African American Military Records: Difference between revisions

*'''1840-1883''' [https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62196/ U.S., Confederate Army Payrolls for Enslaved Labor, 1840-1883] at Ancestry - index & images ($)

*[https://iaamcfh.omeka.net/s/IAAM_CFH/page/usct-pension-applications United States Colored Troops Pension Applications] at  International African American Museum's Center for Family History

In general, white soldiers and officers believed that Black men lacked the ability to fight and fight well. In October 1862, African American soldiers of the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers silenced their critics by repulsing attacking Confederates at the Battle of Island Mound, Missouri. By August 1863, 14 Negro Regiments were in the field and ready for service. At the Battle of Port Hudson, Louisiana, May 27, 1863, the African American soldiers bravely advanced over open ground in the face of deadly artillery fire. Although the attack failed, the Black soldiers proved their capability to withstand the heat of battle.  

On July 17, 1863, at Honey Springs, Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, the 1st Kansas Colored fought with courage again. Union troops under General James G. Blunt ran into a strong Confederate force under General Douglas H. Cooper. After a two-hour bloody engagement, Cooper's soldiers retreated. The 1st Kansas, which had held the center of the Union line, advanced to within fifty paces of the Confederate line and exchanged fire for some twenty minutes until the Confederates broke and ran. General Blunt wrote after the battle, "I never saw such fighting as was done by the Negro regiment....The question that negroes will fight is settled; besides they make better solders in every respect than any troops I have ever had under my command."  

The most widely known battle fought by African Americans was the assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina, by the 54th Massachusetts Infantry on July 18, 1863. The 54th volunteered to lead the assault on the strongly fortified Confederate positions. The soldiers of the 54th scaled the fort's parapet and were only driven back after brutal hand-to-hand combat. Despite the defeat, the unit was hailed for its valor which spurred further African American recruitment, giving the Union a numerical military advantage from a population the Confederacy did not dare exploit in that fashion until the closing days of the war.  

Although Black soldiers proved themselves as reputable soldiers, discrimination in pay and other areas remained widespread. According to the Militia Act of 1862, soldiers of African descent were to receive $10.00 a month, plus a clothing allowance of $3.50. Many regiments struggled for equal pay, some refusing any money until June 15, 1864, when Congress granted equal pay for all Black soldiers.  

African American soldiers participated in every major campaign of 1864–1865 except Sherman's Atlanta Campaign in Georgia. The year 1864 was especially eventful for African American troops. On April 12, 1864, at Battle of Fort Pillow, Tennessee, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest led his 2,500 men against the Union-held fortification, occupied by 292 Black and 285 white soldiers. After driving in the Union pickets and giving the garrison an opportunity to surrender, Forrest's men swarmed into the fort with little difficulty and drove the Federals down the river's bluff into a deadly crossfire. Casualties were high and only sixty-two of the [[United States Colored Troops in the Civil War|U.S. Colored Troops survived]] the fight. Many accused the Confederates of perpetrating a massacre of Black troops, and the controversy continues today. The battle cry for the Negro soldier east of the Mississippi River became "Remember Fort Pillow!"  

The propaganda which sprang from the allegations of a "massacre" at Fort Pillow was useful in convincing United States Colored Troops to become suicide forces which entered battle shouting "No quarter! No quarter!," never surrendered and who themselves perpetrated murders of surrendered Confederate forces in Florida and at Fort Blakley, Alabama, on April 9, 1865, at which battle they also shot two white Union officers who tried to stop them, killing one.  

An 1864 investigation of Fort Pillow engaged in wholesale fabrication of "evidence" and included assertions that Black women and children had been murdered by Forrest's forces when there were no women or children present at Fort Pillow. A later 1871 Congressional investigation conducted during Reconstruction by Radical Republicans concluded that there was no evidence of a "massacre" and stated that there were "isolated incidents along the riverbank" which Forrest stopped immediately upon his arrival.  

The barracks Forrest's men were accused of burning were actually burned under orders by a Union officer. Lieutenant Daniel Van Horn, Sixth U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery, whose report is contained in the Federal Official Records, documented that Lieutenant John D. Hill, U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery, set fire to the barracks under orders of the Union commanding officer.  

Forrest took 39 [[United States Colored Troops in the Civil War|United States Colored Troops]] (USCT) as POWs and sent them up the chain of command. Forrest even transferred the 14 most seriously wounded USCT to the U.S. Steamer Silver Cloud where they could get better care than that which he could provide.  

Allegations of a "massacre" continue to be controversial because historians remain either willfully or blissfully unaware of the Federal Official Records and the 1871 Congressional investigation conclusion.  

Christian Fleetwood at The Battle of Chaffin's Farm, Virginia became one of the most heroic engagements involving African Americans. On September 29, 1864, the African American division of the Eighteenth Corps, after being pinned down by Confederate artillery fire for about 30 minutes, charged the earthworks and rushed up the slopes of the heights. During the hour-long engagement the division suffered tremendous casualties. Of the twenty-five African Americans who were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Civil War, fourteen received the honor as a result of their actions at Chaffin's Farm.  

Soldiers who fought in the Army of the James were eligible for the Butler Medal, commissioned by that army's commander, Benjamin Butler.  

In actual numbers, African American soldiers comprised 10 percent of the entire Union Army. Losses among African Americans were high, and from all reported casualties, approximately one-third of all African Americans enrolled in the military lost their lives during the Civil War.  

Blacks, both free and enslaved, were also heavily involved in assisting the Union in matters of intelligence, and their contributions were labelled, Black Dispatches.  

'''Additional Sources'''<br>

*''Black Soldiers in Blue: African American Troops in the Civil War Era.'' By John David Smith. North Carolina, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.  {{WorldCat|49529915|item|disp= At various libraries - (WorldCat)}}   

'''Confederate States Army'''<br>  

Because of the controversial nature of the subject, the debate over how many African Americans served in Confederate uniform, and how many of them served willingly and without coercion is contentious. One estimate by Ed Smith of American University suggests that between 60,000 and 93,000 Blacks, both free and enslaved, served in the Confederate military in some capacity; however, the vast majority of these were likely teamsters, cooks, musicians, and hospital attendants.  

"Almost fifty years before the (Civil) War, the South was already enlisting and utilizing Black manpower, including Black commissioned officers, for the defense of their respective states. Therefore, the fact that free and enslaved Black Southerners served and fought for their states in the Confederacy cannot be considered an unusual instance, rather continuation of an established practice with verifiable historical precedence." <ref>''The African-American Soldier: From Crispus Attucks to Colin Powell'', by Lt. Col (retired) Michael Lee Lanning, Birch Lane Press (June 1997).</ref>  

There were many recorded instances of combat service of Black Confederates which can be found in the Federal Official Records, Northern and Southern newspapers and the letters and diaries of soldiers from both sides. In addition, there are recorded instances of Black Southerners serving as regularly enlisted combat soldiers before the Union allowed enlistment of Blacks.  

Elgin (Illinois) Daily Courier-News, Monday, April 12, 1948 - "Robert (Uncle Bob) Wilson, Negro veteran of the Confederate army who observed his 112th birthday last January 13, died early yesterday morning in the veterans' hospital at the Elgin State hospital.... He enlisted as a private in Company H of the 16th regiment of Virginia Infantry on October 9, 1862, and discharged May 31, 1863."  

For most of the war, the Confederate Government prohibited the enlistment of African Americans as armed soldiers in the national army, but the states and individual units often varied from or ignored outright such prohibitions since there were actually very few "national army" regiments at any time during the war with most military units still under state command on loan to the Confederate government.  

The keywords in discussing "official Confederate policy" regarding Black soldiers are "national army." States still controlled their military policies within the Confederate command structure but, unlike the Union, did not surrender total control of their forces as part of a "national army."  

The Confederate Congress authorized salaries for Black musicians in 1862, stating "whenever colored persons are employed as musicians in any regiment or company, they shall be entitled to the same pay now allowed by law to musicians regularly enlisted."  

Some individual states in the Confederacy permitted free Blacks to enlist as soldiers in their state militias continuing a longstanding tradition. The first to do so was Tennessee, which passed a law on June 21, 1861, authorizing the recruitment of state militia units composed of Free People of Color between the ages of 15 and 50. Louisiana, which had a sizable free Black population, followed suit and assembled the all-Black 1st Louisiana Native Guard. This regiment was later forced to disband in February 1862 when the state legislature passed a law in January 1862, that reorganized the militia by conscripting "all the free white males capable of bearing arms… irrespective of nationality."  

Captured Union African American soldiers, however, were not treated with equality by Confederate troops as white troops. It is a popularly held folk legend unsupported by documentation that those who were captured were summarily put to death along with any white Union officers who were captured having led them into battle - this was a policy stated, but not put into practice - by the Confederacy. In reality, Black Union soldiers who were captured were treated as enslaved runaways and, if their slaveholders could be located, returned to them. If the slaveholders could not be located, they were put to work to support the Confederate war effort.  

Alabama authorized the enlistment of "mixed blood" creoles in 1862 for a state militia unit in Mobile.  

Black Southerners served as combat soldiers often with some of the most celebrated and feared Confederate commands and commanders: <br>

In the Federal Official Records, Series I, Vol XVI Part I, pg. 805, Lt. Col. Parkhurst's Report (Ninth Michigan Infantry) on General Forrest's attack at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, July 13, 1862 in the following: "The forces attacking my camp were the First Regiment Texas Rangers [8th Texas Cavalry, Terry's Texas Rangers, ed.], Colonel Wharton, and a battalion of the First Georgia Rangers, Colonel Morrison, and a large number of citizens of Rutherford County, many of whom had recently taken the oath of allegiance to the United States Government. There were also many Negroes attached to the Texas and Georgia troops, who were armed and equipped, and took part in the several engagements with my forces during the day."  

In January 1864, General Patrick Cleburne and several other Confederate officers in the Army of the Tennessee proposed using enslaved persons as soldiers in the national army since the Union was using Black troops. Cleburne recommended offering the enslaved their freedom if they fought and survived. Confederate President Jefferson Davis refused to consider Cleburne's proposal and forbade further discussion of the idea.  

The concept, however, did not die. By the fall of 1864, the South was losing more and more ground, and some believed that only by arming the enslaved, could defeat be averted. On January 11, 1865, General Robert E. Lee wrote the Confederate Congress urging them to arm and enlist enslaved Blacks in exchange for their freedom. On March 13, the Confederate Congress passed General Order 14, and President Davis signed the order into law. The order was issued March 23, 1865, but only a few African American companies were raised. Two companies were armed and drilled in the streets of Richmond, Virginia shortly before the besieged southern capital fell.  

Despite popular legend, there is documentary evidence that they did see limited combat service:  

*Richmond Sentinel, March 21, 1865 - "THE BATTALION from Camps Winder and Jackson, under the command of Dr. Chambliss, including the company of colored troops under Captain Grimes, will parade on the square on Wednesday evening, at 4 o’clock. This is the first company of negro troops raised in Virginia. It was organized about a month since, by Dr. Chambliss, from the employees of the hospitals, and served on the lines during the recent Sheridan raid."  

:*''Report of the General Superintendent of Freedmen],''Unites States Army Dept. of the Tennessee, General Superintendent of Freedmen. Memphis, Tennessee: n.p., 1865. '''''Online at:''''' [https://www.archive.org/details/reportofgenerals02unit Internet Archive]

:*''Cheerful Yesterdays '' Thomas Wentworth Higginson. New York, Arno Press, 1968, 374 pages. Series: The American Negro; his history and literature. {{WorldCat|274064|item|disp= and at various libraries (WorldCat)}}; '''''Online at:''''' [http://books.google.com/books?id=_9M3AAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Cheerful+yesterdays&hl=en&ei=kFOaTczdAcbfiAKeorSdCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false GoogleBooks], [https://www.archive.org/details/cheerfulyesterd00higggoog Internet Archive.]

''' National Archives '''  

*[https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7970737 A&IGO -- Register of Slaves Impressed, 1864-1865.] RG 109 War Department Collection of Confederate Records. NAID 7970737, National Archives Catalog.