At the beginning of Civil War, African Americans men who were free dashed to volunteer for service with the Union armed forces. Even though Blacks had taken part in the navy and army in the times of American Revolution as well as in the battle of 1812, they were not permitted to register due to the 1792 regulation that did not allow them to have guns in the United States Army (Chotkowski, 2014). President Abraham Lincoln as well feared that allowing black men into the military could lead to border states such as Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland seceding. At long last, free African Americans men were allowed to register late in 1862 as a result of the ratification of the Second Confiscation together with the Militia Act. The ratification of the Second Confiscation alongside the Militia Act ensured slaves who had skills in the Confederate Army were free. President Lincoln then signed Emancipation Declaration. In 1863, the establishment of the Bureau of Colored Troops took place to succeed blacks who had registered (Taylor, 2015). There was a shortfall in recruitment until active determinations were made to register African Americans volunteers. Fredrick Douglas, a leader, inspired black men to volunteer as a means of ensuring full citizenship.
The first official African Americans regiments and selected colored troops were recruits from Tennessee, S. Carolina, and Massachusetts. In S. Carolina, the troops were regulated by the Union. In May 1863, the formation of Corps d’ Afrique, Louisiana by Gen. Nathanial Banks, the Union major took place. The general intended for it to comprise of infantry, 18 regiments, cavalry, and artillery, with mobile hospitals and engineers.
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African American Union soldiers were not treated equally neither did they receive equal pay. The Black Union combatants have remunerated 10 dollars a month, with 3 dollars withheld for clothing while their counterpart white combatants were remunerated 13 dollars a month and there was no clothing deduction. By 1864, the Congress established the retroactive equal pay for both the African Americans and White troops (Washington, & Army, 2014). Racial prejudice in the North was prevalent, and African American was not usually treated equally by white troops (Miller, 2015). Moreover, units of segregation were created with African American registered men ordered by white generals as well as black non-commissioned generals. Certain white generals were of no views of their colored soldiers and did not sufficiently train them.
Both Black units together with soldiers who were captured by Confederates were treated harshly as opposed to white prisoner of war (Delgado, & Stefancic, 2017). The Confederate Conference in 1863 threatened to punish black troops’ Union officers as well as enslave African Americans Union combatants. In reaction, Lincoln dispensed General Order 233. He threatened reprisal against the Confederate POWs. In Tennessee, at the Battle of Fort Pillow, on April 12 th , 1864, the disordered Union garrison of nearly 600 men and about 300 who were black suffered almost 575 casualties. The casualties were due to the attack by Confederate cavalry led by Gen. Nathan. According to the Northern press, the war was known as a massacre in, and it was said that the black combatants who tried to surrender were massacred. As other sources identified, the Union soldiers and their commander did not surrender. But, the exact events that took place at Fort Pillow are still controversial to date, driven by the pre-war occupation by Forrest as a slave trader and his post-war relationship with the Ku Klux Klan (Foner, 1983).
African Americans soldiers were instrumental in the Battle of the Crater at the time the cordon of Petersburg in Virginia. The soldiers created an important portion of the Union force at the time of the Battle of Nashville (Lair, 2016). By the time the battle came to a stop, some 179,000 African American men had served in the Union Army (Lasch-Quinn, 2017). The number of black soldiers represented 10 percent in sum. About 20,000 more were recruited in the navy. Almost 40,000 died and ¾ of them as a result of infections or disease.
The environment of the African American leaders in the military has been in progress and growth. To be a leader in the military means understanding that it is not about the leader himself rather the great people under the leadership. Thus, everyone can achieve their dream no matter the circumstances as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. puts it, “ I have a dream ” while former president Barack Obama confirms it, “ Yes We Can !”, which finally saw him become the President of the United States of America.
References
Chotkowski, S. E. (2014). We need a good war: factors that influence the experience of racism in the United States military (Master’s Thesis). Smith College, Northampton, MA, US.
Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (2017). Critical race theory: An introduction . New York, NY: NYU Press.
Foner, E. (1983). The new view of reconstruction. American Heritage , 34 , 10-15.
Lair, H. (2016). Whose needs does service serve? Complicating the citizen soldier narrative (Honors Project). Macalester College, Saint Paul MN, US.
Lasch-Quinn, E. (2017). Black neighbors: Race and the limits of reform in the American settlement house movement, 1890-1945 . North Carolina, CA: UNC Press Books.
Miller, R. M. (2015). “What Shall We Do with the Negro?” Lincoln, White Racism, and Civil War America . Virginia VA: University of Virginia Press.
Taylor, B. M. (2015). " To make the Union what it ought to be": African Americans, Civil War military service, and citizenship . Washington, DC: Georgetown University.
Washington, G., & Army, C. (2014). The American Revolution: 1775-1783 . Vol. II. Boston: Little, Brown.
