#Army general orders 2017 free#

By mid-1862, however, the government was pushed into reconsidering the ban because of the escalating numbers of formerly enslaved people coming across Union lines (referred to in the military as 'contrabands'), the declining number of white volunteers, and the pressing personnel needs of the Union Army.Īs a result, on July 17, 1862, Congress passed the Second Confiscation and Militia Act, freeing enslaved people whose enslavers were in the Confederate Army.

Frémont in Missouri and General David Hunter in South Carolina issued proclamations that emancipated enslaved people in their military regions and permitted them to enlist, their superiors sternly revoked their orders. President Lincoln's administration wrestled with the idea of authorizing the recruitment of Black troops, but was concerned that such a move would prompt the border states to secede. In Boston, disappointed would-be volunteers met and passed a resolution requesting that the government modify its laws to permit their enlistment. They were turned away, however, because a 1792 federal law barred them from bearing arms for the U.S.

#Army general orders 2017 free#

garrison at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina – which began the Civil War in earnest – set off a rush by free Black men to enlist in U.S. The issues of emancipation and military service were intertwined from the onset of the Civil War. News that the Confederacy had attacked the U.S. Army, and another 19,000 served in the Navy. By the end of the Civil War, roughly 179,000 Black men (10 percent of the Union Army) served as soldiers in the U.S. During the Civil War, this order from the War Department created the United States Colored Troops (U.S.C.T.), to recruit and organize African-American soldiers to fight for the Union Army.