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African Americans in the Civil War

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The Emancipation Proclamation is published. September 27, 1862 ... Emancipation Proclamation takes effect. President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: African Americans in the Civil War


1
African Americans in theCivil War
  • A Timeline

2
November 6, 1860
  • Lincoln is elected president.

3
December 10, 1860
  • South Carolina is first state to secede.

4
February 9, 1861
  • Confederate States unite under Jefferson Davis.

5
March 2, 1861
  • Congress adopts and sends to the states a "Joint
    Resolution to amend the Constitution of the
    United States" as a signal that the federal
    government has no intention of eliminating
    slavery.

6
March 4, 1861
  • Lincoln is sworn in as president. In his first
    inaugural,
  • 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.

7
April 12, 1861
  • Fort Sumter is attacked.

8
June 8, 1861
  • General Butler declares slaves who come within
    Union lines at Fortress Monroe "contrabands of
    war."

9
July 21, 1861
  • Battle of Bull Run

10
July 22, 1861
  • Congress issues a "Joint Resolution on the War"
    declaring that the war is being fought to
    preserve the union rather than to destroy
    slavery.

11
August 6, 1861
  • Congress passes the "Confiscation Acts."
  • This forgives slaves who had fought or worked for
    confederate army.
  • It also releases them of further obligations to
    their masters.
  • Authorized union forces to seize rebel
    property, meaning slaves.

12
August 30, 1861
  • General Fremont extends freedom to all slaves
    owned by Confederates in Missouri.
  • Lincoln later overturns this decision and removes
    Freemont from command.

13
December 1, 1861
  • Secretary of the Treasury, Simon Cameron issues a
    revised version of his annual report after
    Lincoln requires the deletion of passages calling
    for emancipation and arming of the slaves.

14
March 13, 1862
  • Congress adopts an additional act of war,
    declaring "All officers or persons in the
    military or naval service of the United States
    are prohibited from employing any of the forces
    under their respective commands for the purpose
    of returning fugitives from service or labor, who
    may have escaped from any persons to whom such
    service or labor is claimed to be due, and any
    officer who shall be found guilty by a
    court-martial of violating this article shall be
    dismissed from the service."

15
March 6, 1862
  • Lincoln sends A Message to Congress Requesting a
    Joint Resolution on Compensated Emancipation.

16
April, 1862
  • On April 10 Congress passes a joint resolution
    declaring it will "cooperate" with "any State
    which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery,
    giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be used by
    such State in its discretion, to compensate for
    the inconveniences, public and private, produced
    by such change of system.
  • On April 16 "Lincoln signs the the "Compensated
    Emancipation Act,"guaranteeing 300 dollars for
    each slave liberated by loyal union masters in
    the District of Columbia to release their slaves.
    Slaves who agreed to emigrate outside the country
    are paid up to 100 each. This is the only
    program of compensated emancipation put into
    practice in the U.S.

17
May 9, 1862
  • General Hunter issues "General Order No. 11"
    declaring martial law in Florida, Georgia, and
    South Carolina and freeing slaves in those
    states. In the same month, Hunter begins
    recruiting African-American soldiers for his "1st
    South Carolina" regiment.

18
May 19, 1862
  • Lincoln revokes General Hunter's May 9
    proclamation.

19
July 17, 1862
  • Congress adopts the Second Confiscation Act. It
    includes a section stating "That no slave
    escaping into any State, Territory, or the
    District of Columbia, from any other State, shall
    be delivered up, or in any way impeded or
    hindered of his liberty, except for crime, or
    some offence against the laws, unless the person
    claiming said fugitive shall first make oath that
    the person to whom the labor or service of such
    fugitive is alleged to be due is his lawful
    owner, and has not borne arms against the United
    States in the present rebellion, nor in any way
    given aid and comfort thereto . . . ." The same
    act establishes that slaves of traitors "shall be
    declared and made free."
  • On the same day, Congress also passes the Militia
    Act of 1862. This authorizes the president "to
    receive into the service of the United States,
    for the purpose of constructing entrenchments, or
    performing camp service, or any other labor, or
    any military or naval service for which they may
    be found competent, persons of African descent,
    and such persons shall be enrolled and organized
    under such regulations, not inconsistent with the
    Constitution and laws, as the President may
    prescribe."

20
July, 1862
  • General John W. Phelps begins equipping "three
    regiments of Africans" in Louisiana but resigns
    after meeting with objections from his superior,
    General Butler.

August 22, 1862
  • General Butler, needing reinforcements,
    authorizes the recruiting of black soldiers in
    New Orleans

21
August 22, 1862
  • Horace Greeley publishes "A Prayer for Twenty
    Thousand" in the New York Tribune, taking Lincoln
    to task for his rejection of Hunter's
    emancipation attempts.

22
August 25, 1862
  • Abraham Lincoln responds to Greeley with an open
    letter in the New York Times entitled,
    "Emancipation or Preservation of the Union?"
  • He asserts "My paramount object in this struggle
    is to save the Union, and is not either to save
    or to destroy slavery."

23
September 23, 1862
  • The Emancipation Proclamation is published.

24
September 27, 1862
  • The 1st Regiment, Louisiana Native Guards,
    becomes the first black regiment to be officially
    mustered into the Union Army.

25
January 1, 1863
  • The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect.
  • President Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation
    declared, "that all persons held as slaves"
    within the rebellious states "are, and
    henceforward shall be free."

26
March 3, 1863
  • Lincoln signs the Conscription Act of 1863
    instituting a draft for males between the ages of
    twenty and forty-five.
  • Exemptions from the draft could be bought for
    300 or by finding a substitute draftee. This
    clause led to bloody draft riots in New York
    City, where protesters were outraged that
    exemptions were effectively granted only to the
    wealthiest citizens.

27
March 21, 1863
  • Frederick Douglass writes Men of Color, To
    Arms! urging African-Americans to enlist.
  • 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

28
May 22, 1863
  • General Order 143 creates the Bureau of Colored
    Troops is created to recruit and organize black
    regiments.
  • Three or more field officers will be detailed as
    Inspectors to supervise the organization of
    colored troops at such points as may be indicated
    by the War Department in the Northern and Western
    States.

29
May 27, 1863
  • Black troops participate in the successful attack
    on Port Hudson, opening the Mississippi to Union
    shipping from the source of the river all the way
    to New Orleans. Included in the fighting were the
    First and Third Louisiana Native Guards The
    First Louisiana Engineers, Corps d'Afrique and,
    the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and Tenth
    Infantry, Corps d'Afrique.

30
June 7, 1863
  • African-American soldiers fight in the Battle of
    Millikens Bend. A fort garrisoned by only three
    black regiments successfully defends against an
    attack which includes intense hand-to-hand
    fighting with bayonets and clubs.
  • Charles Dana, assistant secretary of war,
    comments "The bravery of the blacks completely
    revolutionized the sentiment of the army with
    regard to the employment of Negro troops."

31
July 13, 1863
  • The New York Draft Riots begin.
  • Rioters joined together and destroyed the office
    of the Provost Marshal responsible for
    conscription. They then turned their violence
    upon others including many free blacks who lived
    in the city. More than 100 were killed and
    property damage was about 1 million.

32
July 18, 1863
  • 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry leads the
    attack on Fort Wagner, South Carolina and loses
    two-thirds of their officers and half their
    troops.

33
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 survive.
  • An inquiry after the war concludes that, "the
    Confederates were guilty of atrocities which
    included murdering most of the garrison after it
    surrendered, burying Negro soldiers alive, and
    setting fire to tents containing Federal
    wounded."
  • Forest goes on to become the first imperial
    wizard of the Ku Klux Clan.

34
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.

35
June 15, 1864
  • Congress raises the pay of black soldiers to make
    it equal to that of whites.


36
March 3, 1865
  • Congress passes Resolution to encourage
    Enlistments and to promote the Efficiency of the
    military Forces of the United States,
    emancipating the wives and children of
    African-American soldiers.

                                                
                                                  
                         A slave family in South
Carolina, 1862. Photo courtesy Library of
Congress.
37
March 13, 1865
  • The Confederacy approves arming slaves as
    soldiers, as long as their masters approve.

38
April 2, 1865
  • Richmond falls.
  • After the Confederate troops leave, much of the
    city destroyed by fires set by retreating
    soldiers and rioting and looting by remaining
    population.

39
April 9, 1865
  • Civil War ends.
  • Over 186,000 African-Americans had served in the
    Union army
  • More than 38,000 had died.

40
More Information
  • http//mac110.assumption.edu/aas/Intros/soldiers.h
    tml
  • Or
  • http//www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001303.
    shtml
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