Blacks and the Civil War: A Chronology of Federal and Confederate Policy

1
Blacks and the Civil War A Chronology of Federal
and Confederate Policy

• HST 524 Civil War and Reconstruction
• Prof. William Piston
• Southwest Missouri State University
• c. 2004

2
Federal Policy
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May 23, 1861

• General Benjamin F. Butler
• Fort Monroe, Va.
• Contraband policy

4
August 6, 1861

• First Confiscation Act
• Slaves used on Confederate military projects
  subject to capture
• Such slaves became US property were not freed

5
August 30, 1861

• John C. Fremonts Emancipation Proclamation
• Commanded Department of Missouri
• Declared martial law
• Freed all slaves belonging to masters in
  rebellion
• Lincoln forced Fremont to rescind his
  proclamation and conform to the First
  Confiscation Act

6
September 25, 1861

• The U.S. Navy authorized the enlistment of
  contrabands
• Already accepted enlistment of free blacks

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October 14, 1861

• Thomas W. Sherman
• Commanded Department of the Gulf (sea islands off
  the coast of Ga. and S.C.)
• War Department authorized him to arm contrabands
  or slaves to assist in defending his position
• If slaves belonged to a loyal master, the master
  would be compensated
• Sherman made no use of the authorization

8
March 1862

• Congress passed a law forbidding the military
  from assisting in the capture or return of
  escaped slaves, regardless of the loyalty of the
  master
• Congress outlawed slavery in the territories

9
April 10, 1862

• Congress voted to compensate slaveholders in
  states that abolished slavery by state action
• No state abolished slavery

10
May 9, 1862

• David Hunter, commanding Department of the South
• Proclaimed martial law
• Declared all slaves within his jurisdiction free
• Organized the 1st South Carolina Volunteer
  Infantry (as earlier authorized)
• Lincoln forced Hunter to rescind his emancipation
  proclamation
• Lincoln refused to pay the 1st. S.C.
• Hunter disbanded all but one company

11
Spring-fall 1862

• Congress appropriated 600,000 to send black
  Americans back to Africa as colonists
• When Africa proved impracticable, Lincoln tried
  to establish a colony in the western hemisphere
  (Panama or Haiti)
• Failed because of costs and lack of support from
  African Americans

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July 17, 1862

• Second Confiscation Act
• Freed all contrabands and all slaves of masters
  participating in the rebellion
• Lincoln doubted the laws constitutionality
• He made no attempt to enforce it.

13
July 17, 1862

• Militia or Enlistment Act
• Gave the President authority to enlist African
  Americans in the Army at his discretion
• Lincoln took no action

14
August 6, 1862

• James Lane of Kansas
• Had already begun organizing the 1st Kansas
  Colored Volunteer Infantry
• Asked War Department for authority to enlist them
  under the Militia Act
• The War Department denied his request
• Lane continued forming the 1st Kansas Colored,
  ignoring Washington

15
August 22, 1862

• Benjamin F. Butler, commanding Federal-occupied
  New Orleans
• Called upon the citys free blacks who had been
  in the Louisiana state militia prior to the war
  to enlist under the new Militia Act
• Lincoln took no action to either encourage or
  stop Butler

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August 25, 1862

• Rufus Saxton, commanding Dept. of the Gulf
• War Department authorized (with Lincolns
  consent) the re-organization and enlistment of
  the 1st S.C. Infantry
• This was the first authorization of enlistment of
  African Americans in the Army
• Because reorganization took time, the regiment
  did not muster into Federal service until November

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September 22, 1862

• The Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation
• Slaves in areas still in rebellion as of Jan. 1,
  1863, to be freed
• Exempted slaves in Mo., Md., Del., Ky., and parts
  of Confederacy already conquered
• Slaves in those areas would remain slaves

18
November 1862

• With consent of the War Department and Lincoln,
  thee regiments of Louisiana Native Guards were
  mustered into federal service
• Regiments were composed of free blacks in New
  Orleans
• They were the first African Americans to be
  enlisted in the U.S. Army
• Lanes 1st Kansas Colored was accepted next, then
  Saxtons 1st S.C.

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January 1, 1863

• Emancipation Proclamation
• Justification a fit and necessary war measure
  for suppressing said rebellion
• Place of freedmen
• Federal government and military will recognize
  and maintain the freedom of such persons
• Freedmen urged to abstain from all violence,
  unless in necessity of self-defense
• Freedmen to labor faithfully for reasonable
  wages
• Suitable freedmen will be received into the
  armed service . . . to garrison forts, positions,
  stations, and other places, and to man vessels

20
Fall 1864

• Lincoln endorsed a constitutional amendment to
  abolish slavery

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January 31, 1865

• Congressed voted to approve a 13th Amendment to
  the Constitution, abolishing slavery
• State approval took until December

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Confederate Policy
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Spring 1861

• Free black militia units in New Orleans offered
  their service to the Confederacy
• Were turned down

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October 1862

• Response to Lincolns preliminary Emancipation
  Proclamation and the Militia or Enlistment Act
• Davis ordered white Union officers captured
  leading black troops turned over to state
  authorities
• Would be tried under state laws regarding slave
  insurrections
• Since no Black Union troops existed, this was
  propaganda

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February 22, 1863

• Response to Emancipation Proclamation
• Davis declared all African Americans in the
  South, free or slave, to be slaves forever
• Decreed that all blacks captured under arms would
  be sold into slavery

26
April 30, 1863

• Congress voted that white officers leading Blacks
  into battle should be executed if captured
• None were (officially)

27
June-July 1863

• During the Pennsylvania campaign, Lees army
  rounded up escaped slaves and took them back to
  Virginia
• Estimate of numbers varies wildly, from a few
  dozens to 5,000
• An unknown number were Northern-born free blacks,
  who had never been slaves

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Fall and winter1863

• A few newspapers discussed arming slaves in
  exchange for their freedom
• Patrick Cleburne proposed arming slaves
• Davis ordered all discussion of the issue
  suppressed

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October 1864

• Five governors recommended the use of slaves as
  soldiers in the Confederate army

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February 1865

• Lee endorsed enlisting slaves, in exchange for
  their freedom

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March 1865

• Virginia legislature authorized the enlistment of
  slaves in state regiments
• Congress authorized enlistment of slaves in the
  armed services, with the same pay as whites
• They were not granted freedom for their service

32
April 1865

• Two companies of black Confederate soldiers
  paraded in Richmond
• They were never used in combat