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CIVIL WAR

Ulysses S. Grant led the North  

STATES vs STATES

Robert E. Lee commanded the south.

BROTHER vs BROTHER

The Civil War was the bloodiest our nation has ever fought. The primary issue was succession. Could a state withdraw from the union? President Lincoln's answer was "No". Slavery, although the basis for the desire to succeed from the union became the battle cry, but there was no great love for Negroes then, or now; north or south.

President Lincoln was more concerned with

preserving the union over the plight of the slaves.

For blacks to serve required convincing from men that hoped that military service would open the way for equality.

Frederick Douglas , and other free black Americans,

Thousands of black men took up arms in hopes      that their willingness to die for freedom would insure them freedom. Over a score of them earned the Medal of Honor for service to a country that would hold no loyalty to their aspirations for a day of equality.

Black men joined the ranks of the Union Army in the fight to free the slaves.

These men volunteered knowing if they were captured they would be hanged.

Harriet Tubman having repeatedly displayed unparalleled courage as a conductor of the Underground Railroad served during the Civil War as a Union spy, and scout. 

During the Civil War, black soldiers who served in the Union Army were paid less than white soldiers and suffered blatant racist treatment. Confederates declared they would not treat captured black soldiers and their white officers as legitimate prisoners of war. Instead they threatened to treat captured black soldiers as runaway slaves and to execute their white officers. At Fort Pillow, Tennessee, Confederate forces commanded by Nathan Bedford Forrest, later an organizer of the Ku Klux Klan, murdered hundreds of captured black soldiers in 1864. "Remember Fort Pillow" became a rallying cry for black soldiers who became more determined to defeat the Confederacy.

Fort Pillow, in east central Tennessee, on the east bank of the Mississippi River, north of Memphis, noted as the site of the Massacre of Fort Pillow during the American Civil War (1861-1865). The fort was constructed by Confederate forces under the direction of General Gideon Pillow in the spring of 1862, but was abandoned by them on June 4 of the same year. A small Union force occupied the fort on June 5, and it remained in their possession, lightly garrisoned, until April 12, 1864, when it was reinforced by about 500 men, a majority of them black, and many Tennessee whites who fought with the Union. On that day, Fort Pillow was attacked and overpowered by a strong Confederate force under Nathan Bedford Forrest. The Confederates were later accused by the United States War Department of deliberately massacring more than 300 black soldiers in the fort after the surrender. Only about 160 white and 40 black prisoners were taken.

By the end of the war, the United States had depended on the services of over 200,000 black soldiers and sailors, about 20 of whom received the Medal of Honor.

Sgt. William Carney carried the battle flag of the 54th Massachusetts as he and his fellow soldiers stormed Fort Wagner. For his bravery Carney was awarded the Medal of Honor.

These pages of Christian Fleetwood's diary detail his actions during a battle at Chaffin's farm near Richmond, Virginia, on September 29, 1864, which led to his receipt of the Congressional Medal of Honor. Fleetwood was one of fourteen African American men who received the medal for meritorious service during the war. Fleetwood's regiment, the 4th U. S. Colored Infantry, saw action in Virginia. His diary also documents North Carolina campaigns and President Lincoln's visit to the front lines in June 1864.

         

In April 1865 the Union defeated the Confederacy, and slavery came to an end. President Lincoln acknowledged the critical role black troops had played in winning the war. A few days later, on April 15, Lincoln was assassinated, and Vice-President Andrew Johnson of Tennessee became president. In December of that year the states ratified the 13th amendment that formally abolished slavery. However, the U.S. victory and the end of slavery did not bring complete freedom to Southern blacks. Instead, the process of rebuilding the Union, known as Reconstruction, began.

WE WON !!!

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