The colored troops.
On this day in 1863, President Lincoln wrote to General Grant at Vicksburg.
The city had fallen to Grant’s army a month earlier, giving Union forces control of the Mississippi River.
New things were now possible.
Among them was the recruitment of enslaved men of the South into the US Army.
This was the subject of Lincoln’s letter.
Lincoln hoped that a large number would be raised which could assume responsibility for holding captured areas of the South.
This would allow the regular Army to withdraw from the South and press on with active fighting elsewhere.
From Lincoln’s letter:
“My dear General Grant:
“Gen. [Lorenzo] Thomas [whom the War Department has placed in charge of recruiting Black troops] has gone again to the Mississippi Valley, with the view of raising colored troops.
“I have no reason to doubt that you are doing what you reasonably can upon the same subject.
“I believe it is a resource which, if vigorously applied now, will soon close the contest.
“It works doubly, weakening the enemy and strengthening us.
“We were not fully ripe for it until the [Mississippi] river was opened.
“Now, I think at least a hundred thousand can, and ought to be rapidly organized along its shores, relieving all the white troops to serve elsewhere.
“Yours very truly A. LINCOLN.”
From Grant’s reply:
“There has been great difficulty in getting able bodied negroes to fill up the colored regiments in consequence of the rebel cavalry run[n]ing off all that class to Georgia and Texas.
“I am now however sending two expeditions into Louisiana… that I expect will bring back a large number.
“I have ordered recruiting officers to accompany these expeditions.
“Gen. Thomas is now with me and you may rely on it I will give him all the aid in my power….
“[B]y arming the negro we have added a powerful ally.
“They will make good soldiers and taking them from the enemy weakens him in the same proportion they strengthen us.”
179,000 Black men served as soldiers in the US Army and another 19,000 served in the Navy.
Almost 40,000 of them died over the course of the war, mostly from infections and disease.
And Grant was right.
These formerly enslaved men proved to be noble warriors.
Sixteen Black men would receive the Medal of Honor for their service in the Civil War.
The Black troops’ demonstration of courage and commitment to the nation made their entitlement to the full rights of citizenship undeniable.
They deserved equal rights.
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I’ll see you tomorrow.
— Brenda
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