The US Colored Troops Civil War History
War Department General Order 143:
[The War Department issued General Order 143 on May 22, 1863, creating the United States Colored Troops.
By the end of the Civil War, approximately 180,000 black men served as soldiers in the U.S. Army, and an additional
19,000 served in the U.S. Navy.]
ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE,
May 22, 1863.
I -- A Bureau is established in the Adjutant General's Office for the record
of all matters relating to the organization of Colored Troops, An officer, will be assigned to the charge of the Bureau, with
such number of clerks as may be designated by the Adjutant General.
II -- Three or more field officers will be detailed as Inspectors to supervise
the organization of colored troops at such points as may be indicated by the War Department in the Northern and Western States.
III -- Boards will be convened at such posts as may be decided upon by the
War Department to examine applicants for commissions to command colored troops, who, on Application to the Adjutant General,
may receive authority to present themselves to the board for examination.
IV -- No persons shall be allowed to recruit for colored troops except specially
authorized by the War Department; and no such authority will be given to persons who have not been examined and passed by
a board; nor will such authority be given any one person to raise more than one regiment.
V -- The reports of Boards will specify the grade of commission for which
each candidate is fit, and authority to recruit will be given in accordance. Commissions will be issued from the Adjutant
General's Office when the prescribed number of men is ready for muster into service.
VI -- Colored troops maybe accepted by companies, to be afterward consolidated
in battalions and regiments by the Adjutant General. The regiments will be numbered seriatim, in the order in which they are
raised, the numbers to be determined by the Adjutant General. They will be designated: "——Regiment of U. S. Colored
VII -- Recruiting stations and depots will be established by the Adjutant
General as circumstances shall require, and officers will be detailed to muster and inspect the troops.
VIII -- The non-commissioned officers of colored troops may be selected and
appointed from the best men of their number in the usual mode of appointing non-commissioned officers. Meritorious commissioned
officers will be entitled to promotion to higher rank if they prove themselves equal to it.
IX -- All personal applications for appointments in colored regiments, or
for information concerning them, must be made to the Chief of the Bureau; all written communications should be addressed to
the Chief of the Bureau, to the care of the Adjutant General,
BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR:
E. D. TOWNSEND,
(Related reading below.)
Recommended Reading: The Sable Arm: Black Troops in the Union Army, 1861-1865 (Modern War Studies). Description: A bona fide classic,
The Sable Arm was the first work to fully chronicle the remarkable story of the nearly 180,000 black troops who served in
the Union army. This work paved the way for the exploration of the black military experience in other wars. This edition,
with a new foreword by Herman Hattaway and bibliographical essay by the author, makes available once again a pioneering work
that will be especially useful for scholars and students of Civil War, black, and military history. Continued below...
Civil War Times Illustrated: "One
of the one hundred best books ever written on the Civil War."
Recommended Reading: A
Grand Army of Black Men: Letters from African-American Soldiers in the Union Army 1861-1865 (Cambridge Studies in American
Literature and Culture). Description: The Civil
War stands vivid in the collective memory of the American public. There has always been a profound interest in the subject,
and specifically of Blacks' participation in and reactions to the war and the war's outcome. Almost 200,000 African-American
soldiers fought for the Union in the Civil War. Although most were illiterate ex-slaves, several thousand were well educated,
free black men from the northern states. The 129 letters in this collection were written by black soldiers in the Union army
during the Civil War to black and abolitionist newspapers. Continued below...
They provide a unique expression of the black voice that was meant for a
public forum. The letters tell of the men's experiences, their fears, and their hopes. They describe in detail their army
days--the excitement of combat and the drudgery of digging trenches. Some letters give vivid descriptions of battle; others
protest racism; while others call eloquently for civil rights. Many describe their conviction that they are fighting
not only to free the slaves but to earn equal rights as citizens. These letters give an extraordinary picture of the war and
also reveal the bright expectations, hopes, and ultimately the demands that black soldiers had for the future--for themselves
and for their race. As first-person documents of the Civil War, the letters are strong statements of the American dream of
justice and equality, and of the human spirit.
Reading: Black Union
Soldiers in the Civil War. Description: This book refutes the historical slander
that blacks did not fight for their emancipation from slavery. At first harshly rejected in their attempts to enlist in the
Union army, blacks were eventually accepted into the service—often through the efforts of individual generals who, frustrated
with bureaucratic inaction in the face of dwindling forces, overrode orders from the secretary of war and even the president.
By the end
of the Civil War, African American soldiers had numbered more than 180,000 and served in 167 regiments. Seventeen were awarded
the nation’s highest award for valor and heroism--the Medal of Honor.
Theirs was a remarkable achievement whose full story is finally revealed.
Reading: The Negro's Civil War:
How American Blacks Felt and Acted During the War for the Union. Description: In this
classic study, Pulitzer Prize-winning author James M. McPherson deftly narrates the experience of blacks--former slaves and
soldiers, preachers, visionaries, doctors, intellectuals, and common people--during the Civil War. Drawing on contemporary
journalism, speeches, books, and letters, he presents an eclectic chronicle of their fears and hopes as well as their essential
contributions to their own freedom. Continued below...
words of these extraordinary participants, both Northern and Southern, McPherson captures African-American responses to emancipation,
the shifting attitudes toward Lincoln and the life of black soldiers in the Union army. Above all, we are allowed to witness
the dreams of a disenfranchised people eager to embrace the rights and the equality offered to them, finally, as citizens.
Recommended Reading: Black Profiles in Courage: A Legacy of African-American
Achievement. Description: With all the flair of his last-second game-winning sky hooks,
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar delivers a well-written and important collection highlighting the lives of America's greatest black heroes. Taking his title cue from John Kennedy's Profiles
in Courage, Abdul-Jabbar brings to life the exploits of a wide variety of African Americans, including Estevanico, a Moorish
slave who discovered Arizona and New Mexico; Cinque, a kidnapped African slave who led a mutiny aboard the slave ship Amistad
and later won his freedom in the U.S.; and Harriet Tubman, who brought hundreds of slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad.
In a time when the media beams
negative images of African Americans around the world, Black Profiles in Courage is indispensable for young adults of other
races as well as African-American youth, showing that attributes like courage are not coded by color. For those young blacks
who feel distant from America because of racism, books like this are a small but potent antidote against prejudice, reminding
them of the important contributions African Americans have made to their country.