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UID:Indybay-18864954
SEQUENCE:19033020
CREATED:20240413T123900Z
DESCRIPTION:The War Department issued General Order 143 on May 22, 1863, creating the 
 United States Colored Troops. \n\nBy the end of the Civil War, roughly 
 179,000 Black men (10 percent of the Union Army) served as soldiers in the 
 U.S. Army, and another 19,000 served in the Navy (20 percent of the U.S. 
 Navy)\n\nThe issues of emancipation and military service were intertwined 
 from the onset of the Civil War. News that the Confederacy had attacked the 
 U.S. garrison at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina – which began 
 the Civil War in earnest – set off a rush by free Black men to enlist in 
 U.S. military units. \n\nThey were turned away, however, because a 1792 
 federal law barred them from bearing arms for the U.S. Army. \n\nIn Boston, 
 disappointed would-be volunteers met and passed a resolution requesting 
 that the government modify its laws to permit their 
 enlistment.\n\nPresident Lincoln's administration wrestled with the idea of 
 authorizing the recruitment of Bl\nColored troops, but was concerned that 
 such a move would prompt the border states to secede. \n\nWhen General John 
 C. Frémont in Missouri and General David Hunter in South Carolina issued 
 proclamations that emancipated enslaved people in their military regions 
 and permitted them to enlist, their superiors sternly revoked their orders. 
 \n\nBy mid-1862, however, the government was pushed into reconsidering the 
 ban because of the escalating number of formerly enslaved people coming 
 over Union lines (referred to in the military as "contrabands"), the 
 declining number of white volunteers, and the pressing personnel needs of 
 the Union Army caused by mounting casualty on the bloody batrfields \n\nAs 
 a result, on July 17, 1862, Congress passed the Second Confiscation and 
 Militia Act, freeing enslaved people whose enslavers were in the 
 Confederate Army.\n\nTwo days later, slavery was abolished in the 
 territories of the United States; and on July 22, 1862, President Lincoln 
 presented the preliminary draft of the Emancipation Proclamation to his 
 Cabinet.\n\nAfter the Union Army turned back Confederate General Robert E. 
 Lee's first invasion of the North at Antietam, Maryland, and the 
 Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation was subsequently announced, Black 
 recruitment was pursued in earnest on January 1, 1863.\n\nVolunteers from 
 South Carolina, Tennessee, and Massachusetts filled the first authorized 
 Black regiments. Recruitment was slow until Black leaders such as Frederick 
 Douglass encouraged men to become soldiers to ensure eventual full 
 citizenship. (Two of Douglass's own sons contributed to the war effort.) 
 \n\nVolunteers began to respond; and in May 22, 1863, the U.S. Government 
 officially  established the Bureau of Colored Troops to manage the 
 burgeoning numbers of new soldiers.\n\nNearly 40,000 Colored soldiers died 
 over the course of the war—30,000 of infection or disease. USCT served in 
 Artillery, Calvery  and Infantry and performed all non-combat support 
 functions that sustain an army as well as carpenters, chaplains, cooks, 
 guards, laborers, nurses, scouts, spies, steamboat pilots, surgeons, and 
 teamsters also contributed to the war cause. \n\nThere were nearly 80 
 Colored commissioned officers. Colored women, who could not formally join 
 the Army, nonetheless served as nurses, spies, and scouts.\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2024/04/13/18864954.php
SUMMARY:Discover our "Hidden Figures" United States Colored Troops from CA during the US Civil War
LOCATION:California State Capitol - West Steps
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2024/04/13/18864954.php
DTSTART:20240523T183000Z
DTEND:20240523T200000Z
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