The Right to Fight: Black Soldiers in the Civil War

A war undertaken and brazenly carried on for the perpetual enslavement of colored men, calls logically and loudly for colored men to help suppress it,” black leader Frederick Douglass declared at the beginning of the Civil War. But it was only in 1863 that the lengthening casualty lists finally convinced the Lincoln administration to begin aggressively recruiting black soldiers.

In February 1863, James Henry Gooding, a twenty-six-year-old seaman from New Bedford, enlisted in the 54th Massachusetts Colored Regiment. Like most black soldiers, Gooding viewed military service as an opportunity to strike blows against slavery. The destruction of slavery, he believed, “depends on the free black men of the North” because “those who are in bonds must have some one to open the door; when the slave sees the white soldier approach, he dares not trust him and why? Because he has heard that some have treated him worse than their owners in rebellion. But if the slave sees a black soldier, he knows he has got a friend.”

Fighting for the Union also offered a chance to attack white racism. In military service lay “the germs of the elevation of a downtrodden and despised race,” Gooding believed, the chance for African Americans “to make themselves a people.” Fighting, Gooding said, offered blacks a chance to destroy the “foul aspersion that they were not men.”

According to the white commander of the 59th U.S. Colored Infantry, when an ex-slave put on a uniform of army blue, the change was dramatic: “Yesterday a filthy, repulsive ‘nigger,’ to-day a neatly-attired man; yesterday a slave, to-day a freeman; yesterday a civilian, to-day a soldier.” Others noticed the same transformation: “Put a United States uniform on his back and the chattel is a man.” Black veterans agreed. “This was the biggest thing that ever happened in my life,” one ex-soldier remembered. “I felt like a man with a uniform and a gun in my hand.” Another said, “I felt freedom in my bones.”

Black courage under fire ended skepticism about the capabilities of African American troops. As one white officer observed after a battle, “They seemed like men who were fighting to vindicate their manhood and they did it well.” Another remarked, “they have fought their way into the respect of all the army.” After the 54th served courageously in South Carolina, Gooding reported: “It is not for us to blow our horn; but when a regiment of white men gave us three cheers as we were passing them, it shows that we did our duty as men should.”

Yet discrimination within the Union army continued. When the government refused to pay blacks the same as whites, the 54th refused to accept unequal pay. Gooding wrote to President Lincoln himself to explain his regiment’s decision: “Now the main question is, Are we Soldiers, or are we Labourers? . . . Now your Excellency, we have done a Soldier’s Duty. Why Can’t we have a Soldier’s pay?” The 54th’s principled stance helped reverse the government’s position, and in June 1864 Congress equalized the pay of black and white soldiers.

As Union troops advanced deeper into the Confederacy, former slaves greeted black soldiers as heroes. In March 1865, the white officer of a black regiment in North Carolina reported that black soldiers “stepped like lords & conquerors. The frantic demonstrations of the negro population will never die out of my memory. Their cheers & heartfelt ‘God bress ye’s’ & cries of ‘De chains is broke; De chains is broke’ mingled sublimely with the lusty shout of our brave soldiery.” Hardened and disciplined by their military service, black soldiers drew tremendous strength from their participation in the Union effort. Despite their second-class status, they found army life a great counterweight to the degradation and dependency of slavery.

Eager to shoulder the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of freedom, black veterans often took the lead in the hard struggle for equality after the war. Blacks in the Union army that occupied the South after 1865 assumed a special obligation to protect former slaves. “The fact is,” one black chaplain said, “when colored soldiers are about they [whites] are afraid to kick colored women and abuse colored people on the Streets, as they usually do.” Black veterans believed that their military service entitled African Americans not only to freedom but also to civil and political rights. Sergeant Henry Maxwell announced: “We want two more boxes besides the cartridge box—the ballot and the jury box.” Black men had demonstrated what they could do when permitted to become soldiers; they now demanded the chance to perform as citizens.

James Henry Gooding did not have a chance to participate in the postwar struggle for equal rights. Wounded and captured at the battle of Olustee in Florida, he was sent to the infamous Confederate prison Andersonville, where he died on July 19, 1864.

Questions for Analysis

Recognize Viewpoints: Why did the Union resist enrolling black troops?

Analyze the Evidence: What specific benefits or opportunities did black men encounter as a result of military service?

Consider the Context: Why was the right to fight so important to black men? In what ways do you think military service by black men would have been important to the entire black community?