Company E, Fourth U.S. Colored Infantry, Fort Lincoln, Virginia

The Lincoln administration was slow to accept black soldiers into the Union army, in part because of lingering doubts about their ability to fight. But Colonel Thomas W. Higginson, the white commander of the Union’s First South Carolina Infantry, which was made up of former slaves, celebrated his men’s courage: “No officer in this regiment now doubts that the key to the successful prosecution of this war lies in the unlimited employment of black troops. … Instead of leaving their homes and families to fight they are fighting for their homes and families.” Before the war was over, ex-slaves and free blacks filled 145 Union regiments. Library of Congress.