When the Civil War began in 1861 there was little or no talk about freeing the nearly four million African American slaves in the South. The Northern cause was to preserve the Union and crush the southern Confederacy. When free Northern blacks showed up at recruiting stations they were told to go home. It was, they were told, a “white man’s war.”
But as casualties mounted, and there seemed to be no end in sight, attitudes changed. President Abraham Lincoln was an early convert to the idea of using African American troops. He had to play a delicate game, since he didn’t want pro-slavery Unionist men in border states like Kentucky to be offended and join the Confederacy. James M. McPherson’s The Civil War quotes Lincoln as saying “The bare sight of 50,000 armed and drilled black soldiers upon the banks of the Mississippi would end the rebellion at once.”
The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment
A number of all-black units were soon created, including a “Corps d’Afrique” in Union-occupied Louisiana. But perhaps the most famous of the early regiments was the 54th Massachusetts. It was raised by Governor John Andrew, but famed African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass played a major role in its recruitment. In fact, two of Douglass’s own sons served in the 54th.
The regiment's commissioned officers were all white, selected from among prominent anti-slavery abolitionist families. It's colonel was Robert Gould Shaw. The U.S. government backed the idea of white officers. It was usually argued that blacks didn’t have the education or “background” to be good military leaders. It was also, in part, a reflection of the latent racism that existed even in the North.
There were black commissioned officers during the war, but only a handful compared to what might have been. African American soldiers faced overt discrimination, including receiving less pay than white men; a situation partly rectified late in the war.
The Assault on Fort Wagner
In 1863 there was still some hesitation about using African Americans in combat. It was thought by some that blacks had been too “subservient” to whites for too many generations. Would they—particularly runaway slaves in the ranks—have the courage to fight southern whites?
The first real test was the Union attack on Fort (or Battery) Wagner, near Charleston, South Carolina on July 18, 1863. The 54th led the attack, supported by white regiments. The assault failed, but the black soldiers of the 54th had impressed all with their courage and determination. Casualties had been very high, with almost half the regiment dead and wounded. Sergeant William Harvey received the Medal of Honor for taking the U.S. flag and placing it on the Fort Wagner parapet before being forced to retire.
Fort Pillow Massacre
The Confederates were outraged that armed blacks would be used against them. It conjured up old fears of slave rebellions. Confederate President Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Congress threatened that Black soldiers and their white officers would be punished with enslavement or execution. That threat was not carried out, but during the course of the war there were several massacres of African-American troops by Confederate soldiers. Perhaps the most infamous was at Fort Pillow, Tennessee in 1864. After taking the fort, Confederates under General Nathan Bedford Forrest murdered many of the black garrison who attempted to surrender.
African-American Civil War Legacy
African American men also served in the U.S. Navy. Some were dock workers, coal haulers, and firemen, but others saw combat duty. About 180,000 blacks served the Union during the Civil War, roughly 10% of the overall total in uniform. In recent years there has been a renewed interest in the African-American contribution to the war, partly spurred by the 1989 movie Glory. This film, starring Denzel Washington, Matthew Broderick, and Morgan Freeman, tells the story of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment.
Sources:
James M McPherson, Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstuction (McGraw-Hill, 1992)
William J Miller and Brian C Pohanka, An Illustrated History of the Civil War (Time-Life, 2000)
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