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When Abraham Lincoln issued his final Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, he not only freed the slaves in the Confederate states but also invited freed slaves and free persons of color to join the U.S. Army as part of the U.S. Colored Troops (USCT), the first systematic, large-scale effort by the U.S. government to arm African Americans to aid in the nation’s defense. By the end of the war in 1865, nearly 180,000 black soldiers had fought for the Union. Lincoln’s role in the arming of African Americans remains a central but unfortunately obscure part of one of the most compelling periods in American history. In Lincoln and the U.S. Colored Troops John David Smith offers a concise, enlightening exploration of the development of Lincoln’s military emancipation project, its implementation, and the recruitment and deployment of black troops.
Though scholars have written much on emancipation and the USCT, Smith’s work frames the evolution of Lincoln’s ideas on emancipation and arming blacks within congressional actions, explaining how, when, and why the president seemed to be so halting in his progression to military emancipation. After tracing Lincoln’s evolution from opposing to supporting emancipation as a necessary war measure and to championing the recruitment of black troops for the Union Army, Smith details the creation, mobilization, and diverse military service of the USCT. He assesses the hardships under which the men of the USCT served, including the multiple forms of discrimination from so-called friends and foes alike, and examines the broad meaning of Lincoln’s military emancipation project and its place in African American historical memory.
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— e d i t e d b y r i c h a r d w. e t u l a i n , s a r a vau g h n g a b b a r d , a n d s y lv i a f r a n k r o d r i g u e
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Lincoln and the U.S. Colored Troops
Southern Illinois University Press Carbondale
Copyright © 2013 by Board of Trustees, Southern Illinois University All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 16 15 14 13
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The Concise Lincoln Library has been made possible in part through a generous donation by the Leland E. and LaRita R. Boren Trust. Publication of this book has been partially supported by a subvention from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Smith, John David, 1949– Lincoln and the U.S. Colored Troops / John David Smith. pages cm. — (Concise Lincoln library) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8093-3290-8 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 0-8093-3290-6 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-8093-3291-5 (ebook) ISBN 0-8093-3291-4 (ebook) 1. United States—History— Civil War, 1861–1865— Participation, African American. 2. United States. Colored Troops. 3. Lincoln, Abraham, 1809–1865—Relations with African Americans. 4. United States. Army—African American troops—History—19th century. 5. African American soldiers—History—19th century. I. Title. E540.N3S67 2013 973.7'415—dc23 2013011435 Printed on recycled paper. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Petrmanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
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c on t e n t s Introduction 1 1. The Final Emancipation Proclamation and Military Emancipation 8 2. Emancipation and Mobilization 33 3. Discrimination Front and Rear 55 4. Battles, Massacres, Parades 73 Afterword 97 Acknowledgments 119 Notes 121 Index 149
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n March 30, 1864, Private Hannibal Cox, an infantryman in the Fourteenth U.S. Colored Troops (USCT), sen