Blacks_in_the_American_Civil_War

Blacks in the American Civil War Blacks in the American Civil War Despite extreme prejudices from the white society, African American soldiers were true heroes in the American Civil War. At the beginning of the Civil War, Lincoln called for a recruitment of 75,000 men. Many blacks came to volunteer, but were sent away unwanted. Most of the white population considered the Civil War to be a ‘White man’s war.’ Gov. David Todd had said, “This is a white man’s government, and we are able to defend and protect it” (McRae). Although very few, there were some white generals who wanted to recruit blacks into the Army. Lincoln’s reasoning behind not letting blacks into the Army was because he wanted to preserve the Union, without having to deal with the issue of slavery. In addition, he did not want the Border States to separate from the Union and join the Confederacy. If he let blacks join the Army, then white soldiers would have refused to fight with them. Many people felt that blacks were not able to fight as well as whites, and considered it a waste to enlist them. Gov. John Andrews of Massachusetts said, “It blacks, union, soldiers, war, civil, fight, white, army, slaves, black, troops, states, confederate, colored, after, emancipation, battle, lincoln, let, fort, slavery, general, freedom, won, served, race, north, men, massachusetts, make, lives, join, government, free, every, davis, confederacy, cause, border, beginning, back, american, although, about, 54th, 1863, yourselves, whites, while, wanted