History Of The Black U.S. Soldier Essay, Research Paper

Throughout American history, Afro-Americans have had to decide

whether they belonged in the United States or if they should go

elsewhere. Slavery no doubtfully had a great impact upon their

decisions. However, despite their troubles African Americans have made

a grand contribution and a great impact on our armed forces since the

Revolutionary War. The Afro-American has fought against its country’s

wars, and they have also fought the war within their country to gain

the right to fight and freedom.

America’s first war, its war for independence from Great

Britain was a great accomplishment. This achievement could not have

been performed if not for the black soldiers in the armies. “The first

American to shed blood in the revolution that freed America from

British rule was Crispus Attucks, a Black seaman.” (Mullen 9) Attucks

along with four white men were killed in the Boston Massacre of March

5, 1770. Even though Attucks was a fugitive slave running from his

master, he was still willing to fight against England along with other

whites and give the ultimate sacrifice, his life, for freedom. This

wasn’t the only incident of Blacks giving it all during the War for

Independence.

From the first battles of Concord and Lexington in 1775, Black

soldiers “took up arms against the mother country.” (Mullen 11) Of the

many Black men who fought in those battles, the most famous are Peter

Salem, Cato Stedman, Cuff Whittemore, Cato Wood, Prince Estabrook,

Caesar Ferritt, Samuel Craft, Lemuel Haynes, and Pomp Blackman. One of

the most distinguished heroes o the Battle of Bunker Hill was Peter

Salem who, according to some sources, fired the shot that killed Major

John Pitcairn of the Royal Marines. But Peter Salem wasn’t the only

Black hero during the Revolutionary War.

Another Black man, Salem Poor, also made a hero of himself at

Bunker Hill. Because of his bravery at the battle, he was commended by

several officers to the Continental Congress. “Equally gallant at

Bunker Hill were Pomp Fisk, Grant Coope, Charleston Eads, Seymour

Burr, Titus Coburn, Cuff Hayes, and Caesar Dickenson.” (Wilson 32) Of

these men, Caesar Brown and Cuff Hayes were killed during the battle.

Even though the Afro-American soldiers clearly distinguished

themselves as soldiers, they were by no means wanted in the army.

“Shortly after General Washington took command of the Army, the white

colonists decided that not only should no Black slaves or freemen be

enlisted, but that those already serving in the Army should be

dismissed.” (Mullen 12)

The colonists would probably have kept Blacks out of the

military during the war if not for the proclamation by the Lord of

Dunmore. He stated “I do hereby… declare all… Negroes… free,

that are able and willing to bear arms, they joining his Majesty’s

troops, as soon as may be, for the more speedily reducing this colony

to a proper dignity.” This meant that any black soldiers willing to

fight for the British would be declared legally free. Therefore, the

Americans couldn’t afford to deny Black Americans, free or not, from

joining the army. Less than a month following Lord Dunmore’s

proclamation, General George Washington officially reversed his policy

about letting “free Negroes to enlist.” (Fowler 21)

“Of the 300,000 soldiers who served in the Continental Army

during the War of Independence, approximately five thousand were

Black. Some volunteered. Others were drafted. In addition to several

all-Black companies, an all-Black regiment was recruited from Rhode

Island. This regiment distinguished itself in the Battle of Rhode

Island on August 29, 1778.” (Wilson 22)

Between 1775 to 1781 there weren’t any battles without Black

participants. Black soldiers fought for the colonies at Lexington,

Concord, Ticonderoga, White Plains, Benington, Brandywine, Saratoga,

Savannah, and Yorktown. There were two Blacks, Prince Whipple and

Oliver Cromwell, with Washington when he crossed the Delaware River on

Christmas Day in 1776. “Some won recognition and a place in the

history of the War of Independence by their outstanding service,

although most have remained anonymous.” (Craine 43) Unfortunately

despite Afro-Americans’ contributions to the war effort and the large

amount of dead Blacks, few had gained their freedom. The War for

Independence was just the first of a list of wars Afro-Americans

would have a chance to participate in.

The second American war fought with Afro-American help was the

War of 1812. As Martin Delany put it, the Afro-American were “as ready

and as willing to volunteer in your service as any other… and Blacks

were not compelled to go; they were not draughted. They were

volunteers.” (Wilson 47) Black Americans fought the British on land

and sea, and they “were particularly conspicuous in the various naval

battles fought on the Great Lakes under the command of Oliver H.

Perry.” (Mullen 16) At least one-tenth of the crews of the fleet on

the lake region were African American. Captain Perry, like Washington,

objected to the appointment of Blacks to his naval ships. But after

the Battle of Lake Erie, Captain Perry was “unstinting” in

Afro-American praise as men who “seemed insensible to danger.” (Fowler

46)

After the Battle of Lake Erie the New York legislature

authorized the forming of two Black regiments. These regiments

included slaves with their masters’ permission, and two battalions of

Black soldiers were enlisted for New Orleans and its surrounding area.

The mobilization for New Orleans was particularly significant

because it was there on September 21,1814, three months before the

Battle of New Orleans, that General Andrew Jackson issued his

proclamation “To the Free Colored Inhabitants of Louisiana.” In that

proclamation, Jackson, who needed to augment and strengthen his

forces, called upon the free Blacks of Louisiana, which of course was

a slave state, to answer the appeal of their country. In the appeal he

confessed that “the policy of the United States in barring Negroes

from the service had been a mistaken one.” (Mullen 16)

The United States won the War of 1812. The slaves who had been

enlisted by their masters in the American army found themselves

re-enslaved after the war was over and the United States had no

further needs of their military services. The Afro-American thus found

himself as a servant to the White masters until the Civil War.

The third and most important war Black Americans fought in was

the American Civil War. Deven though this war eventually resulted in

the ending of slavery it was began between “Northern industrialists

and Southern Slave owners to determine who would have hegemony over

the federal government and who would be able to expand into the new

territories of the West” (Mullen 18). The question of slavery would

come later. “When the Civil War began, blacks weren’t allowed to fight

in the Union army.” (Utley 18) Unfortunately, Abraham Lincoln was more

concerned with political relations than the treatment of Afro-American

slaves.

The federal government and the Union army only began to “adopt

a policy of allowing and even encouraging the recruitment of Blacks

when it became clear that the war would be a long and drawn out

conflict in which it was essential to mobilize all the resources

possible and to weaken the enemy as much as possible. (Mullen 19 Utley

47) Even then Black troops weren’t really used. In Muly 1862, Congress

authorized the use of black soldiers in the Civil War, but there “was

no follow-up until January 1, 1863″ when Abraham Lincoln put the

“Emancipation Proclamation into effect.” (Mullen 23)

After the Emancipation Proclamation, the War Department moved

rapidly to begin the enlistment of Black Americans. During January

1863, the War Department authorized Massachusetts to raise two Black

regiments. Because of this nearly 200,000 Afro-American soldiers were

serving the army and an additional 300,000 were serving as laborers,

spies, servants or general helpers. Before the end of the war, there

had been 154 Black regiments formed in the army, of these 140 were

infantry units. These regiments fought in “battles and skirmishes and

suffered 68,178 fatalities on the battlefield in the course of the

war.” (Mullen 22)

By the war’s end there had been barely a battle where Black

soldiers had not fought. The Afro-American soldiers’ most outstanding

achievement was the “charge of the Third Brigade of the Eighteenth

Division on the Confederate fortifications on New Market Height near

Richmond, Virginia.” (Utley 48) Due to their heroic courage in that

battle, thirteen Black soldiers received Congressional Medals of Honor

in one day. “In all, twenty Negroes received the medal in recognition

of gallantry and intrepidity in combat during the Civil War.” (Mullen

23)

“John Hope Franklin estimates that the Black mortality rate in

the Army was nearly 40 percent higher than among white soldiers. This

was partially due to unfavorable conditions, poor equipment, bad

medical care, and the rapidity with which the Blacks were sent into

battle.” (Fowler 73) However as W.E.B. Du Bois pointed out that the

Black troops were “repeatedly and deliberately used as shock troops,

when there was little or no hope of success.”(Mullen 23) The

African-American soldier not only had success on land but as seamen.

Throughout the navy’s history Blacks had not ever been barred

or banned from enlisting. Due to an intense shortage of seaman, the

navy went farther than any other American armed force and adopted a

policy of signing up escaped slaves along with free Blacks. This

shortage of men benefited the Afro-American extremely because the navy

treated Blacks quite well. The navy was especially anxious to have its

Black sailors re-enlist. African-American sailors made up about

one-quarter of the sailors in the Union fleet. “Of the 118,044

enlistments during the Civil War, 29,511 were Blacks. Some of the

ships in the fleet were manned by predominantly Black crews, and there

was scarcely a ship without Afro-American crew members.” (Utley 37)

The navy not only was the first armed force to accept fugitive

slaves, it was also the first armed force to fully integrate both

Blacks and Whites. “Because of the close quarters on warships, it was

never practical to segregate the Negroes within the crews, the same

way the army did in all-Black units, and for that reason the navy was

not only integrated as a service, but also was integrated within each

ship.” (Mullen 31)

After the Civil War, the army was reorganized in 1886. Six

Black regiments were for formed by law to be a part of the regular

army for their valor during the Civil War. In 1866, Congress passed an

act creating four regiments: the Twenty fourth and Twenty-fifth

Infantry and the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry. These regiments were to be

permanent army regiments. Of these four regiments, the Ninth and Tenth

Cavalry distinguished themselves during the Indian Wars in the West

between 1870 and 1900. The Ninth and Tenth Cavalry were nicknamed

“Buffalo Soldiers” by the Cheyenne and Comanche, and these soldiers

were widely feared by the Indians. The Buffalo Soldiers constituted

about 20 percent of the armed forces in the West.

The 9th and 10th Cavalries’ service in subduing Mexican

revolutionaries, hostile Native Americans, outlaws, comancheros, and

rustlers was as invaluable as it was unrecognized. It was also

accomplished over some of the most rugged and inhospitable country in

North America. A list of their adversaries – Geronimo, Sitting Bull,

Victorio, Lone Wolf, Billy the Kid, and Pancho Villa – reads like a

quote of ‘Who’s Who’ of the American West. (Academic Assistance

Center)

The Buffalo Soldiers also explored and mapped large areas of

the southwest and strung thousands of miles of telegraph lines. The

Black Soldiers built and fixed frontier outposts where towns and even

cities would begin. “Without the protection provided by the 9th and

10th Cavalries, crews building the ever expanding railroads were at

the mercy of outlaws and hostile Indians.” (Utley 62) The Buffalo

Soldiers, despite extreme prejudices and the worst assignments, did

their duties to the best of their abilities. Thus, they continued to

receive more citations for valor than any other group in the United

States military.

The Spanish-American War gave them but another chance to prove

their abilities. African-American soldiers were involved in the war

from the beginning. At least thirty Blacks were stationed on the

battleship Maine when it exploded in Havana harbor on February 15,

1898. Of these men, twenty-two of them were killed. Thousands of

African-Americans volunteered to join the United States’ deficient

army. In the beginning, the newly formed Black regiments had no Black

officers. “But a widespread campaign around the slogan ‘No officers,

no fight” succeeded in winning some concessions. In all about

one-hundred officers were commissioned i the volunteer units in the

course of the war.” (Crane 52)

“In fact, Black troops played a conspicuous part in all three

of the major Cuban campaigns. Their performance was to be a source of

pride to Afro-Americans for years afterward.” (Mullen 36) Most of the

Buffalo soldiers fighting in Cuba won the commendation of their “white

officers.” The distinguished Black Ninth and Tenth Cavalry saved

Roosevelt and his Rough Riders from being completely slaughtered.

Theodore Roosevelt bestowed great praise of the Afro-American soldiers

at that time. The widespread heroism displayed by the African-American

soldiers ended up with six Buffalo soldiers receiving the

Congressional Medal of Honor.