The War Department issued General Order 143 on May 22, 1863, creating the United States Colored Troops. By the end of the Civil War, roughly 179,000 black men (10 percent of the Union Army) served as soldiers in the U.S. Army, and another 19,000 served in the Navy.
The issues of emancipation and military service were intertwined from the onset
of the Civil War. News from Fort Sumter set off a rush by free black men to
enlist in U.S. military units. They were turned away, however, because a Federal
law dating from 1792 barred Negroes from bearing arms for the U.S. Army. In
Boston disappointed would-be volunteers met and passed a resolution requesting
that the Government modify its laws to permit their enlistment.
The Lincoln administration wrestled with the idea of authorizing the recruitment
of black troops, concerned that such a move would prompt the border states to
secede. When Gen. John C. Frémont in Missouri and Gen. David Hunter in
South Carolina issued proclamations that emancipated slaves in their military
regions and permitted them to enlist, their superiors sternly revoked their
orders. By mid-1862, however, the escalating number of former slaves (contrabands),
the declining number of white volunteers, and the pressing personnel needs of
the Union Army pushed the Government into reconsidering the ban.
As a result, on July 17, 1862, Congress passed the Second Confiscation and
Militia Act, freeing slaves who had masters in the Confederate Army. Two days
later, slavery was abolished in the territories of the United States, and on
July 22 President Lincoln presented the preliminary draft of the Emancipation
Proclamation to his Cabinet. After the Union Army turned back Lee's first invasion
of the North at Antietam, MD, and the Emancipation Proclamation was subsequently
announced, black recruitment was pursued in earnest. Volunteers from South Carolina,
Tennessee, and Massachusetts filled the first authorized black regiments. Recruitment
was slow until black leaders such as Frederick Douglass encouraged black men
to become soldiers to ensure eventual full citizenship. (Two of Douglass's own
sons contributed to the war effort.) Volunteers began to respond, and in May
1863 the Government established the Bureau of Colored Troops to manage the burgeoning
numbers of black soldiers.
Nearly 40,000 black soldiers died over the course of the war—30,000 of
infection or disease. Black soldiers served in artillery and infantry and performed
all noncombat support functions that sustain an army as well. Black carpenters,
chaplains, cooks, guards, laborers, nurses, scouts, spies, steamboat pilots,
surgeons, and teamsters also contributed to the war cause. There were nearly
80 black commissioned officers. Black women, who could not formally join the
Army, nonetheless served as nurses, spies, and scouts, the most famous being
Harriet Tubman, who scouted for the 2nd South Carolina Volunteers.
For additional information, see Teaching With Documents Lesson Plan: The Fight
for Equal Rights: Black Soldiers in the Civil War.
