When war broke out in 1861, African Americans were
ready. Free African Americans flocked to join the Union army, but were
rejected at first for fear of alienating pro-slavery sympathizers in the
North and the Border States. With time, though, this position weakened,
and African Americans, both free Northerners and escaped Southerners,
were allowed to enlist. By the end of the war four years later, more
than 186,000 African American soldiers had served, including several
officers, making up 10 percent of the Union army. More than 38,000 lost
their lives, and 21 were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor,
including Sergeant Major Christian Fleetwood. Years later, Fleetwood
would write:
<span>Colored pickets on duty,
ca.1861-ca.1865</span>
<span>
After each war, of 1776, of 1812, and of 1861, history repeats itself
in the absolute effacement of remembrance of the gallant deeds done for
the country by its brave black defenders and in their relegation to
outer darkness. History further repeats itself in the fact that in every
war so far known to this country, the first blood, and, in some cases,
the last also, has been shed by the faithful Negro, and this in spite of
all the years of bondage and oppression, and of wrongs unspeakable.
</span>
The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 marked the
official beginning of freedom for enslaved African Americans in the
Confederacy, although many did not hear of it for several months.
However, much of the slave population of the South had been finding its
way to freedom for some time, as African Americans walked off their
plantations and farms in vast numbers, many making their way to the
Union lines for food and clothing. This slow-spreading freedom
eventually brought the Confederate economy to a near-standstill and
helped guarantee its defeat at the hands of the Union.
