1. Short title This Act may be cited as the United States Colored Troops Congressional Gold Medal Act . 2. Findings Congress finds the following: (1) Since the colonial era, African Americans have served the United States in times of war. (2) During the Civil War, approximately 200,000 African-American men served in the Union Army and 19,000 African-American men served in the Union Navy. (3) During the Civil War, African-American women were not allowed to formally enlist as soldiers or sailors, though they served as nurses, cooks, spies, and scouts for the Union Army and the Union Navy. (4) While African-American men served in the Navy since its establishment, there was resistance to enlisting them to take up arms for the Union Army at the start of the Civil War. (5) As the Civil War dragged on, President Lincoln broke from the previous policy of his administration and determined that liberating enslaved persons was a military necessity absolutely essential for the salvation of the Union . (6) The Act entitled An Act to suppress insurrection, to punish treason and rebellion, to seize and confiscate the property of rebels, and for other purposes , approved July 17, 1862 (commonly known as the Second Confiscation Act ) (12 Stat. 589; chapter 195), and the Act of July 17, 1862 (commonly known as the Military Act of 1862 ) (12 Stat. 597