Corps d’Afrique
A painful evolution to prove valor
“Negroes” into the Union Army
When the Civil War broke out, Northerners and Southerners were unsure what the slaves might do. The top questions were:
Will they rebel?
Both sides feared insurrection. The Union’s number one goal was the restoration of the Union. There was no driving requirement to interfere with slavery at the outset. Lincoln himself said that. Union generals worked hard to prevent insurrection. Escaping slaves got through Union lines in massive numbers, yet the reality was the North did not welcome them with open arms. The Confederacy was generally able to use slaves to its benefit because they were considered property. So it used them to build fortifications, dig latrines, haul supplies, and protect property. They were also used in factories because of the shortage of white manpower. Over time, this would create quite a bit of independence among many slaves.
Did they want their freedom?
Most slaves remained on the plantations, finding ways to work more slowly. For many reasons, they increased their resistance, found ways to escape, and increasingly refused to obey orders. For its part, especially with the fall of New Orleans, the North was not prepared for mass defections and had no plans for caring for the escapees. So they were sent to camps to work for the Union, much as the Confederacy had done. President Lincoln himself was befuddled by what to do with them. He ended up issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, which, in Civil War terms, made this a war of liberation from the perspective of the former slaves. But that would not be issued until 1863.
Would they fight for their freedom?
There was no question about it. Former slaves were eager to fight for the Union and their freedom. Some, perhaps many Union soldiers felt that if they were to die for the freedom of the slaves, then let the slaves die for that freedom as well. The bottom line, however, was that the Union needed the manpower urgently. It turned out the Confederacy learned that lesson, too, but probably too late. In fact, some from both sides preferred the blacks to go to war as a way to save white lives.
What would they do with their freedom should they get it?
As events turned out, the former slaves knew what to do with their freedom, but they were inhibited by white Americans, North and South, a problem that remains today.
The net result was that the Union and the Confederacy were unsure how to handle the slaves.
I will draw from a detailed paper presented by the Lehrmann Institute, “Black Soldiers,” to get started. I commend the paper to you.
Viewed at a top level, historian John Hope Franklin wrote that at the beginning of the Civil War,
“When Negroes rushed to offer their services to the Union, they were rejected. In almost every town of any size, there were large numbers of Negroes who sought service in the Union army; failing to be enlisted, they bided their time and did whatever they could to assist.”
Historian Susan-Mary Grant wrote that blacks in the North heeded the call to enlist but found they were not needed. Some were told the war was a “white man’s fight” and “there was no role for them.”
Historian Benjamin P. Thomas wrote that President Lincoln had a problem using blacks to fight for the Union. He feared the repercussions of black men killing white men. He more readily accepted using blacks as labor to release the whites to fight. He worried that blacks in the fight might encourage them to use this newfound freedom for nefarious purposes later.
In spring 1862, Lincoln met with a group of Republican senators. They urged him to muster slaves into the Union army. Historian Ida M. Tarbell wrote, “They argued that as the war was really to free the negro, it was only fair that he should take his part in working out his own salvation.”
Lincoln’s response was this:
“Gentlemen, I can’t do it. I can’t see it as you do. You may be right, and I may be wrong; but I’ll tell you what I can do; I can resign in favor of Mr. Hamlin (Lincoln’s vice president). Perhaps Mr. Hamlin could do it.”
So that was the landscape at the top. Let’s look at a few Union generals.
Major General John C. Fremont, USA, commanded the Western Department, which oversaw military forces west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rockies. He put Missouri under martial law, which meant that all property of those rebelling against the Union would be confiscated, including slaves. He would free only slaves of owners who supported the Confederacy. He intended to free all confiscated slaves. He was fired.
Major General David “Black Dave” Hunter served under Fremont and got a taste for freeing the slaves. He was appointed to command the Department of the South and the X Corps in March 1862, responsible for all Union forces in Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia. Hunter was a strong advocate for arming black men as soldiers for the Union. And he was a friend of President Lincoln.
The reality was he needed reinforcements. Washington did not respond, so he moved out on his own.
In May 1862, Hunter issued orders from South Carolina to recruit a regiment of Negroes. The Negroes were eager to join, and within a few months, the First South Carolina Volunteer Regiment was filled, armed, and in uniform. This was the first regiment of Negroes organized during the Civil War. Congress approved its formation. Hunter not only recruited blacks, but he also unilaterally declared them to be free. On May 9, 1862, General Hunter issued General Orders No. 11 and declared the slaves “forever free.” He then drafted (forced) slaves into military service.
President Lincoln did not react well to Hunter’s efforts, just as he did not like what General Fremont had done. On May 19, he disowned Hunter’s “supposed proclamation” and declared it null and void. The Lincoln administration did not support putting arms in the hands of blacks. That said, Lincoln had earlier authorized General Thomas Sherman, USA, to organize free slaves into “squads, companies or otherwise,” but he hedged by saying, “This, however, is not to mean a general arming of them for military service.” While Lincoln voided Hunter’s proclamation, he did ask Congress to provide aid to any state that would adopt a gradual abolition of slavery.
President Lincoln felt he was in a very tight spot. There was growing national support to free the slaves, but he was worried about moving too quickly. He feared slave-holding Unionists would move to support the Confederacy, especially those in the border states. Lincoln preferred a gradual emancipation.
Hunter disbanded the South Carolina unit, did not do well commanding troops in battle, and resigned on August 8, 1864. So Fremont was fired and Hunter quit.
In August 1862, the Confederates captured Colonel Daniel Ullman, USA, and placed him in the Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia. The prison became overcrowded and its prisoners suffered from disease and malnutrition. The Confederates paroled him in October 1862, and he immediately went to Washington and arranged a visit with President Lincoln.
While in prison, Ullman came up with an idea to include black soldiers in the Regular Union Army as combatants. It was a radical idea in Washington and, as I've said, Lincoln himself was skeptical. He was worried about the impact such a move would have on the Union Army, and he had concerns about the timing; the Emancipation Proclamation was due to become law on January 1, 1863. Lincoln was worried about releasing so many radical ideas at one time.
Ullman left, but Lincoln called him back to discuss the idea further. In January 1863, Ullman was promoted to brigadier general and was sent to Louisiana to be subordinate to Major General Nathaniel Banks. He arrived in New Orleans on May 19, 1863.
Ullman established recruiting depots in Baton Rouge, Franklin, Brashear City, and, I believe, Opelousas, which was General Banks’ headquarters. He raised five regiments of African-American soldiers. He complained to the Adjutant General of the Army that his senior officers in the Department opposed the inclusion of Blacks in the Union Army. He charged that they were setting up many obstacles to his recruitment efforts. He vowed to inform the Secretary of War. He was confident that with the proper support, he could recruit tens of thousands of Blacks into the Union Army. He wrote to the Adjutant General and argued that the “(negro) shows an aptitude and desire to learn the drill, and a cleanliness in his person and his camp, well worthy of imitation by more pretentious soldiers. I have full confidence that he will make a soldier of whom commanders may be proud.”
This view was not shared by many in the Department at the time.
Brigadier General John Phelps, at Camp Carrollton on the north side of New Orleans, welcomed fugitive slaves to his camp, and he organized them into companies. He then asked for formal permission to arm the blacks. Phelps felt he could raise 50 regiments rapidly. He was not allowed to arm them, but could use them as labor. Phelps was not willing to do that and tendered his resignation, saying he was not going to be a “slave-driver.”
So, as you can see, there was substantial tumult within the Union hierarchy and within the White House itself. All that tumult aside, there was no question but that the movement was well underway to bring blacks into the Union Army, and indeed to free them.
Sentiments in the North sympathized with both Hunter and Phelps, slowly but surely.
Lincoln was under enormous political pressure from his own Republican Party to free the slaves. The pressure was so intense that Lincoln issued a Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862. However, it applied only to the states in rebellion. It was designed to cripple the Confederacy. The final proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863. Ms. Budge Weidman, writing “Black Soldiers in the Civil War, Preserving the Legacy of the United States Colored Troops,” tells us,
“The first official authorization to employ African Americans in federal service was the Second Confiscation and Militia Act of July 17, 1862. This act allowed President Abraham Lincoln to receive into the military service persons of African descent. It gave permission to use them for any purpose ‘he may judge best for the public welfare.’ However, the President did not authorize use of African Americans in combat until issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.”
The Emancipation Proclamation made freedom for slaves a legalized war aim and authorized them to fight in combat.
Many northern governors saw black recruits as a means to help fill their quota and reduce the number of white casualties. These governors motivated Butler to receive negroes into the service. He now believed it was going to happen sooner or later anyway.
As was the case with other Union generals, Major General Benjamin Butler, USA, who was in charge of the Department of the Gulf for the Union, needed reinforcements to fight and to defend New Orleans. So, Butler requested reinforcements. The government replied that it had no reinforcements to spare. After several attempts to recruit among whites sympathetic to the Union cause, he realized that blacks were the only remaining option. Once again, the use of black soldiers was more of a military decision than anything related to freeing slaves.
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