African Americans in the Civil War

1
African Americans in theCivil War

• A Timeline

2
November 6, 1860

• Abraham Lincoln is elected president.

3
December 10, 1860

• South Carolina is the first state to secede the
  Union.

4
February 9, 1861

• Confederate states unite under Jefferson Davis.

5
March 2, 1861

• Congress has no goal to end slavery.

6
March 4, 1861

• Lincoln is sworn in as president. In his first
  inaugural speech 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.
• Lincoln has no plans to free the slaves.

7
June 8, 1861

• General Butler declares slaves who come near Fort
  Monroe "contrabands of war."
• Blacks are not people, they are property.
• How would you feel if someone owned you? Could
  sell you? Take you away from your parents?

8
July 22, 1861

• Congress issues a Joint Resolution on the War.
• It declares that the war is being fought save the
  Union not to end slavery.

9
August 6, 1861

• Congress passes the "Confiscation Acts."
• This forgives slaves who fought or worked for the
  Confederate Army.
• It also releases them of further duty to their
  masters.
• It authorized Union forces to seize rebel
  property, or slaves.

10
August 30, 1861

• General Fremont gives freedom to all slaves owned
  by Confederates in Missouri.
• Lincoln later changes the Generals orders.
• He removes Fremont from command.

11
December 1, 1861

• Simon Cameron is the Secretary of the Treasury.
  He writes a report for President Lincoln every
  year. Cameron writes that slaves should be
  emancipated. Lincoln does not like this. He
  makes Cameron rewrite the report.

12
March 6, 1862

• Lincoln changes his mind. He wants to end
  slavery. He asks Congress to help him to end
  slavery. The government will pay for any slave
  owners free.

April 10, 1862

• Congress passes a joint resolution declaring it
  will give money to states if they want to abolish
  slavery.

13
April 16, 1862

• On April 16 Lincoln signs the the Compensated
  Emancipation Act.
• This gives 300 to Union masters in the District
  of Columbia for each slave they free.
• Slaves who agreed to leave the country are paid
  up to 100 each.

14
May 9, 1862

• General Hunter issues "General Order No. 11."
• He declares martial law in Florida, Georgia, and
  South Carolina.
• He also frees the slaves in those states.
• Hunter asks African Americans to be soldiers.
  He starts the 1st South Carolina regiment.

15
May 19, 1862

• Lincoln takes back General Hunter's May 9 order.

16
July, 1862

• General John W. Phelps begins giving equipment to
  three regiments of Africans in Louisiana.
• General Phelps resigns after General Butler
  disagrees with him.

August 22, 1862

• General Butler needs reinforcements. He
  authorizes the recruiting of black soldiers in
  New Orleans.

17
August 22, 1862

• Horace Greeley publishes A Prayer for Twenty
  Thousand in the New York Tribune.
• He scolds Lincoln for stopping General Hunter
  from freeing slaves.

18
August 25, 1862

• Abraham Lincoln responds to Greeley with a letter
  in the New York Times. It is titled,
  Emancipation or Preservation of the Union?
• He tells readers he wants to save the Union not
  end slavery.

19
September 23, 1862

• President Lincoln changed his mind.
• The Emancipation Proclamation is published.

20
September 27, 1862

• The 1st Regiment Louisiana Native Guards, becomes
  the first black regiment to be officially put
  into the Union Army.

21
January 1, 1863

• The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect.
• President Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation
  declares that all slaves in Confederate states
  will be free.

22
March 21, 1863

• Frederick Douglass writes Men of Color, To
  Arms! urging African Americans to join the Army.
  
• 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

23
May 22, 1863

• General Order 143 creates the Bureau of Colored
  Troops. It is created to recruit and organize
  black regiments.
• Three or more white officers will be in charge of
  each black regiment.

24
May 27, 1863

• Eight Black regiments take part in the successful
  attack on Port Hudson, Louisiana.

25
July 18, 1863

• 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry leads the
  attack on Fort Wagner, South Carolina.
• They lose half their troops.

26
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 live.
• The Confederates killed most of the garrison
  after it surrendered. They buried Black soldiers
  alive. They set fire to tents containing Union
  wounded.
• Forrest later becomes the first imperial wizard
  of the Ku Klux Klan.

27
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.

28
June 15, 1864

• Congress raises the pay of black soldiers to make
  it equal to that of whites.

Slaves built the U.S. Capitol building in
Washington D.C.
29
March 3, 1865

• Congress passes a resolution to emancipate the
  wives and children of African-American soldiers.

A slave family in South Carolina, 1862. Photo
courtesy Library of Congress.
30
March 13, 1865

• The Confederacy approves arming slaves as
  soldiers. But only if as their masters approve.

31
April 9, 1865

• Civil War ends.
• Over 186,000 African-Americans had served in the
  Union army
• More than 38,000 had died.

32
More Information

• http//mac110.assumption.edu/aas/Intros/soldiers.h
  tml
• or
• http//www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001303.
  shtml
• or for pictures
• http//www.sonofthesouth.net/