Lincoln and the U.S. Colored Troops

Concise Lincoln Library

by John David Smith

When Abraham Lincoln issued his final Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, he not only freed the slaves in the Confederate states but also invited freed slaves and free persons of color to join the U.S. Army as part of the U.S. Colored Troops (USCT), the first systematic, large-scale effort by the U.S. government to arm African Americans to aid in the nation’s defense. By the end of the war in 1865, nearly 180,000 black soldiers had fought for the Union. Lincoln’s role in the arming of African Americans remains a central but unfortunately obscure part of one of the most compelling periods in American history.  In Lincoln and the U.S. Colored Troops John David Smith offers a concise, enlightening exploration of the development of Lincoln’s military emancipation project, its implementation, and the recruitment and deployment of black troops.   Though scholars have written much on emancipation and the USCT, Smith’s work frames the evolution of Lincoln’s ideas on emancipation and arming blacks within congressional actions, explaining how, when, and why the president seemed to be so halting in his progression to military emancipation. After tracing Lincoln’s evolution from opposing to supporting emancipation as a necessary war measure and to championing the recruitment of black troops for the Union Army, Smith details the creation, mobilization, and diverse military service of the USCT. He assesses the hardships under which the men of the USCT served, including the multiple forms of discrimination from so-called friends and foes alike, and examines the broad meaning of Lincoln’s military emancipation project and its place in African American historical memory.

168 pages, Hardcover

First published November 4, 2013

About the author

JOHN DAVID SMITH is Graduate Alumni Distinguished Professor of History and Director of M.A. Program in Public History at North Carolina State University. He is the author or editor of more than a dozen books and in 1998-99 he served as the Fulbright Professor of American Studies at the Amerika Institut, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat, Munich, Germany

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book describes Lincoln's rationale behind forming the US Colored Troops, along with their history and performance. I think it's an important book because oftentimes Civil War history seems to only reference black people as slaves and not as active participants, as they are portrayed in this book. So it offers a different perspective. I probably would have rather read a book about the USCT than Lincoln and the USCT, though.