TRIBUNAL X\ti
\ OLUME rv, NO. 9 \SEDNESDA^, AUGUST 4,1976
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RESPONDING TO
BLACK NORTH CAROLINA
The 1976 Editions of THE TRIBUNAL AID wUl
be (leclicated to America's bicentennial Cele
bration. >\ith emphasis on contributions our Race
has made in the making of America, from
birth to the present.
In 1976 there should not be a need to lift these
contributions from isolated sources. Our past
should ne interwoven into the fabric of our ci- against us. yet we have been able to live through
ilization. because we are. except for the Indian.
America s oldest ethnic minority.
^ e ha\e helped make America what it was.
and what it is. since the founding of Virginia.
e ha\e been a factor in many major issues in
our history. There have been many misdeeds
Faye Ashe, Black History Editor
them and light back. This is living proof of our
histor>.
Our role in the making of America is neither
well known or correctly known. Many positive
contributions have escaped historians and have
not found their wav into the pages of many
history books.
^e will strive to give readers. Black and
white, many little-known facts about our past
and it is hop«*d that a prop‘r perspt'ctive of our
histon will be of value to persons who m^yr
belie>(‘ that as Black people we h^ve ao u^-^'
worthy past: and hence, no strong claims to
all rights of other Americans.
BLACK AMERICANS IN THE CIVIL WAR
For two years the United States had
been a nation divided, broken in two.
Since 1861, the North and South had
been in a bloody Civil War. At the
beginning in 1861, young men in the
North and South had been eager to
get into the war. Southerners flocked
to enlist in the Confederate Army,
Northerners rushed to join the Union
Army.
him. He felt that he needed their help
to defeat the South. So for many
reasons President Lincoln kept
refusing to let Northern States form
Black regiments.
Nevertheless, Blacks were so
anxious to join the fight that they set
up their own drill units in Boston,
Providence, and New York. They
bought their own equipment and
Army was not seriously considered
until it was too late.
Many Blacks attempted to escape
to Union lines, and by Sempter, 1861,
over 20,000 slaves had fled to the
Union Army to become scouts, guides
spies, cooks, hospital workers, black-
smits and mule drives. Union war
ships picked up boatloads of runaway
slaves along the Eastern Seacoast.
After two years of fighting people
became weary, they thought of the
places where young men had lost
their lives. Once the war started it
seemed to go on and on. By the end
of 1862 these young men were less
eager in the North and South. Many
had lost relatives and friends. The
flood of volunteers slowed down. In
despair, the South began to draft men
into the Confederate Army. In the
North President Lincoln was calling
for 300,000 men to volunteer for the
Union Army. After a time it became
clear that 300,000 men would not
volunteer.
Frederick Douglass urged as soon
as the war began to "Let the slaves
and Free Colored people be called
into service, and form into a liberation
army." He said to the whites, "We
are ready, but you won't let us go."
Black men wanted to fight as soon as
the first shots had been fired, and the
free Black men in Boston tried to en
list in the army, but were refused.
Black men in New York formed their
own regiments and offered their
services, but were turned down by the
United States Army and the govern
ment. President Lincoln's Secretary
of War said, "This department has no
intentions to call into service of the
government any Colored Soldiers".
President Lincoln knew that the
Black men wanted to fight to help kill
slavery. But in his attempt to keep
the question of slavery out of the war,
he had to keep Black men out of the
war. He knew that most white people
in the North did not want Black men
to be soldiers. As one Union man in
the 74th New York Volunteers wrote,
"We don't want to fight side by side
with them. We think we are too
superior a race for that." Mr. Lincoln
was also thinking of states on the
border between the North and the
South, the States that had not yet
joined the South. In these States
bodering on the North there were
Unionist, people who were on the side
of the North. But, at the same time,
many of the Unionist were slave
owrners, and Mr. Lincoln did not want
to do anything that would turn
Unionist in the border states against
Teamsters With General Benjamin F.
Bulter. Library of Congress
supplies and trained themselves. But
for the first year of the Civil War
Black soldiers were not allowed to
shoulder a musket in behalf of the
Union. Black men were only allowed
to labor behind the lines in non
military jobs. They worked as teams
ters hauling supplies from camp to
camp and the docks unloading army
supplies. They built stockades and
they served as camp attendants,
waiters and cooks. The North had
200,000 Black Civilian laborers who
assisted the Union Army, without
their help it is believed the North
could not have won the war.
The Confederacy used slave labor
for building fortifications and for
obtaining food from plantations. A
few free Southern Blacks enrolled for
military duty in New Orleans and a
few slaves went into battle with their
white masters. But the widespread
used of Black soldiers in the Southern
An ex-slave who served with the
Union Army in South Carolina was
Harriet Tubman, the leader of the
Underground Railroad, she served as
a nurse and a spy.
The volunteer Black regiments
were formed, but were not officially
taken into the army or paid for their
services. One of these was the FIRST
SOUTH CAROLINA VOLUNTEERS,
organized at Hilton Head in 1862.
This regiment was used for patrol
duty off the Georgia Coast. Another
was the FIRST KANSAS INFANTRY,
who fought the rebels at Island
Mounds, Missouri. The regiments
were later allowed to join the army.
But widespread enlistments of Black
soldiers did not occur until after the
Emancipation Proclamation of
January 1, 1863.
Blacks were urged to join the army
by Black leaders. By the end of the
Civil War over 186,000 Blacks had
become soldiers in the Union Army,
however, the decision to use Black
troops had not been popular with
everyone. Some officers refused to
serve with Black troops. Even as the
Blacks proved themselves to be excel
lent soldiers, they were discriminated
against in pay, pensions and equip
ment. In 1862, white privates receiv
ed thirteen dollars a month, Black
privates seven dollars a month.
Finally on January 1, 1864, Congress
voted equal pay to Black soldiers.
Most Black soldiers in the Union
Army were in segregated all-Black
fighting units supervised by a sepa
rate war office, the BUREAU OF
COLORED TROOPS. They were
organized into light and heavy artil
lery and engineers. Most of the
officers commanding Black soldiers
were white. There were only about 75
Black officers in the Union Army.
One of these was MAJOR MARTIN
R. DELANY, the first Black field-
grade officers to serve in the Civil
War.
Black Sailors made up one-fourth of
the Union Navy during the Civil War.
They served on the KEARSAGE,
THE HARTFORD, THE MERRIMAC
and aboard Rear Admiral David
Farragut's Flagship in the BATTLE
OF MOBILE BAY. During the Civil
War, six Blacks, ROBERT BLACKE,
JOACHIM PEASE, AARON AN
DERSON, WILUAN H. BROWN,
WILSON BROWN, JOHN LAWSON,
won the Navy' s Medal of honor. Still
it was not until 1872 that the first
Black was allowed to enroll at the
United States Naval Academy at
Annapolis.
Black men fought in the front hnes
of many of the major battles of the
Civil War. They served bravely at the
BATTLE OF NASHVILLE, MILLI—
KEN'S BEND, PORT HUDSON,
BAXTER SPRING, POINT LOOK
OUT and FORT WAGNER.
In 1864, General Sherman's Union
forces began their devasting march
through Georgia, putting an end to
the Confederate hopes of victory.
Richmond, the capital of the Confede
racy, fell six months later. Twenty
Black soldiers were awarded Con
gressional Medals of Honor after the
war for their charge on the Confede
rates at NEW MARKET HEIGHTS
outside of Richmond.
Over 186,000 Black soldiers served
in the Union Army during the Civil
War, 38,000 of them gave their lives.
The Secretary of War Stanton said of
the Army's Black Soldiers: "The
hardest fighting was done by the
Black Troops, the parts they stormed
were worst of all They can not be
exceeded as soldiers.
REFERENCESFOR:
BLACK AMERS IN THE CIVIL WAR
BLACK AMERICANS IN THE CIVIL
WAR
Westein, Irving. The Storming of
Fort Wagner, Black Valor in the
Civil War. Firebird Books Scholas
tic Book Services. New York. 1970.
Unidentified Negro Soldier
Chicago Historial Society
of the Civil War.
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CORRECTION
WHITNEY YOUNG'S BIRTH DATE
IS JULY 1921 RATHER THAN 1931
AS PRINTED IN THE CAPTION OF
LAST WEEK' S NEWSPAPER.
! !»ocM»c>oeeoooeoeoeoooe€9000 i
Sergeant F. L. Baldwin, A Soldier hi The Qvil War
Chicago Historial Society.
There were Negroes among the crewmen of the
Union warship MONITOR, in its battle with the
MERHIMAC. Library of Congress
1776 Honoring America's Bicentennial 1976
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