During the last two years of the Civil War, many African Americans, newly freed by Abraham Lincoln’s 1862 Emancipation Proclamation, were recruited by the Union army and became known as the United States Colored Troops (USCT). One organization responsible for recruitment and training of troops was the Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments, based in Philadelphia.

Come and Join Us Brothers

The following poster from 1863, entitled “Come and Join Us Brothers,” is an example of propaganda used by the Union army to recruit African Americans to replenish its dwindling ranks. The 178,000 free blacks and freedmen who enlisted bolstered the Union war effort at a very critical time, and by the war’s end, they composed nearly one-tenth of all Union troops.