The African American Soldier
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Background Information:
Ira Berlin's Freedom Soldiers and Noah Andre Trudeau's Like Men of War present similar interpretations of the impact that fighting in the Union army had on the African American male. Both studies argue that as the war progressed and the need for additional soldiers became critical, the Union army was more willing to give more responsibility to the black soldier. The initial distrust and dislike that many white Northern soldiers, officers, and citizens in general held for African-Americans was eventually superceded by their "manpower need." Indeed, the demand for soldiers may have outweighed, but did not replace, many Northerners' negative or indifferent feelings toward African- Americans: Berlin suggests that most Northerners "cared little about emancipation or disdained black people altogether." (1998). Though Berlin and Trudeau acknowledge that the war experience provided the black soldier, and to a much smaller extent, African American women, with many positive experiences, they suggest that these gains did not include a radical change in black status in the predominantly white-populated Northern states.
When the Civil War began, Berlin and Trudeau suggest Northern whites distrusted and dismissed the possible use of the black soldier in the Union army. Trudea suggests that many Northerners wanted slavery concerns, and African Americans in general, to play as small a role as possible in the war: the Washington National Intelligencer argued that the war was for "restoration," with "nor direct relation to slaves." (1998) However, as early as 1861, Union General Benjamin F. Butler began using captured Confederate slaves as "contraband," (Berlin 1998) essentially using former slaves for labor and servant use, much as the Confederate army used their still-held slaves. Throughout 1862, as abolitionists and military leaders argued for the usefulness of blacks enlisting as soldiers, "increasing numbers of Northerners concluded that military as well as moral necessity demanded an end to slavery." (Berlin 5) After the Emancipation Proclamation, black soldiers were recruited and served in separate units. By the end of the war, thousands of African American soldiers had served in numerous battles.
Berlin argues that black soldiers dealt with discrimination, exemplified in many forms, in the Union army. Black soldiers received less pay, could not serve as commissioned officers, served in separate units only, and were often assigned labor-intensive work or dangerous front-line duty more often than their white counterparts. Black soldiers did gain a sense of equality in fighting and dying alongside white soldiers, and did get to serve as liberators of slaves in many captured Southern communities. In addition, African American soldiers received training often beneficial after the war. White northern soldiers were forced to acknowledge that black soldiers could fight, and during the war Lincoln raised the issue of suffrage for African American soldiers. However, throughout the war, black soldiers could not escape the "white-dominated hierarchy" of the Union army. (Berlin 1998)