United States Colored Troops
Who were the United States Colored Troop - U.S.C.T.
The United States Colored Troops made up over ten percent of the Union or Northern Army even though they were prohibited from joining until July 1862, fifteen months into the war. They comprised twenty-five percent of the Union navy. Yet, only one percent of the Northern population was African American. Clearly overrepresented in the military, African Americans played a decisive role in the Civil War.
In July of 1862, Congress passed the Militia Act of 1862. It had become an “indispensable military necessity” to call on America’s African descent population to help save the Union. A few weeks after President Lincoln signed the legislation on July 17, 1862, free men of color joined volunteer regiments in Illinois and New York. Such men would go on to fight in some of the most noted campaigns and battles of the war to include, Antietam, Vicksburg, Gettysburg, and Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign.
On September 27, 1862, the first regiment to become a United States Colored Troops (USCT) regiment was officially brought into the Union army. All the captains and lieutenants in this Louisiana regiment were men of African descent. The regiment was immediately assigned combat duties, and it captured Donaldsonville, Louisiana on October 27, 1862. Before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, two more African descent regiments from Kansas and South Carolina would demonstrate their prowess in combat.
After the Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863, the War Department publicly authorized the recruiting of African Americans. The first regiment raised with such authority was the 54th Massachusetts Infantry. (Leading many to report that it was the first African descent regiment.) By the end of 1863, General Ulysses S. Grant viewed the African descent population armed with the Proclamation as a “powerful ally.”
Lincoln signed the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act into law on April 16, 1862. The bill immediately freed enslaved people in the district and compensated former slave owners who were loyal to the Union up to $300 for each freeperson, according to the U.S. Senate Historical Office — just under $8,886 per person in 2023.
Number of Enlisted of US Colored
Troops (USCT) by State
The 209,145 names are drawn from official records of the Bureau of US Colored Troops (USCT) at the National Archives and engraved on the Wall of Honor of the African American Civil War Memorial, Washington, D.C. Following are the numbers of enlistees attributed to the states in which they enlisted:
Locating United States Colored Troops Records
M1817, 1st through 5th United States Colored Cavalry, 5th Massachusetts Cavalry (Colored), 6th United States Colored Cavalry
1st United States Colored Infantry; 1st South Carolina Volunteers (Colored), Company A, 1st United States Colored Infantry
M1820, Infantry Organizations 2nd through 7th including Tennessee and Louisiana
M1821, Infantry organizations 8th through 13th including the 11th (new)
M1822, Infantry organizations, 14th through 19th
M1823, Infantry organizations, 20th through 25th
M1824, Infantry Organizations 26th through 30th including 29th Connecticut
M1992, Infantry organizations, 31st through 35th
M1993, Infantry organizations, 36th through 40th
M1994, Infantry Organizations, 41st through 46th
M2000, Infantry Organization, 47th through 55th.
M1898, 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment (Colored)
M1801, 55th Massachusetts Infantry (Colored)
M1894, Descriptive recruitment lists of volunteers for the United States Colored Troops for the State of Missouri,1863-1865
Freedmen’s Bureau Records: Register of Bounty Claims
United States Civil war Service Records of Union Colored Troops, 1863-1865
United States, Compiled Military Service Records Of Volunteer Union Soldiers Who Served With The U.S. Colored Troops, 1861-1866
United States, Missouri, Recruitment Lists of Volunteers for the United States Colored Troops, 1863-1865
United States Colored Troops in the Civil War
United States Census of Union Veterans and Widows of the Civil War, 1890
Colored Troops Division, 1863-1888 Adjutant General’s Office
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