regiments would rarely, if ever, be used in combat. As a result, black soldiers endured a disproportionate share of labor duty. Also the assumption that black soldiers were workers, not fighters, led to inequities in pay. It was initially indicated that black soldiers would be paid $13 per month, which was the wage that white soldiers received. But in the Militia Act of 1862, Congress set the pay for black soldiers at $10 per month, $3 of which could be in clothing, which was the rate for military laborers. Black soldiers were also often denied recruitment bounties routinely offered to white soldiers, and were rarely eligible to collect aid for dependents, a benefit that state legislation often made available to white men serving in the ranks. Major supporters After the Emancipation Proclamation was announced, black recruitment was pursued in earnest. Volunteers from South Carolina, Tennessee, and Massachusetts filled the first authorized black regiments. However recruitment was slow until the support of prominent figures of African American cultures such as Frederick Douglass and Martin Delany. Martin Delany was commissioned as a major, the first African-American field officer in the United States Army during the American Civil War and was active in recruiting blacks for the United States Colored Troops. Frederick Douglass, on the other hand, encouraged black men to become soldiers to ensure eventual full citizenship. Volunteers began to respond, and in May 1863 the Government established the Bureau of Colored Troops to manage the burgeoning numbers of black soldiers. Notes Union Army Military history of African Americans in the American Civil War Washington, D.C., in the American Civil War 19th-century history of the United States Army 1863 establishments in Washington, D.C.