"Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letter, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship."
                       -Frederick Douglass

The American Civil War is arguably the most crucial period in our nation’s history. The issue of slavery quite literally divided the nation in half. Thousands of courageous African-Americans were initially denied the opportunity to enlist due to a 1792 federal law prohibiting black soldiers in the Army, even though black soldiers had fought in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. Eventually the policy was reversed and by war’s end, more than 179,000 black men served in the U.S. Army and another 19,000 served in the Navy. Nearly 40,000 black soldiers died over the course of the war. —There were nearly 80 black commissioned officers. Black women, who could not formally join the Army, nonetheless served as nurses, spies, and scouts.

District of Columbia. Company E, 4th U.S. Colored Infantry, at Fort Lincoln (29th Regiment from Connecticut at Beaufort, S.C., 1864. Source: Library of Congress.

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