The Militia Act, passed by Congress in 1862, allowed free Black men and formerly enslaved men to fight for the U.S. during the Civil War. These soldiers, part of the U.S. Colored Troops ...

Frederick Douglass, “Address for the Promotion of Colored Enlistments,” 6 Jul 1863, quoted in Allen C. Guelzo, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America (New York: Simon & ...

The Civil War had begun ... rest worries over the willingness of black soldiers to fight. Soon other regiments were being formed, and in May 1863 the War Department established the Bureau of ...