African Americans in the Civil War

1
African Americans in theCivil War

• A Timeline

2
November 6, 1860

• Lincoln is elected president.

3
December 10, 1860

• South Carolina is first state to secede.

4
February 9, 1861

• Confederate States unite under Jefferson Davis.

5
March 2, 1861

• Congress adopts and sends to the states a "Joint
  Resolution to amend the Constitution of the
  United States" as a signal that the federal
  government has no intention of eliminating
  slavery.

6
March 4, 1861

• Lincoln is sworn in as president. In his first
  inaugural,
• Lincoln states I have no purpose, directly or
  indirectly, to interfere with the institution of
  slavery in the States where it exists. I believe
  I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no
  inclination to do so.

7
April 12, 1861

• Fort Sumter is attacked.

8
June 8, 1861

• General Butler declares slaves who come within
  Union lines at Fortress Monroe "contrabands of
  war."

9
July 21, 1861

• Battle of Bull Run

10
July 22, 1861

• Congress issues a "Joint Resolution on the War"
  declaring that the war is being fought to
  preserve the union rather than to destroy
  slavery.

11
August 6, 1861

• Congress passes the "Confiscation Acts."
• This forgives slaves who had fought or worked for
  confederate army.
• It also releases them of further obligations to
  their masters.
• Authorized union forces to seize rebel
  property, meaning slaves.

12
August 30, 1861

• General Fremont extends freedom to all slaves
  owned by Confederates in Missouri.
• Lincoln later overturns this decision and removes
  Freemont from command.

13
December 1, 1861

• Secretary of the Treasury, Simon Cameron issues a
  revised version of his annual report after
  Lincoln requires the deletion of passages calling
  for emancipation and arming of the slaves.

14
March 13, 1862

• Congress adopts an additional act of war,
  declaring "All officers or persons in the
  military or naval service of the United States
  are prohibited from employing any of the forces
  under their respective commands for the purpose
  of returning fugitives from service or labor, who
  may have escaped from any persons to whom such
  service or labor is claimed to be due, and any
  officer who shall be found guilty by a
  court-martial of violating this article shall be
  dismissed from the service."

15
March 6, 1862

• Lincoln sends A Message to Congress Requesting a
  Joint Resolution on Compensated Emancipation.

16
April, 1862

• On April 10 Congress passes a joint resolution
  declaring it will "cooperate" 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.
• On April 16 "Lincoln signs the the "Compensated
  Emancipation Act,"guaranteeing 300 dollars for
  each slave liberated by loyal union masters in
  the District of Columbia to release their slaves.
  Slaves who agreed to emigrate outside the country
  are paid up to 100 each. This is the only
  program of compensated emancipation put into
  practice in the U.S.

17
May 9, 1862

• General Hunter issues "General Order No. 11"
  declaring martial law in Florida, Georgia, and
  South Carolina and freeing slaves in those
  states. In the same month, Hunter begins
  recruiting African-American soldiers for his "1st
  South Carolina" regiment.

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May 19, 1862

• Lincoln revokes General Hunter's May 9
  proclamation.

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July 17, 1862

• Congress adopts the Second Confiscation Act. It
  includes a section stating "That no slave
  escaping into any State, Territory, or the
  District of Columbia, from any other State, shall
  be delivered up, or in any way impeded or
  hindered of his liberty, except for crime, or
  some offence against the laws, unless the person
  claiming said fugitive shall first make oath that
  the person to whom the labor or service of such
  fugitive is alleged to be due is his lawful
  owner, and has not borne arms against the United
  States in the present rebellion, nor in any way
  given aid and comfort thereto . . . ." The same
  act establishes that slaves of traitors "shall be
  declared and made free."
• On the same day, Congress also passes the Militia
  Act of 1862. This authorizes the president "to
  receive into the service of the United States,
  for the purpose of constructing entrenchments, or
  performing camp service, or any other labor, or
  any military or naval service for which they may
  be found competent, persons of African descent,
  and such persons shall be enrolled and organized
  under such regulations, not inconsistent with the
  Constitution and laws, as the President may
  prescribe."

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July, 1862

• General John W. Phelps begins equipping "three
  regiments of Africans" in Louisiana but resigns
  after meeting with objections from his superior,
  General Butler.

August 22, 1862

• General Butler, needing reinforcements,
  authorizes the recruiting of black soldiers in
  New Orleans

21
August 22, 1862

• Horace Greeley publishes "A Prayer for Twenty
  Thousand" in the New York Tribune, taking Lincoln
  to task for his rejection of Hunter's
  emancipation attempts.

22
August 25, 1862

• Abraham Lincoln responds to Greeley with an open
  letter in the New York Times entitled,
  "Emancipation or Preservation of the Union?"
• He asserts "My paramount object in this struggle
  is to save the Union, and is not either to save
  or to destroy slavery."

23
September 23, 1862

• The Emancipation Proclamation is published.

24
September 27, 1862

• The 1st Regiment, Louisiana Native Guards,
  becomes the first black regiment to be officially
  mustered into the Union Army.

25
January 1, 1863

• The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect.
• President Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation
  declared, "that all persons held as slaves"
  within the rebellious states "are, and
  henceforward shall be free."

26
March 3, 1863

• Lincoln signs the Conscription Act of 1863
  instituting a draft for males between the ages of
  twenty and forty-five.
• Exemptions from the draft could be bought for
  300 or by finding a substitute draftee. This
  clause led to bloody draft riots in New York
  City, where protesters were outraged that
  exemptions were effectively granted only to the
  wealthiest citizens.

27
March 21, 1863

• Frederick Douglass writes Men of Color, To
  Arms! urging African-Americans to enlist.
• The case is before you. This is our golden
  opportunity. Let us accept it, and forever wipe
  out the dark reproaches unsparingly hurled
  against us by our enemies. Let us win for
  ourselves the gratitude of our country, and the
  best blessings of our posterity through all time

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May 22, 1863

• General Order 143 creates the Bureau of Colored
  Troops is created to recruit and organize black
  regiments.
• Three or more field officers will be detailed as
  Inspectors to supervise the organization of
  colored troops at such points as may be indicated
  by the War Department in the Northern and Western
  States.

29
May 27, 1863

• Black troops participate in the successful attack
  on Port Hudson, opening the Mississippi to Union
  shipping from the source of the river all the way
  to New Orleans. Included in the fighting were the
  First and Third Louisiana Native Guards The
  First Louisiana Engineers, Corps d'Afrique and,
  the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and Tenth
  Infantry, Corps d'Afrique.

30
June 7, 1863

• African-American soldiers fight in the Battle of
  Millikens Bend. A fort garrisoned by only three
  black regiments successfully defends against an
  attack which includes intense hand-to-hand
  fighting with bayonets and clubs.
• Charles Dana, assistant secretary of war,
  comments "The bravery of the blacks completely
  revolutionized the sentiment of the army with
  regard to the employment of Negro troops."

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July 13, 1863

• The New York Draft Riots begin.
• Rioters joined together and destroyed the office
  of the Provost Marshal responsible for
  conscription. They then turned their violence
  upon others including many free blacks who lived
  in the city. More than 100 were killed and
  property damage was about 1 million.

32
July 18, 1863

• 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry leads the
  attack on Fort Wagner, South Carolina and loses
  two-thirds of their officers and half their
  troops.

33
April 12, 1864

• Confederate General Nathan Forrest captures Fort
  Pillow in Tennessee.
• There were 262 African American and 295 white
  soldiers. Only 62 of the black soldiers survive.
• An inquiry after the war concludes that, "the
  Confederates were guilty of atrocities which
  included murdering most of the garrison after it
  surrendered, burying Negro soldiers alive, and
  setting fire to tents containing Federal
  wounded."
• Forest goes on to become the first imperial
  wizard of the Ku Klux Clan.

34
April 18, 1864

• At Poison Spring, Arkansas, members of the 1st
  Kansas Colored Volunteers who are wounded or wish
  to surrender are shot by the Confederates.
• "Remember Poison Spring" became a rallying cry
  for black troops.

35
June 15, 1864

• Congress raises the pay of black soldiers to make
  it equal to that of whites.

36
March 3, 1865

• Congress passes Resolution to encourage
  Enlistments and to promote the Efficiency of the
  military Forces of the United States,
  emancipating the wives and children of
  African-American soldiers.

                                                
                                                  
                         A slave family in South
Carolina, 1862. Photo courtesy Library of
Congress.
37
March 13, 1865

• The Confederacy approves arming slaves as
  soldiers, as long as their masters approve.

38
April 2, 1865

• Richmond falls.
• After the Confederate troops leave, much of the
  city destroyed by fires set by retreating
  soldiers and rioting and looting by remaining
  population.

39
April 9, 1865

• Civil War ends.
• Over 186,000 African-Americans had served in the
  Union army
• More than 38,000 had died.

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More Information

• http//mac110.assumption.edu/aas/Intros/soldiers.h
  tml
• Or
• http//www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001303.
  shtml