Thurmond: Black soldiers transformed Civil War's mission

Posted: Sunday, February 27, 2011

Former Georgia slaves played a critical but little-known role in the historic struggle that pried open the door to black enlistment in the U.S. military during the Civil War.

The courage and bravery of the men who served in experimental all-black regiments helped convince President Lincoln to "rewrite" his historic Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln's revision was the catalyst for the enlistment of 200,000 black men in the Union Army and Navy, and transformed the conflict over "states' rights" into a crusade to abolish American slavery.

Shortly after the first shots were fired in April 1861, free black men in the North began to form militia units and volunteer for service in the Union army. Black volunteers were convinced military service afforded them an unprecedented opportunity to prove their patriotism and manhood in a war against Southern slaveholders.

However, before black men could march off to fight for the liberation of their enslaved brethren, they first had to fight for the right to join the U.S. military. A federal statute enacted in 1792 prohibited blacks from serving in state militias or the U.S. Army and Navy.

At the war's outset, Lincoln assured whites in the North and South that the war arose out of political differences concerning "states' rights" rather than a desire to interfere with slavery.

Despite a string of devastating military setbacks, a dwindling pool of white recruits and growing anti-war sentiment, on July 4, 1862, the president reassured Congress that his only goal was to preserve the Union.

The most persuasive voice in favor of black enlistment belonged to Frederick Douglass, an outspoken black abolitionist. Douglass denounced the federal government's proscription against black soldiers as a "spectacle of blind, unreasoning prejudice."

Much to the chagrin of Northern abolitionists, Lincoln continued to argue that the Civil War was and should remain a "white man's war."

In September 1862, the president predicted black enlistment would turn 50,000 bayonets from the loyal slaveholding border states of Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri and Delaware against the Union.

Despite "official" government opposition to black enlistment, a handful of Northern generals organized experimental all-black regiments. The first systematic attempt was by Gen. David Hunter, an ardent abolitionist, who assumed command of Union forces occupying key coastal towns and islands of Georgia, South Carolina and Florida on March 31, 1862.

Acting on vague U.S. War Department orders, Hunter issued a proclamation of emancipation and set in motion a controversial plan to enlist black men.

Hunter's efforts were aided by the Rev. Abraham Murchinson, a former Savannah slave who called a meeting of black men on Cockspur Island. Approximately 150 former Georgia slaves volunteered. The regiment eventually reached 1,035 soldiers commanded by white officers.

Hunter's actions angered Union soldiers, federal government officials and Lincoln. After failing to receive official authorization to recruit black soldiers, Hunter disbanded all but one 38-man company.

Lincoln, though, could not ignore the indignation throughout the Union after Hunter's regiment was disbanded.

Neither could he ignore the fact that the growing need for additional Union troops was beginning to soften white opposition to black enlistment.

During the summer of 1862, Lincoln confided in his most trusted advisers that he had decided to take full advantage of the "slave element" by issuing a proclamation of emancipation.

On the Confederate side, only a few blacks actually fought for the rebels, but a vast army of slave laborers was forced to support the war effort as nurses, orderlies, teamsters and pioneers.

Slaves supplied the labor for factories, arsenals and mines. Military necessity required that this important component of the Southern war machine be removed from Confederate control.

Following the limited Union victory at the Battle of Antietam, Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on Sept. 22, 1862.

The document stated that on Jan. 1, 1863, all persons held as slaves in states still in rebellion against the Union would be free. In other words, if the rebels would surrender and rejoin the Union, slave owners would be able to keep their slaves.


On Jan. 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Although few, if any, Southern slaves were freed by the historic document, it contained a clause, not included in the preliminary proclamation, authorizing the enlistment of black men into the U.S. military.

Prior to the issuance of Lincoln's proclamation, only a few "unofficial" efforts to organize black regiments had been initiated. The eventual enlistment of 200,000 black soldiers, including several thousand Georgians, provided the North with a fresh source of manpower and a decided strategic advantage. Lincoln repeatedly asserted that without the black soldiers, the Union would not have been preserved.

• Michael Thurmond, an Athens native, is the author of "Freedom: Georgia's Antislavery Slavery Heritage."

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