The Greenbelt Black History and Culture Committee invites the community to hear a presentation given by Dr. Frank Smith, executive director of the African American Civil War Museum in Washington, D.C., and the auxiliary group, the Female Re-Enactors of Distinction. The presentation will be held Saturday, November 5 at 2 p.m. in the Community Center in recognition of Maryland Emancipation Day, November 1, 1864.
The emancipation of enslaved people became a reality after a bloody and devastating Civil War that tore the country apart and where more than 800,000 individuals lost their lives. It is estimated that 290,000 free and enslaved Black soldiers participated in various scrimmages during the war, but on July 17, 1862, the Militia Act enabled free and formerly enslaved Black men to officially join local militias.
Black men represented 10 percent of the Continental Navy from 1775-1783 during the American War for Independence. They were then subsequently banned from serving in the Navy in 1798, recruited again during the War of 1812 and have been allowed to continue to serve in the Navy to this day. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Black men were already serving in the Navy but not allowed to serve in the U.S. Army.
African descendant men were not permitted to join the Army or Marine Corps until after the Emancipation Proclamation was passed in 1863 and President Lincoln issued a field order to commanders to receive Colored men in all branches of the infantry and cavalry forces. Keep in mind that at the time Black men and women were not yet American citizens. Citizenship came when the 14th Amendment was passed in 1868.
In order to recruit free and enslaved Black men, leaders such as the great orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass issued a call: “Men of Color to arms, to arms. A war undertaken and brazenly carried on for the perpetual enslavement of colored men, calls logically and loudly for colored men to help suppress it. If we would be regarded men, if we would forever silence the tongue of Calumny, of Prejudice and Hate, let us Rise Now and Fly to Arms.”
The Bureau of U.S. Colored Troops was established on May 22, 1863, with general order 143. The first successful battle that engaged Black troops was at Port Hudson, La., in 1863. It was at the Battle of Fort Wagner in Charleston Harbor, S.C., also in 1863, that the 54th Massachusetts regiment proved the mettle of Black fighters. Although that battle was lost, Black men fought bravely and with distinction. For a modern-day depiction of this historical battle see the movie Glory.
Sgt. Major Christian Fleetwood was one of 15 Black soldiers who received the Medal of Honor for their service in the Virginia theater. In 1864, New Market Heights was captured with regiments of Black soldiers closing in on Richmond, the capital of the confederacy. As part of the XXV Army Corps, Black soldiers participated in the final capture of Richmond.
After reviewing the Third U.S. Colored regiment in Mississippi, a Union military inspector general stated that the superiority of that regiment was the reason that Colored troops should be part of the Armed Forces of the U.S. permanently. The U.S. Colored troops from Maryland served in the 4th, 7th, 9th, 30th and 39th Army Corps. (Hari Jones, African American Civil War Museum.)
Freed and enslaved Black men, along with countless numbers of supportive Black women who served as nurses, fought for the emancipation of four million enslaved individuals, for reunification of the country and for what they hoped would be freedom, justice and social equality for all. That is still the hope.