Why were black men eager to fight in the Civil War? What did they hope to gain by fighting for the United States?
During the Civil War, African-Americans actively fought for their freedom. Slaves had never accepted that slavery was legitimate, and they reminded slave owners of their discontent for more than two centuries. When black Southerners heard about the Emancipation Proclamation, they realized that reaching the Union Army would make them free. As a result, a growing number of slaves began to escape and run to the Union lines if the army passed through their area. These free black people were both a problem and an opportunity for the Union forces. On the one hand, in the midst of a war, Union commanders sometimes did not know what to do with the free blacks tagging along with their units. On the other hand, these black people were eager to contribute to the war effort and so were soon employed to take care of horses, tend supplies, cut wood, cook meals, dig trenches, and perform other jobs that aided the Union war effort.
In January 1863, the U.S. government authorized the creation of the first regiment of black soldiers, and in May created the Bureau of Colored Troops. Approximately 180,000 black men (some of whom were free blacks, but most of whom had been slaves) served in the U.S. Army, and another 10,000 in the Navy. To black Americans, seeing black men become U.S. soldiers was among the most thrilling embodiments of equality. As the abolitionist Frederick Douglass wrote, now that a black man could be a soldier, "there is no power on earth which can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship in the United States."