African Americans
in the
Civil War
A Timeline
November 6, 1860
 Lincoln is elected
president.
December 10, 1860
 South Carolina is first
state to secede.
February 9, 1861
 Confederate States
unite under Jefferson
Davis.
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.
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.”
April 12, 1861
 Fort Sumter is
attacked.
June 8, 1861
 General Butler declares slaves
who come within Union lines
at Fortress Monroe
"contrabands of war."
July 21, 1861
 Battle of Bull Run
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
March 6, 1862
 Lincoln sends A Message to
Congress Requesting a Joint
Resolution on Compensated
Emancipation.
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.
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.
May 19, 1862
 Lincoln revokes
General Hunter's May
9 proclamation.
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."
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
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.
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."
September 23, 1862
 The Emancipation
Proclamation is
published.
September 27, 1862
 The 1st Regiment, Louisiana Native Guards, becomes the first black
regiment to be officially mustered into the Union Army.
January 1, 1863
 The Emancipation
Proclamation takes effect.
 President Lincoln’s
Emancipation Proclamation
declared, "that all persons held
as slaves" within the rebellious
states "are, and henceforward
shall be free."
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.
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…”
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.”
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.
June 7, 1863
 African-American soldiers
fight in the Battle of Milliken’s
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
June 15, 1864
 Congress raises the pay of
black soldiers to make it equal
to that of whites.
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 AfricanAmerican soldiers.
A slave family in South Carolina, 1862.
Photo courtesy Library of Congress.
March 13, 1865
 The Confederacy approves
arming slaves as soldiers, as
long as their masters approve.
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.
April 9, 1865
 Civil War ends.
 Over 186,000 AfricanAmericans had served in the
Union army
 More than 38,000 had died.
More Information
http://mac110.assumption.edu/aas/Intros/soldiers.html
Or
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001303.shtml