers
in the Sea Islands and began enlisting an African American regiment. Within a few days, President Lincoln reversed Hunter's order.
Nevertheless, for more than a year before the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans in the Sea Islands were essentially free and
independent. Afterward, many looked to the Port Royal Experiment as a model for the South to follow during the Reconstruction era.
When the Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863, the African Americans in the Sea Islands became officially free. Many
African Americans who had escaped to the islands from plantations in Florida and Georgia enlisted in African American regiments. The only
way these men could return home and free their families was by fighting.
After the war, Congress would return many of the confiscated plantations to their original owners. But for a few years, the Sea Islands
were a model of what free African Americans could achieve if given the means.
African Americans Take Up Union Colors
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After President Lincoln delivered the Emancipation Proclamation, the Union began recruiting African American soldiers for battle. Image courtesy of the Anne S.K. Brown
Military Collection, Brown University
Now that President Lincoln had clearly connected the war with the issue of slavery, the U.S. government no longer resisted using African
American troops. Congress had already granted the authority to enlist African American soldiers in July 1862. However, the creation of an
African American fighting force within the regular Union Army formally began when the Emancipation Proclamation was officially
announced in late 1862.
Abolitionists and free African Americans in the North formed regiments all over the Union. Although these regiments were mostly led by
white men, roughly 100 African Americans were commissioned as officers. Frederick Douglass helped recruit African Americans, and two of
his sons even enlisted. The most famous of these units was the fabled 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Led by a white
abolitionist named Robert Gould Shaw, this regiment distinguished itself in the siege of Fort Wagner on July 18, 1863. Fort Wagner guarded
the port of Charleston in South Carolina. The 54th Regiment led a courageous charge on the fort, taking heavy casualties. One veteran of
the charge recalled the following:
We reach the fort. Men are standing on the parapet firing down upon us, as we climb the sandy slope of the rampart and look the
enemy in the face....A mass of faces, lighted by red flashes, look up at us from the interior of the fort. Around the guns a surging,
struggling mass of men are almost near enough to touch. Our handful of men stand at terrible disadvantage against the sky, and the
group about each officer melts rapidly away. The parapet is cumbered with bodies. The enemy fight vigorously with muskets, bayonets,
handspikes, and rammers. Their officers strike at us with the sword. No second line comes to make good our feeble hold. Unwillingly we
fall back to the exterior slope; the colors fall; they rise again, float over the ditch, and disappear in the distance. Our Colonel [Shaw] falls
also, but we do not know it.
J. M. W. Appleton, "That Night at Fort Wagner," Putnam's Monthly, vol. 14, issue 19 (July 1869), 13.
Although the charge was a military disaster, the heroism of this regiment once again proved the fighting spirit of African American troops
to the Northern public, which glorified the battle in the press.
Other African American troops fought with distinction on several fronts of the Civil War. They led assaults in Florida and Tennessee, but
their impact was particularly felt at the sieges of Petersburg and Richmond, both in Virginia. In December 1864, the largest African
American force yet assembled, between 9,000 and 16,000 men, camped as part of a huge Union army near Petersburg. In the bloody series
of battles surrounding Richmond, the Confederate capital, many Union soldiers were killed. In the end, 15 soldiers from the African
American units involved won the Medal of Honor, the highest American medal for bravery on the battlefield.
One hero from these battles was Sergeant Powhatan (POW-uh-tahn)
Beaty. On September 29, 1864, he was awarded a Medal of Honor
in the Battle of Chaffin's Farm and New Market Heights, an action in which several other African American troops were also commended.
Most of the men and all of the officers in Beaty's company were killed in the first assault on rebel lines. When the flag bearer for his unit
was killed, Beaty sprinted back 600 yards under enemy fire, picked up the flag, and returned it to the lines. Beaty then led a victorious
second assault on the enemy. Beaty survived the war and returned to an acting career in his native Cincinnati, Ohio.
African Americans fought not only the Confederates in battle but also against prejudice from Union soldiers and officers and the injustice of
certain army policies. An example of this prejudice was how African Americans were paid for their service. When African Americans first
enlisted, they were paid less than white soldiers. The base pay for white soldiers was $13 a month, but $3 was deducted for clothing and
food. African American soldiers received a base of $10 a month, from which $3 was deducted, leaving them with just $7 a month. Many
African American soldiers refused to accept the unfair pay until Congress made pay equal in June 1864, a year before the war ended.
The New York Draft Riots
Despite the combat success of African American troops, not all Northerners looked favorably upon African American troops. The war had
been lengthy and thousands had lost their lives. For many, the Emancipation Proclamation had made the war into a mission to end slavery,
and they did not support this mission. These people blamed African Americans for causing the war and began targeting them for acts of
violence.
The New York City draft riots in 1863 revealed violent anger at the Civil War’s increasing human cost and intense racism among the Northern population.Harper's
Weekly August 1, 1863
One of the worst cases of violence began on July 13, 1863, in New York City. That week, a military draft for all white men was instituted to
fill the ranks of the depleted Union Army. However, anger about the draft was high in the Union, especially in New York City. Much of the
city’s working class population and immigrants had sympathies for the Southern cause and did not want African Americans to gain equal
rights. They blamed Lincoln and African Americans for the massive Union casualties, which had claimed the lives of many New Yorkers. As a
result, they began to call the conflict “Mr. Lincoln’s War.” Many also believed that freed African Americans were taking their jobs and
bringing down wages.
These lingering tensions turned into violent acts. On July 13, people began breaking windows, setting fires, and attacking police. Targets
included police stations, the mayor's residence, and pro-war newspapers. The draft-rioters also targeted any African Americans they could
find. Rioters even looted and burned down the Asylum for Colored Orphans on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. An estimated 120 people died in
the riots.
Although the majority of the dead were not African Americans, the attacks against them were particularly horrible. Here is an account from
a police description:
William Henry Nichols (colored) resided at No. 147 East Twenty-eighth St. Mrs. Staat, his mother, was visiting him. On Wednesday, July
15th, at 3 o'clock, the house was attacked by a mob with showers of bricks and stones. In one of the rooms was a woman with a child
but three days old. The rioters broke open the door with axes and rushed in. Nichols and his mother fled to the basement; in a few
moments the babe referred to was dashed by the rioters from the upper window into the yard, and instantly killed. The mob cut the
water pipes above, and the basement was being deluged; ten persons, mostly women and children, were there, and they fled to the
yard; in attempting to climb the fence Mrs. Staat fell back from exhaustion; the rioters were instantly upon her; her son sprang to her
rescue, exclaiming, "Save my mother, if you kill me." Two ruffians instantly seized him, each taking hold of an arm, while a third, armed
with a crow-bar, calling upon them to hold his arms apart, deliberately struck him a savage blow on the head, felling him like a bullock.
He died in the N. Y. Hospital two days after.
J. M. W. Appleton, "That Night at Fort Wagner," Putnam's Monthly, vol. 14, issue 19 (July 1869), 13.
Federal troops had to be brought into the city to end the riots and preserve order. The riots were among the worst in U.S. history.
African Americans in the Military
Valor in the Civil War
African American Prisoners of War
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The rebels in the South often mistreated and murdered captured African American soldiers. Refusing to acknowledge them as legal
combatants, they treated them as escaped enslaved people, subject to criminal punishments like execution. This mistreatment inspired
heroic actions by African American soldiers in the field, who fought knowing that they would die if defeated and captured.
On December 23, 1862, days before the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, Confederate president Jefferson Davis issued a
proclamation. He said that “negro slaves captured in arms" should be tried under state law rather than treated as prisoners of war. Under
state law regarding slave revolts, many local deputies had the authority to execute African Americans captured during the war.
Many African American soldiers were killed before the authorities had a chance to execute them. In 1862, around the time of the Island
Mound skirmish, members of the 1st Kansas Volunteers became prisoners. Rebel troops executed them even though they exchanged white
prisoners with other Union forces.
In Their Own Words
The following memo, from Confederate General E. Kirby Smith, is evidence of the official rebel policy of executing African American
prisoners.
Shreveport, La., June 13, 1863.
Maj. Gen. IR. TAYLOR, Commanding District of Louisiana:
GENERAL: I have been unofficially informed that some of your troops have captured negroes in arms. I hope this may not be so,
and that your subordinates who may have been in command of capturing parties may have recognized the propriety of giving no
quarter to armed negroes and their officers. In this way we may be relieved from a disagreeable dilemma. If they are taken,
however, you will turn them over to the State authorities to be tried for crimes against the State, and you will afford such
facilities in obtaining witnesses as the interests of the public service will permit. I am told that negroes found in a state of
insurrection may be tried by a court of the parish in which the crime is committed, composed of two justices of the peace and a
certain number of slave-holders. Governor Moore has called on me and stated that if the report is true that any armed negroes
have been captured he will send the attorney-general to conduct the prosecution as soon as you notify him of the capture.
I have the honor to be, general, your obedient servant,
E. KIRBY SMITH,
Lieutenant-General, Commanding.
The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies (Washington, DC.: GPO 1899), Series 2 – Vol. 6, 21-22. See also Lonnie R.
Speer, Portals to Hell: Military Prisons of the Civil War (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1997), 109.
Click to read more
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper stoked outrage by describing how Confederate troops massacred hundreds of surrendering Union troops in 1864 in Fort
Pillow, Tennessee.
Although most surrendering African Americans were immediately killed, the rebels did take some African Americans as prisoners. The exact
numbers will never be known; Southern officials made little effort to keep records about African American prisoners. But the records that
remain show that at least 776 African Americans were held in various prison camps. Of these, 300 died before release. Many white
prisoners also died in rebel prisons, but not in such high proportions. Violent treatment, starvation, and untreated disease were common
killers in these camps.
There are several firsthand accounts and documents that reveal the official rebel policy of executing African Americans rather than taking
them as prisoners. Survivors described episodes where rebel officers and soldiers shot wounded African Americans who had surrendered.
Captured or wounded African Americans were killed after surrendering in battles at Olustee, Florida; Poison Springs, Arkansas; Fort Pillow,
Tennessee; Plymouth, North Carolina; Petersburg, Virginia; and Saltville, Virginia. Many of these post-surrender massacres happened less
than a year before the war ended.
In Their Own Words
When reports of the execution and mistreatment of African Americans reached Union leaders, they demanded that the South treat
African Americans as soldiers. When their demands were not met, the Union ended all prisoner exchanges in May 1863 until the rebels
would agree to exchange African American prisoners. On July 30, 1863, Lincoln warned that for every African American prisoner
executed or enslaved, a rebel prisoner would also be executed or enslaved:
Executive Mansion, Washington, D.C July 30, 1863
It is the duty of every government to give protection to its citizens, of whatever class, color, or condition, and especially to those
who are duly organized as soldiers in the public service. The law of nations and the usages and customs of war as carried on by
civilized powers, permit no distinction as to color in the treatment of prisoners of war as public enemies. To sell or enslave any
captured person, on account of his color, and for no offense against the laws of war, is a relapse into barbarism and a crime
against the civilization of the age.
The government of the United States will give the same protection to all its soldiers, and if the enemy shall sell or enslave anyone
because of his color, the offense shall be punished by retaliation upon the enemy's prisoners in our possession.
It is therefore ordered that for every soldier of the United States killed in violation of the laws of war, a rebel soldier shall be
executed; and for every one enslaved by the enemy or sold into slavery, a rebel soldier shall be placed at hard labor on the public
works and continued at such labor until the other shall be released and receive the treatment due to a prisoner of war.
Roy P. Basler et al., eds., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, 9 vols. (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University, 1953–55), vol. 6 , 357.
Click to read more
In October 1864, General Butler learned that African American prisoners were being enslaved and forced to dig trenches around Richmond.
Outraged, he put rebel prisoners to work on fortifications under rebel attack and put them under guard by African American units. In
response, the rebels pulled back the African American prisoners from the front lines.
The Confederacy’s harsh treatment of wounded and captured African Americans had a negative effect on the Southern war effort. It
inspired African Americans to fight with more tenacity and desperation in battle. They used acts of Southern barbarism as rallying cries.
Soldiers would call out “No quarter!”—a phrase that conveyed the grim fate awaiting them upon capture—or "Remember Fort Pillow!"
and be motivated to fight on.
Confederate massacres also helped turn the Northern public against the rebels. Sympathizers, unable to justify the Confederacy’s war
crimes, turned against the Southern cause.These stories, combined with news of fabled units such as the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer
Infantry, spurred more African Americans to volunteer for the Union.
The Black Dispatches
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The contributions of African Americans to the war effort went far beyond the battlefield. Many worked as spies for the North. In the South,
they could blend in easily among the general public, composed largely of African Americans.
These spies and informants came from a variety of backgrounds and provided key military intelligence about the rebel forces. The
intelligence reports that African American spies delivered were nicknamed the "black dispatches." Some providers of black dispatches
were runaway enslaved African Americans who had fled to the North or who had been captured by advancing armies. Black dispatches
could also come from agents of espionage who communicated information while remaining in the South or who were sent on specific
information-gathering missions.
The system of using black dispatches was not formalized until General George McClellan assigned one of his assistants, Allan Pinkerton, as
his Chief of Intelligence. Pinkerton created a large network of spies consisting of rebel deserters, prisoners of war, civilians, and African
Americans escaping slavery, who provided some of the most accurate information. The best and most astute information gatherers were
trained and sent back into enemy territory. Many used disguises, posing as servants, cooks, or other laborers to blend in. Some played
extremely important roles in some of the war’s major battles.
One of Pinkerton’s best spies was John Scobell, a well-educated African American who escaped enslavement and was recruited early in the
war. He accompanied a white Pinkerton spy who dressed as a Southern gentleman. Pretending to be the gentleman's enslaved servant,
Scobell gathered information on Confederate troop movements from African Americans in the area. Other African Americans who escaped
the South, such as W.H. Ringgold and George Scott, gave Union commanders important information about Confederate movements and
positions around Richmond, Virginia, as well as impending attacks the Confederate forces planned to make.
Later in 1863, a young African American named Charlie Wright had escaped to Union lines and said that the rebel army was marching north
toward Maryland. Acting on the information, General Joseph Hooker sent his army to shadow the Confederate forces. The two armies met
in mid-1863 at the Battle of Gettysburg, a battle which many believed changed the course of the war.
Other agents played important roles in the war despite working undercover. Mary Elizabeth Bowser and William Jackson were both
African American spies for the Union who managed, through their connections, to be hired as servants in the home of Jefferson Davis, the
Confederate president. Because they posed as common house servants, Confederate generals and politicians regularly talked about
matters of important strategy in their presence. The information they produced was so important that records of it were destroyed
immediately after the war to protect the pair’s safety.
In Virginia, a housekeeper named Mary Louveste worked in the home of an engineer who was working on the CSS Virginia, the
Confederacy’s first ironclad warship. This was significant because ironclads could easily defeat the Union’s wooden warships, which were
blockading many southern ports. Eventually, Louveste obtained a set of plans for the warship and relayed them to Naval Secretary Gideon
Welles. Using Louveste’s information, the Union hurried the construction of its own iron warship, and the two met in the famous Battle of
the Ironclads. Louveste’s information meant the CSS Virginia was defeated before it could do significant damage to northern shipping.
Even Harriet Tubman, whose Underground Railroad transported thousands of enslaved people to freedom, was pressed into service as a
spy. The Union recognized the value of Tubman’s network and asked her to collect information on Confederate forces in South
Carolina. General Hunter even had her accompany scout troops ahead of a successful Union ambush against Confederate forces in the area.
Spy work was done in secret and came with little glory, but it saved many lives and allowed many African Americans to play a vital role in
the fight for their freedom. Although the danger to troops on the front lines was more obvious, the work of African American spies was
every bit as important and dangerous. They too exposed themselves to extreme danger and provided invaluable service to the Union.
Think About It
One of the downsides of working as a spy is that the public only hears about failures, not about successes. If a spy succeeds, the deed
is usually not publicized. Do you think African American spies in the Civil War advanced the cause of African American equality, even
though few people knew about their actions? Were their efforts worth the risk? Why or why not? If you were in their shoes, would you
be willing to risk life and limb in such a dangerous job when so many in your own government and country were still deeply prejudiced?
The War's End and Aftermath
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Although the Union defeated the Confederacy, slavery still existed in the U.S. at war's end. General Robert E. Lee surrendered the main
Confederate Army on April 9, 1865, toGeneral Ulysses Grant. Over the next few months, all remaining rebel soldiers and territory came
under Union control. Because of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Union Army freed enslaved people in the conquered parts of the
South. However, the proclamation did not free people in the Union slave states. Slavery had already been outlawed in Maryland, but
freedom did not come to enslaved people in Kentucky and Delaware until the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified in December 1865.
Southern states were not immediately accepted into the Union but treated as occupied territories. However, the Union Army did not have
enough manpower to fully occupy the South. The terms of service for many soldiers who had enlisted at the start of the war were expiring
by 1865. Northern voters, families, and employers, ready to return life to normal, demanded that Union soldiers be returned home. Some
prominent white families even used political connections to speed this decision. Regiments of free African Americans from the North were
also disbanded.
As more white regiments were disbanded, Union generals decided to send African American troops to occupy parts of the South such as
Charleston, South Carolina. Part of their mission was to help protect recently freed African Americans. African American troops were
considered the best protection for newly freed enslaved people against hostile locals upset at the result of the war. Many of these troops
were from the areas they occupied, and they understood the places and people well. For many African Americans, army service was the
surest chance of employment they could get. As a result, many African American troops remained in occupation duty until 1867 or later.
The period after the war, before the old Confederate states were returned to the Union, became known as Reconstruction. At the time, no
one was certain what would happen to freed African Americans, nor was it clear how Southern states would be returned to the
Union. Abolitionists and African Americans wanted full equality, full rights to vote, and reparations for lost wages and labor. The Port Royal
Experiment, in which land was taken away from plantation holders, was one possible way of doing this. Some in the North wanted to
reconcile with the ruling wealthy elite of the South, but others wanted to punish them for the awful destruction of the conflict. The next
lesson will describe what happened both in the country and to African Americans during Reconstruction and afterwards.
African American Contributions in the War
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The Army of the James medal, known as the Butler Medal, was given to honor courageous African Americans fighting around Richmond, Virginia, in 1864. The
Latin motto reads, Freedom Will Come to Them by the Sword. New York Public Library
During the war, 178,795 African Americans had enlisted in the Union Army and more than 186,000 had served. About 100 more were
commissioned as officers. These African American soldiers formed 145 infantry regiments, seven cavalry regiments, and 14 regiments of
artillery and engineers. They composed about 8% of the 2.2 million men that made up the Union Army. Around 80% of the African American
troops came from rebel states. Most of these men had once been enslaved. African Americans fought rebel forces in more than 449
separate encounters, and 2,870 died on the battlefield. An additional 35,000 African Americans died from disease, a common fate during
the Civil War.
African American soldiers died at higher rates than white Union soldiers, despite the fact that African Americans had not been allowed to
serve for the first two years of the conflict. Many important reasons exist for this high casualty rate. African Americans often volunteered
for dangerous or deadly missions because they were highly motivated and eager to prove their ability to fight. Their officers were often
unsympathetic, and their medical care was often substandard compared to the rest of the army. Confederate forces were also more violent
toward African American soldiers, often killing them rather than taking them as prisoners.
The U.S. Navy kept no official count of its African American sailors. However, the best estimates claim that between 16% and 25% of the U.S.
Navy was composed of African Americans during the war. Therefore, between 19,000 and 29,000 African American sailors served in the
Civil War, and many of them were called to serve because of their sailing experience in peacetime. Of the 25 Medals of Honor awarded to
African Americans in the Civil War, seven were given to African American sailors.
After the war, African Americans who had fought for their freedom became strong advocates for civil rights and African American political
strength.
In Their Own Words
African American service in the Civil War was a source of both power and pride in the decades after the war. A letter from an African
American soldier describes the sense of empowerment he got from having fought for the Union:
The colored men have fought their battles, achieved their victories, and saved the Union. Now they say that we can't all live on
the same soil, and we will have to make some dispensation to dispense with the negro! Now, it will not do for our people to let
this thing go on without opposition, and I hope that all who see this will arouse to a sense of their duty, and look forward to see
what it is going to bring about, and find out if they are allowed the right to school funds, or allowed to poll a vote in favor of
candidates for state offices.
Edwin Redkey, A Grand Army of Black Men: Letters from African-American Soldiers in the Union Army, 1861-1865 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 268.
Lesson Review
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The Civil War was a major turning point in African American history. The war resulted in freedom for all enslaved people in the U.S. Finally
given the chance to fight for the North, African Americans proved their courage and skill in battle. African Americans fought and died in
hundreds of battles, on both land and at sea, to help preserve the Union. African Americans fought extremely hard, and sometimes to the
death, because of their belief in the cause.
While the Emancipation Proclamation did not immediately end the practice of slavery, it set in motion a chain of events that eventually led
to the freedom of all African Americans. The practice of enslavement, and with it the old racial order of the South, was partially destroyed
by the war. However, only after many years and much more sacrifice could African Americans finally claim true equality.
Practice Questions
Take some time to answer the following questions and to write your answers down in your notebook. Then click the "Check Your
Answer" button to see a suggested answer. Some of these questions may be asked in the submission for this lesson.
What happened in the Sea Islands of South Carolina during the Civil War?
Check Your Answer
Who immediately gained their freedom from the Emancipation Proclamation?
Check Your Answer
Imagine you are an abolitionist, such as Frederick Douglass, who has fought to end the practice of slavery. You learn about the details
of Lincoln's proposed Emancipation Proclamation. What parts of it do you disagree with?
Check Your Answer
What was the rebel policy toward captured African American soldiers? What effects did this policy have?
Check Your Answer
What were some of the accomplishments of African American soldiers and sailors in the Civil War?
Check Your Answer
What was the significance of the black dispatches to the Union war effort?
Check Your Answer
What challenges did African American soldiers in the Civil War encounter beyond those faced by white soldiers?
Check Your Answer
Suggested Reading
Trudeau, Noah Andre. Like Men of War: Black Troops in the Civil War, 1862–1865. Boston: Little, Brown, 1998. The most readable and
up-to-date account of African American soldiers in the Civil War.
Suggested Film
Glory. Directed by Edward Zwick. 1989. R. A moving Hollywood drama based upon the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, their
white commander, and their assault on Fort Wagner.
To Learn More
McPherson, James M. The Negro's Civil War: How American Blacks Felt and Acted During the War for the Union. New York, NY:
Vintage Books. 2003.
Ramold, Steven J. Slaves, Sailors, Citizens: African Americans in the Union Navy. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2002.
Redkey, Edwin S. A Grand Army of Black Men: Letters from African-American Soldiers in the Union Army, 1861-1865. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Rose, Willie Lee Nichols. Rehearsal for Reconstruction: The Port Royal Experiment. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1998.
Smith, John David. Black Soldiers in Blue: African American Troops in the Civil War Era. Chapel Hill, NC: UNC Press, 2002.
Speer, Lonnie R. Portals to Hell: Military Prisons of the Civil War. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1997.
Urwin, Gregory J. W. Black Flag over Dixie: Racial Atrocities and Reprisals in the Civil War. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University
Press, 2004.