Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 27, 1993 TAG: 9302270037
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
SOLDIERS OF MISFORTUNE
FOR black Civil War soldiers, our nation's reunification at Appomattox was a hollow victory. In fact, their struggle for freedom had only begun.About 180,000 blacks served in the Union Army as the original Freedom Marchers; 37,000 died of disease or battle wounds. Twenty-nine earned the Congressional Medal of Honor.
America might have remained a house divided without their contributions, which helped to turn the tide of war.
Yet their story is little known or recognized, according to Joseph T. Glatthaar, a historian regarded as the leading expert on blacks who fought in the Civil War.
Glatthaar spoke last week at Virginia Tech's annual Civil War weekend about the United States Colored Troops. It's a story of triumph and tragedy detailed in his award-winning 1990 book, "Forged in Battle."
"A chance to prove themselves was all they demanded," he said. "Only on the field of battle could these black soldiers prove beyond any doubt that they earned the same rights as whites."
Black soldiers fought a two-front contest during the war. Laying down their lives in battle - which they did in disproportionate numbers to white soldiers - was the straightforward part.
More difficult to overcome was the massive force of racial prejudice.
As the war began in 1861, more than 4 million blacks lived in the South, most as slaves. A quarter-million blacks lived in the North, technically free but second-class citizens in reality.
Initially, few dreamed of enlisting blacks. "Most whites regarded arming blacks and encouraging them to fight for their freedom as lunacy," said Glatthaar.
Abraham Lincoln and others resisted the notion of creating black units until the war grimly revealed that either North or South must be bled to death.
Attitudes toward organizing black units began to change as the war dragged on, casualties soared, and enthusiasm for the struggle waned.
The landmark event in the process was Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which indelibly marked the war as a crusade to defeat slavery.
After that document took effect, "The idea that a black man could stop a bullet as well as a white man grew into the organization of colored troops," said Glatthaar.
Frederick Douglass was among the first to summon his fellow blacks to arms. "This is our golden opportunity - let us accept it - win for ourselves the gratitude of our country," he urged.
Blacks flocked to recruiting stations throughout 1863. Many were escaped slaves who knew that military service guaranteed their freedom.
What they found were boot camps reminiscent of the system of bondage they had fled.
Authorities determined from the start that black troops were to be led only by white officers, many of whom disliked and mistrusted blacks.
"Even liberal-minded officers were prejudiced by our modern-day standards," Glatthaar said.
Black units received unequal pay, inferior equipment and inadequate medical care compared to white soldiers, he said.
Yet blacks retained their enthusiasm and a sense of pride and purpose. "I felt like a man with a uniform on and a gun in my hand," one soldier is quoted as saying. "I felt freedom in my bones," wrote another.
Doubts that blacks could master military techniques of march and battle were quickly dispelled.
And their initial combat experiences showed they could fight as well as white soldiers. "They fought like heroes," Glatthaar said.
One of the first black units to see action experienced the highest ratio of combat deaths - 45 percent - during a single engagement of any Union regiment in the entire war.
The most renowned fight involved the 54th Massachusetts and its fierce attack on Fort Wagner, S.C., in July 1863.
Although the regiment was beaten back with severe losses, the valor of the 54th and its commander, Col. Robert Gould Shaw, became known throughout the nation and changed popular attitudes about black soldiers.
The 54th Massachusetts and the attack on Ft. Wagner were dramatized in the 1989 movie "Glory," a movie Glatthaar praises for depth of accuracy and emotion.
Black troops were fierce and zealous warriors because they believed in the cause, and because they knew death probably was a better fate than capture by Rebel troops.
Southerners were both enraged and frightened by the prospect of facing black troops. When white and black collided in battle, racial hatred erupted.
There are numerous accounts of atrocities involving white Southern and black Union troops, including incidents in Virginia during battles at Petersburg and Saltville.
Yet the presence of black soldiers gave the Northern cause a boost that helped to settle the war.
"You can't overestimate their contribution," Glatthaar said.
Even the doomed South authorized the organization of black units late in the war, although the nation collapsed before they saw action.
One soldier, looking back, wrote: "The blood of the white and black man has flowed freely together for the great cause which is to give freedom, unity, manhood and peace to all men, whatever their birth or complexion."
However, all the high-minded notions of equality and freedom were lost after the war, as the nation returned to a hammerlock of segregation.
Years passed, more wars were fought, and yet blacks had to fight old battles on new ground to prove themselves, Glatthaar said.
Black soldiers knew their place in American history - at the back of the victory parade.