Black Troops Before the End of the Civil War Essay

Submitted By JessieArmy
Words: 752
Pages: 4

Black Troops Before the End of the Civil War

The conditions and the especially the arguments that ultimately led the North and the South to consider using black troops in the Civil War were for the sake of argument the same difference. The North considered using them for reasons such as numbers, morale, and the Black population’s patriotism. The South considerations were of the same reasons with the added reason of "Constitutional
Rights". Both present great arguments that will be debated later on & throughout history. The use of black troops was denied on both sides because of a couple of common end results and questions. Question 1) Will the Black troops be braves enough to stand post when under fire as White troops? Question 2) Will the Black troops be considers themselves equal to White troops? Question 3) Will Black troops be fight well enough as their White counterpart on the battlefield? The Civil War was fought for different reasons on both sides. But as stated before, with common underlying causes. Would they be good enough soldiers or should they be kept as laborers instead? In this we will explore both.

Let me begin this by saying that President Lincoln did the best that he could possible do in order to avoid the subject of enlisting the aid of Black troops. He had the foresight to not turn this into a ‘race issue’ which in oh so popular today. I say that because the British at the time supported the Southern states and if President Lincoln wasn’t careful in his words to avoid the questions that were being posed, the British would have supported the South, and a much different war would had resulted. Time and circumstance in mind, the questions presented above would have had relevance however, it doesn’t. Black soldiers were used in the American Revolution as well as the War of 1812 and they did their job well. What was the problem with using them now? The issue for the North was “Should we or shouldn’t we?” Many in the Senate wanted to use them. However President Lincoln was reluctant in making the final call. Conditions were that of what we as a nation are still struggling with today is that of equality. Same applies to the South. Many Whites in the South wanted to use them for the simple reason of numbers. The North had more of them & the causality list was quite frankly shorter. Even when the North lost, it was short. The South of quite simply was in the same boat as the Union. So many people of either side wanted to enlist them and arm them (Black troops), but equality thing kept coming up. The majority of abolishists wanted to use Blacks but was afraid they (Blacks) would consider themselves equals (even President Lincoln has