The Right to Fight: Black Soldiers in the Civil War

Frederick Douglass, the fiery black Abolitionist, petitioned President Lincoln to allow black men to take up arms in the cause of the Union. For several reasons, not the least being the fear of a white racist backlash, Mr. Lincoln resisted taking this course until mounting casualties, and the realization that slave labor was one of the mainstays of the South’s war effort, caused him to assent to actively recruiting black men for army service in 1863. Free blacks considered serving in combat as a way to raise black prestige and pride. They also hoped that it might act to dispel racist attitudes among whites. Despite stumbling blocks such as pay inequity and resistance to using ‘colored’ troops for anything other than manual labor, they ultimately proved their bravery in combat. James Henry Gooding, a young black recruit observed, “When a regiment of white men gave us three cheers…it shows that we did our duty as men should.” After the war, many black veterans became active in the struggle for equal rights. Said black veteran Sgt. Henry Maxwell, “We want two more boxes besides the cartridge box---the ballot and the jury box.” Unfortunately, James Gooding, the eager young recruit who took such pride from the cheers of white soldiers, did not survive to take part in the struggle for equal treatment. He died on July 19, 1864 at Andersonville, the notorious Confederate military prison.

1)      How do you think post Civil War black history might have been different had blacks been denied the ‘right to fight’?

2)      Why do you think black troops were only permitted to serve under white officers?