On
15th April, 1861, Abraham Lincoln
called on the governors of the Northern states to provide 75,000 militia
to serve for three months to put down the insurrection. Some
states responded well to Lincoln's call for volunteers. The governor
of Pennsylvania offered 25 regiments, whereas Ohio provided 22. Most
men were encouraged to enlist by bounties offered by state governments.
This money attracted the poor and the unemployed. Many black Americans
also attempted to join the army. However, the War Department quickly
announced that it had "no intention to call into service of the
Government any coloured soldiers." Instead, black volunteers
were given jobs as camp attendants, waiters and cooks.
On 30th August, 1861, Major General John
C. Fremont, commander of the Union Army in St.
Louis, proclaimed that all slaves
owned by Confederates in Missouri were free. Abraham
Lincoln was furious
when he heard the news as he feared that this action would force slave-owners
in border states to help the Confederates. Lincoln asked Fremont to
modify his order and free only slaves owned by Missourians actively
working for the South. When Fremont refused, he was sacked and replaced
by General Henry Halleck.
In
May, 1862, General David Hunter began
enlisting black soldiers in the occupied districts
of South Carolina. He was ordered to disband the 1st South Carolina
(African Descent) but eventually got approval from Congress for his
action. Hunter also issued a statement that all slaves owned by Confederates
in the area were free. Abraham
Lincoln
quickly ordered Hunter to retract his proclamation as he still feared
that this action would force
slave-owners in border states to join the Confederates. However,
unlike the case of Major General John C.
Fremont in Missouri the previous year, Lincoln did not relieve
him of his duties.
In
January 1863 it was clear that state governors in the north could
not raise enough troops for the Union Army.
On 3rd March, the federal government passed the Enrollment
Act. This was the first example of conscription or compulsory
military service in United States history. The decision to allow men
to avoid the draft by paying $300 to hire a substitute, resulted in
the accusation that this was a rich man's war and a poor man's fight.
Abraham Lincoln was also now ready to
give his approval to the formation of black
regiments. He had objected in May, 1862, when General
David Hunter began enlisting black soldiers
into the 1st South Carolina (African Descent)
regiment. However, nothing was said when Hunter created two more black
regiments in 1863
and soon afterwards Lincoln began encouraging governors and generals
to enlist freed slaves.
John
Andrew, the governor
of Massachusetts, and a passionate opponent of slavery,
began recruiting black soldiers and established the 5th Massachusetts
(Colored) Cavalry Regiment and the 54th Massachusetts (Colored) and
the 55th Massachusetts
(Colored) Infantry
Regiments. In all, six regiments of US Colored Cavalry, eleven regiments
and four companies of US Colored Heavy Artillery, ten batteries of
the US Colored Light Artillery, and 100 regiments and sixteen companies
of US Colored Infantry were raised during the war. By the end of the
conflict nearly 190,000 black soldiers and sailors had served in the
Union forces.
(1)
In July, 1862, the War Department
decided that black soldiers would receive $7 a month, plus $3 for
clothing. This compared to the $13 a month, plus $3.50 for clothing
for white soldiers. On 28th September, 1863, Corporal James Henry
Gooding, a black soldier in the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, wrote
to Abraham
Lincoln
about this act of discrimination.
We appeal to you, sir, as
the executive of the nation, to have us justly dealt with. The regiment
do pray that they be assured their service will be fairly appreciated
by paying them as American soldiers, not as menial hirelings. Black
men, you may well know, are poor; $3 per month, for a year, will supply
their needy wives and little ones with fuel. If you, as chief magistrate
of the nation, will assure us of our whole pay, we are content. Our
patriotism, our enthusiasm will have a new impetus to exert our energy
more and more to aid our country. Not that our hearts ever flagged
in devotion, spite the evident apathy displayed on our behalf, but
we feel as though our country spurned us, now we are sworn to serve
her.
(2)
Benjamin F. Butler,
Autobiography and Reminiscences (1892)
In
the spring of 1863, I had another conversation with President Lincoln
upon the subject of the employment of negroes. The question was, whether
all the negro troops then enlisted and organized should be collected
together and made a part of the Army of the Potomac and thus reinforce
it.
We then talked of a favourite project he had of getting rid of the
negroes by colonization, and he asked me what I thought of it. I told
him that it was simply impossible; that the negroes would not go away,
for they loved their homes as much as the rest of us, and all efforts
at colonization would not make a substantial impression upon the number
of negroes in the country.
Reverting to the subject of arming the negroes, I said to him that
it might be possible to start with a sufficient army of white troops,
and, avoiding a march which might deplete their ranks by death and
sickness, to take in ships and land them somewhere on the Southern
coast. These troops could then come up through the Confederacy, gathering
up negroes, who could be armed at first with arms that they could
handle, so as to defend themselves and aid the rest of the army in
case of rebel charges upon it. In this way we could establish ourselves
down there with an army that would be a terror to the whole South.
(3)
Abraham
Lincoln, letter
to James C. Conking, defending his decision to emancipate slaves being
held in the Deep South (26th August, 1863)
I know, as fully as one can
know the opinions of others, that some of the commanders of our armies
in the field who have given us our most important successes believe
the emancipation policy and the use of the colored troops constitute
the heaviest blow yet dealt to the rebellion, and that at least one
of these important successes could not have been achieved when it
was but for the aid of black soldiers. Among the commanders holding
these views are some who have never had any affinity with what is
called Abolitionism or with the Republican Party politics, but who
hold them purely as military opinions.
(4)
Nelson
Miles, Personal
Recollections and Observations (1896)
The downfall of the Confederacy
left more than three million black people free under the Proclamation
of the President,
but without ground enough to stand upon. They were congregated in
large camps or remained in little slave-huts under the shadow of their
former masters' mansions, and continued to toil, in most cases with
the promise of some compensation. No one could tell what their status
would be in the future. The black population of the country had furnished
nearly two hundred thousand men who served in the Union army and navy,
and who performed their duty with fidelity and fortitude. Their dead
and wounded fell on many hard-fought fields, notwithstanding the threat
of the enemy, of no quarter for the officers and slavery for the men
in case of capture. Although at the close of the war many believed
that free labor would be a failure in the South, yet it has proved
a success. It has furnished the principal labor element in those States
for the development of the great resources of that part of our country.
No one can tell what is to be the future of a race that has nearly
trebled its numbers in
the last four decades, and in point of education, general intelligence,
and acquired property, has vastly exceeded its increase in numbers.
The great problem is yet to be solved, but its solution will be best
accomplished if absolute even-handed justice prevails. The race is
not responsible for its being here, nor for its present condition.
Its future will depend largely upon its own people.
(5)
Harper's Weekly, (30th
April, 1864)
On the 12th
April, the rebel General Forrest appeared before Fort Pillow, near
Columbus, Kentucky, attacking it with considerable vehemence. This
was followed up by frequent demands for its surrender, which were
refused by Major Booth, who commanded the fort. The fight was then
continued up until 3 p.m., when Major Booth was killed, and the rebels,
in large numbers, swarmed over the intrenchments. Up to that time
comparatively few of our men had been killed; but immediately upon
occupying the place the rebels commenced an indiscriminate butchery
of the whites and blacks, including the wounded. Both white and black
were bayoneted, shot, or sabred; even dead bodies were horribly mutilated,
and children of seven and eight years, and several negro women killed
in cold blood. Soldiers unable to speak from wounds were shot dead,
and their bodies rolled down the banks into the river. The dead and
wounded negroes were piled in heaps and burned, and several citizens,
who had joined our forces for protection, were killed or wounded.
Out of the garrison of six hundred only two hundred remained alive.
Three hundred of those massacred were negroes; five were buried alive.
Six guns were captured by the rebels, and carried off, including tow
10-pound Parrotts, and two 12-pound howitzers. A large amount of stores
was destroyed or carried away.
(6)
Harper's
Weekly, (18th February, 1865)
With a fine tact of simple
honesty the President, in his little speech at the opening of the
Fair in Baltimore, said exactly what we all wished to hear. The massacre
at Fort Pillow had raised the question in every mind, does the United
States mean to allow its soldiers to be butchered in cold blood? The
President replies, that whoever is good enough to fight for us is
good enough to be protected by us: and that in this case, when the
facts are substantiated, there shall be retaliation. In what way we
can retaliate it is not easy to say.
There is no evidence from Richmond, and there will be none, that Forrest’s
murders differ from those of Quantrell. On the other hand, we must
not forget that the same papers which brought the President’s
speech promising retaliation brought us also the return of the rebel
General in Florida, containing, for the relief of friends at home,
the names and injuries of our wounded men in his hands, and the list
included the colored soldiers of the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth
Massachusetts regiments. But if public opinion has justified a stronger
policy from the beginning - if the criminally stupid promises of M’Clellan
and Halleck to protect slavery and to repel the negroes coming to
our lines had never been made, we should not now be confronted with
this question, because the rebels would never have dared to massacre
our soldiers after surrender. But yet to be deterred from retaliation
from fear of still further crimes upon the part of the rebels is simple
inhumanity.
Let us either at once release every colored soldier and the officer
of their regiments from duty, or make the enemy feel that they are
our soldiers. It is very sad that rebel prisoners of war should be
shot for the crimes of Forrest. But it is very sad, no less, that
soldiers fighting for our flag have been buried alive after surrendering,
and it is still sadder that such barbarities should be encouraged
by refraining from retaliation. Do we mean to allow Mr. Jefferson
Davis, or this man Forrest, or Quantrell, to dictate who shall, and
who shall not, fight for the American flag? The massacre at Fort Pillow
is a direct challenge to our Government to prove whether it is in
earnest or not in emancipating slaves and employing colored troops.
There should be no possibility of mistake in the reply. Let the action
of the Government be as prompt and terrible as it will be final. Then
the battles of this campaign will begin with the clear conviction
upon the part of the rebels that we mean what we say; and that the
flag will protect to the last, and by every means of war, including
retaliation of blood, every soldier who fights for us beneath it.
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