The 54th Regiment of Massachusetts: African-American Soldiers of the Civil War

President Lincoln felt that many were fighting only for the preservation of the United States. Only for abolitionists the war was about ending slavery. Abolitionists believed African Americans should be able to join the fight for their freedom. On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation stated that “such persons [that is, African American men] of suitable condition, will be received into the armed services of the United States.” That was the opportunity for the 54th regiment to be formed ("The 54th Massachusetts Infantry - American Civil War ...").

Before WORLD WAR I, military service represented a source of black pride. Black educators, clergymen, and the press frequently referred to Negro heroes of America’s past wars. After the Civil War, the U.S, Army maintained four regular Negro regiments –the 9th and 10th Calvary and the 24th and 25th Infantry. These units included veterans of the civil war and the frontier Indian fighting regiments. Retired sergeants often became respected, conservative leaders in their communities. This history set a foundation for black support and involvement in America’s future wars.

Finally, in the summer of 1862, with the realization that the war would not be won without the end of slavery, Lincoln drew up the Emancipation Proclamation (Fincher). This document freed slaves in all areas who rebelled against the Union. This began a rippling effect to many other aspects of the war and led to the enlistment of African Americans in the Union Army and Navy.

The Civil war was one of the bloodiest in human history up to that time. In September 1862, Lincoln issues his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, it was a military move, giving the south four months to stop rebelling, threatening to emancipate their slaves if they continued to fight, promising to leave slavery untouched in states that came over to the North. By the beginning of 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was issued and it declared slaves free in those areas still fighting against the union. The more blacks that were free joined the war and

For many African Americans, the war offered an opportunity to get out of the cycle of crushing rural poverty. Black joined the military in large numbers, escaping a decade of Depression and tenant farming in the South and Midwest. Yet, like the rest of America in the 1940s, the armed forces were segregated. The Army accepted black enlistees but created separate black infantry regiments and assigned white commanders to them. Of the more than 2.5 million African Americans who registered for the draft in WWII, about 900,000 served in the Army. But about only 50,000 African Americans were allowed to serve in combat.

The shift from a struggle to save the Union into a war to destruct slavery made the Civil War a true success. Lincoln changed the military strategies after realizing that simply seizing Southern territory would not bring the victory to the Union. He decided to defeat the South’s armies instead of seizing the capital. The Union concluded that slavery was the economic and social keystone of the Confederacy and to win the war the Union must take down the slavery institution (Give me liberty! 509). With the change of military strategies came the change of the Union policy on slavery. The Union general Daniel E. Sickles noted that Negroes were the ones who provided the Union with the most valuable and reliable information of the South’s military movements (Give me liberty! 513). Northerners claimed that emancipation would weaken the enemy’s ability to sustain the war. As a result, in 1863, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared free more than 3 million slaves

"The havoc of war aroused northern passions for vengeance, and emancipation was the perfect instrument of retribution". (Vorenberg 37).The Emancipation Proclamation only served to free slaves of the southern states at first. However, the Union would have to defeat the Confederate States before it could be enforced. The Emancipation would also allow blacks to serve in the Union Army. By the end of the Civil War, nearly 200,000 blacks served in the U.S. Army making up Nearly 10 percent of the soldiers that served with the Union. We can only speculate as to how the war may have ended had the Confederate Army allowed blacks to serve in

The Emancipation Proclamation was a carefully crafted speech that was certainly not made overnight. The country had been moving towards it gradually, beginning with the The District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act in April of 1862, which freed all slaves in Washington in return for payment to their owners. The Second Confiscation Act in July of 1862. Stating that if the rebellion were to continue not to end within sixty days, the North would be sanctioned to seize rebel property, namely slaves. However, Lincoln’s ultimate goal was the preservation of the Union and the maintenance of the Constitution, not the freeing of slaves, which is clearly seen in this letter to Kentucky newspaper editor A.G. Hodges. He explains his rationale behind emancipation by stating, “I was, in my best judgment, driven to the alternative of either surrendering the Union and the Constitution, or of laying strong hand upon the colored element. I chose the latter.” Lincoln is referring to allowing African-Americans to join Union military campaigns and fight against the Confederacy. The addition of African-American soldiers would help tip the balance in their favor even more in the North’s favor, helping them to secure important victories. These former slaves

The Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, commanded by Robert Gould Shaw, was one of the most famous regiments of black soldiers. Among its members were two of Frederick

When the Civil War began in 1861, the issue of slavery was not the central focus of the war effort on the side of the Union. While it was still important to many in the North, the main war aim of the Union side was to preserve the Union and make sure it remained intact. As the war dragged on and more soldiers died on both sides, Lincoln realized he would need to entirely cripple the already weak Confederate economy, and he did this by making the Emancipation Proclamation, which became effective January 1, 1863. This executive order stated that all slaves in states currently in open rebellion against the United States were free from slavery. By doing this, he caused African Americans in slave states to cross into Union territory and into

About 180,000 African American people comprised 163 units that served in the Union Army, during the time of the Civil War, and many more African American people had served in the Union Navy. Both the free African-Americans and the runaway slaves had joined the fight. On the date of July 17, in the year of 1862, the U. S. Congress had passed two very important acts that would allow the enlistment of many African Americans, but the official enrollment had occurred only after the September, 1862, issuance of the, Emancipation Proclamation. In general, most white soldiers and officers, had believed that most of the black men, who had served in the Civil War, lacked the courage, and the will to fight

During his election campaign and throughout the early years of the Civil War, Lincoln vehemently denied the rumour that he would mount an attack on slavery. At the outbreak of fighting, he pledged to 'restore the Union, but accept slavery where it existed ', with Congress supporting his position via the Crittendon-Johnson Resolutions. However, during 1862 Lincoln was persuaded for a number of reasons that Negro emancipation as a war measure was both essential and sound. Public opinion seemed to be going that way, Negro slaves were helping the Southern war effort, and a string of defeats had left Northern morale low. A new moral boost to the cause might give weary Union soldiers added impetus in the fight. Furthermore, if the Union fought against slavery, Britain and France could not help the other side, since their 'peculiar institution ' was largely abhorred in both European nations. Having eased the American public into the idea, through speeches that hinted at emancipation, Lincoln finally signed the Proclamation on January 1st 1863, releasing all slaves behind rebel lines. Critics argued that the proclamation went little further than the Second Confiscation Act and it conveniently failed to release prisoners behind Union lines. Nevertheless, Henry Adams summed up public reaction to the Proclamation as an 'almost convulsive reaction in our favour '.

On September 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, issued the first, or preliminary, Emancipation Proclamation. In this document he warned that unless the states of the Confederacy returned to the Union by January 1, 1863, he would declare their slaves to be “forever free.” During the Civil War, he was fighting to save the Union and trying not to free the slaves. Lincoln was quoted to say, “I am not, nor have ever been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races.” The Emancipation Proclamation illustrated this view.

Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the nation, it captured the hearts and imagination of millions of Americans and fundamentally transformed the character of the war. After January 1, 1863, every advance of federal troops expanded the domain of freedom. Besides, the Proclamation announced the acceptance of black men into the Union Army and Navy, enabling the liberated to become liberators. By the end of the war, almost 200,000 black soldiers and sailors had fought for the Union and freedom.

The film Glory by Edward Zwick is one of the most well-known films of all time. The film itself is solely based upon the first formal unit of the Union Army during the American Civil War which consist of all African American men. They were essentially the very first unit of United States Colored Troops. They were formally known for their courageous attempts to and actions at Fort Wagner in 1863. The film is set in many different locations such as New York, Maryland, South Carolina and Massachusetts. In each of these different locations events took place that shaped our history. For example on November twenty seventh of 1862 Robert Shaw started to train soldiers. July eighteenth 1863 the Colonel Shaw and his troops attempted to take Fort Wagner, which didn’t succeed.