Black American Soldiers in the Civil War
by Matthew Elliott
Edited and revised by Dale Ricardo Shields
The American Civil War is arguably the most gruesome and brutal war in United States history. Brothers fought against brothers, fathers fought against sons, and through this terrible conflict, people were finally granted freedom. Though the war started with the goal of restoring the “Union,” what history remembers is that Slavery was finally put to an end. Everyone knows of Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address, the Emancipation Proclamation, Abolitionists like Fredrick Douglass, and even the 14th and 15th Amendments, but few recognize another important part of the civil war, the brave African American men who gave their lives in the pursuit of freedom for their people.
The former slave became a famed abolitionist. Called on Blacks to serve in the Union Army as it would be the best path to citizenship
Frederick Douglass
