CONTACT: Eric Durr, 518-786-4581: Story by Sgt. 1st Class Raymond Drumsta

FOR RELEASE: Friday, Jul 29, 2011

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY (07/29/2011)(readMedia)-- Early in the Civil War, less than a century after black soldiers helped defeat the British to found America; New York, other states and the federal government refused to enlist black volunteers to fight in the bloody conflict which eventually decided their future as Americans. "Colored men were good enough to fight under Washington," abolitionist, writer, activist, former slave and Rochester resident Frederick Douglass declared in 1862. "They are not good enough to fight under McClellan. They were good enough to fight under Andrew Jackson. They are not good enough to fight under Gen. Halleck. They were good enough to help win American independence but they are not good enough to help preserve that independence against treason and rebellion." The formal rejection of African-American volunteers in New York occurred the year before, when Governor Edwin D. Morgan turned away colored regiments by executive fiat on July 26, 1861 -- just after the Union defeat at Bull Run. But the country and its leaders had been openly discouraging black volunteers from the war’s beginning, as did the cabinet of President Abraham Lincoln - the "rail-splitter" who could be better described as a fence-sitter on the issue of slavery and Negro citizenship. Up to that point, Lincoln evinced anything but liberty for the slaves. In his inaugural address that March, he promised to preserve the union, not to interfere with slavery as it stood and not to repeal the Fugitive Slave Law. Like others, he thought the war wouldn’t last long -- "this much ado about nothing will end in a month" a Philadelphia paper predicted -- but he privately feared that recruiting blacks might cause slaveholding border states to join the rebellion. "For practical political reasons, Lincoln did not openly lead the movement toward the enlistment of blacks," wrote historian John T. Hubbell. "Prior to 1863, long before he expressed enthusiasm for the idea, he allowed others to take the first steps; he remained silent, overruled them, or caused them to be overruled. He was always sensitive to political considerations and to the perquisites and powers of his office. Timing, the right moment, was critical - and Lincoln always deemed himself a better judge of the moment than those who advised him formally or informally." African-Americans Rallied to the Colors in the North Early But even before the fall of Fort Sumter in April 1861 touched off the war, blacks saw the coming conflict as their fight against slavery and a ticket to citizenship. Speaking after the Sumter’s surrender, Douglass advocated the creation of 10,000-strong army made up slaves and freedmen. "One black regiment alone would be, in such a war, the equal of two white ones," said Douglass, who was a New York State resident for a good part of his life. "Every consideration of justice, humanity and sound policy confirms the wisdom of calling upon black men just now to take up arms in behalf of their country." From Boston to Battle Creek, Michigan, citizens -- mostly African-Americans -- began meeting, making resolutions to fight, forming regiments, drilling or promising to recruit African-American troops. In the south, freeman came forward offering to be soldiers or workers for the Confederate Army. On April 23, Jacob Dobson, an African-American man who worked in the capital, wrote to Secretary of War Simon Cameron that he knew of "some 300 reliable colored free citizens of this city, who desire to enter the service for defense of the city." In Baltimore, 300 to 400 African-Americans tried to do just that, days after Sumter’s fall. "A black regiment from this city could be put the field in thirty days," a white New Yorker told Cameron. "Efficient and competent white soldiers are waiting to lead it." In New York City, African-Americans formed a unit, rented a hall and began drilling. Evoking their heritage of sacrifice in other conflicts, African-Americans in Boston met and petitioned the state legislature for a chance to serve. The negro "will go where duty shall call," an African-American citizen summarized to a Boston newspaper. "Not as a black man, but as an American. He will stand by the side of his brave fellow countrymen." On April 17, 1861, four days after fall of Sumter, African-Americans in Pittsburgh met, publicly resolved to sustain the Lincoln administration, defend the nation "against the tyranny of slavery," and formed the Hannibal Guards. Describing themselves as American citizens deprived of political rights but nonetheless sympathetic with their fellow citizens, they offered their unit to the service of Pennsylvania. Likewise calling up African-American military heritage, blacks in Cincinnati, Cleveland and Albany, Ohio formed units with names like the Home Guards or Attucks Guards -- after African-American and American Revolution martyr Crispus Attucks -- and offered them for service in the war. "Resolved, that we as colored citizens of Cleveland, desiring to prove our loyalty to our government, feel that we should adopt measures to put ourselves in a position to defend the government of which we claim protection," the Cleveland freedmen declared. "As in the times of ’76 and the days of 1812, we are ready to go forth and do battle in the common cause of our country." They were speaking the truth. Slaves and free blacks served as soldiers and marines in the Continental Army, and as Guerillas with "Swamp Fox" Francis Marion -- remaining effective while the malarial swamps felled their fellow white guerillas. The 1st Rhode Island Regiment, considered the first African-American unit, helped defeat the British at Yorktown. Though blacks were allowed to serve in the Navy because of chronic manpower shortages, a 1792 law prohibited them from joining the Army. Louisiana was exempted from this law, and The Louisiana Battalion of Free Men of Color served under Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans. But in 1861, the official and citizen reactions to the prospect of African-American enlistment ranged from politely dismissive to hostile. In Baltimore, Mayor George W. Brown thanked the volunteers, promising to call on them if they’re were needed. "I have to say that this department has no intention to call into the service of the governor any colored soldiers," was Cameron’s single-sentence reply to Dobson. The New York City police told African-Americans to stop drilling, or he couldn’t shield them "mob assault by the Negro-hating lower classes of the city," according to historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author James M. McPherson. Labeling them "disorderly gatherings," Providence, R.I. police broke up meetings of drilling freemen. "Your patriotic letter of the 20th inst. is received," the Ohio Militia commander told blacks citizens who had offered to raise a "corps" in Cleveland. "The constitution will not permit me to issue the order." Ohio Governor David Tod added his practical concern:"Do you know that this is a white man’s government," Tod said, "that the white men are able to defend and protect it, and that to enlist a Negro soldier would be to drive away every white man out of service." Recruiters turned down black volunteers, and Baltimore citizens stoned an African-American man when he tried to join troops marching to defend Washington. Escaped Slaves Forced the Issue of African-American Soldiers Meanwhile, slaves were escaping to Union lines, putting commanders in a quandary about their status. Eventually the government passed an act allowing escaped slaves to be kept as contraband of war, and they came to be called contrabands. As they had before the war, blacks -- freeman and now escaped slaves -- worked in the opposing armies as cooks, orderlies, skilled tradesmen or laborers. Congress debated the question of African-American soldiers as well, with Senator Henry Wilson and Senator Charles Sumner supporting the idea. "I do not say carry the war into Africa, but carry Africa into the war," Sumner said. The New York Times noted the administration’s indecision about the issue in a May 31, 1861 item entitled "The Peculiar Institution Again." "The cabinet had a meeting today, as was supposed, for the purpose of determining what to should be done with the ’inevitable chattel.’" the paper reported. "Our officers are getting more volunteers of that kind than are wanted. In fact, the negro has become a kind of Tartar, that the government can neither hold nor let go." The cabinet adjourned, the issues unresolved, the story concluded. The paper reported similar dithering by congress in a July 24 story. Republicans frustrated a call for Cameron to tell them "whether there be negroes in the Army of the United States who have been armed, and whether there are negroes, the property of any of the revolted States, who have been used by our army in throwing up breastworks or impediments, and if so at what places and the number of slaves employed," according to the paper. Though the Confederacy experienced political ambivalence about the war-time use of African-Americans, the Tennessee legislature authorized their enlistment in 1861. Motivated by a mixture of patriotism, fear and a yearning to be on more of an equal footing with whites citizens, free blacks in New Orleans met, offered their services to the state and formed the "Native Guards," and paraded, 1,400 strong, with white troops in the city that November. In July, however, the Confederate secretary of war declined an offer to enlist slaves led by white officers, replaying curtly: "The supply of white men was already in excess of the arms at hand." When Gen. Benjamin Butler captured New Orleans in 1862, the Native Guards refused to join retreating rebel troops and declared their loyalty to the Union. Though hopes for a short war died with the horrendous losses and Union defeat a at Bull Run on July 21, Lincoln called for 50,000 black men to serve in their traditional roles and as scouts and spies - but not as soldiers. Along with black volunteers, Morgan and Cameron turned away Erie Canal engineer and New Yorker Ely Parker because he was a Native American. Morgan also rebuffed Parker’s offer to recruit other Native Americans from New York. Though some African-Americans remained hopeful, Douglass and others were disgusted at the continuing enlistment ban. "We of the north must have all the rights which white man enjoy; until then we are in no condition to fight under the flag which gives us no protection," an African-American from Troy, N.Y. opined in the Anglo-American. Though the year closed with frustration and no resolution, there were some signs the tide was turning as newspapers and others joined the call for abolition and equality. "It is not my opinion that our generals, when any man comes to the standard and desires to defend the flag, will find it important to light a candle, and see what his complexion is, or to consult the family bible to ascertain whether his grandfather came from the banks of the Thames or the banks of the Senegal," Massachusetts Governor John A. Andrew told a New York crowd in October. "The lives of white men can and ought to be spared by the employment of blacks as soldiers," the Philadelphia North American declared in 1862. 186,000 African Americans Eventually Fought for the Union and their Freedom About a year after Bull Run, the Emancipation Proclamation and other laws officially made way for black enlistment. But by that time, states had already started recruiting black troops, including the Black Brigade of Cincinnati. Douglass aggressively recruited, and his son Lewis, along with over 100 African-Americans from New York State, were among the troops which stormed Battery Wagner on July 18, 1863, an incident made famous in the movie "Glory." Ironically, New York City mobs angry over the draft turned their wrath on African-Americans, tortured and lynched at least 11 black men, and beat countless others just days before. Nonetheless, 186,000 African-Americans served in the Union Army in the Civil War, including about 4,100 black soldiers from New York State. More than 500,000 New Yorkers enlisted in the Army and Navy during the four years of the Civil War and 53,114 New Yorkers died. Throughout the period of the Civil War Sesquicentennial observance, the New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs will produce short articles about New York’s Civil War experience researched by the New York State Military Museum in Saratoga Springs. For more information, go the NewYork State Military Museum Civil War Timeline Website at http://dmna.ny.gov/civilwar/