Black Troops from Illinois

Forest Day Himmelfarb
University of Chicago Laboratory Middle School,
Chicago

In the early years of the Civil War, it was "a white man's war," according to historian Joe Mays. If you had gone back to the time of the Civil War and asked whites in the army what they thought of arming the Negro you would not have found, as one man living at that time said, "twenty men in the army who were in favor of arming the Negro." But, in early September 1863 the U.S. War Department began to allow recruitment of black soldiers into the military. Blacks immediately started flocking to sign up to join the Union army. But blacks did not play as large a role in Illinois as in other states. If the Illinois government had welcomed blacks into Illinois in the ten years before the war and had made the pay, medical care, and type of equipment for blacks in the military equal to that of whites, then Illinois would have contributed much more to the Union war effort.

In 1863 there were only 7,628 blacks living in Illinois because in 1853 the Illinois State government had made it illegal for blacks to migrate into Illinois. In 1863 most states around Illinois had a larger population of blacks. If, in 1853, Illinois had not made immigration illegal then there would have been many more blacks in Illinois, and there would most likely have been more who joined the army. When the federal government first decided to enlist blacks, an attempt was made to treat them equally with white soldiers; thus, their pay would be thirteen dollars a month. For a while things worked out according to plan. But, on June 4, 1863, the War Department decided to pay blacks only ten dollars a month, regardless of rank. Sometimes they were paid as low as seven dollars a month. White soldiers did not want former slaves to be paid as high a wage as they received. Later in 1864 the legislators who wrote the Army Appropriation Bill noted the payment inequity and gave the blacks fair pay. Toward the beginning of the first enlistment of blacks into the Union army in Illinois, most blacks did not fight but worked as laborers, officers' servants, cooks, teamsters, and waiters. The laborers often built roads, erected buildings, and cleaned and did odd jobs around the camp. As the need grew, more and more of these men became actual combat soldiers. As more blacks began fighting, black regiments, such as the well-known 29th of Illinois, started to form. By the end of the war in 1865, Illinois had lost a total of 34,834 men. Although 16 percent of all the white troops died, 22 percent of the black troops died, even though blacks were not fighting for most of the war. What accounts for the large difference in these percentages? One explanation is that many blacks were assigned to fight and serve in the most unhealthy places, because the government thought that they

After the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, black soldiers enlisted in the Union Army. They fought to preserve their new-found freedom, though they were paid less than their white comrades-in-arms.

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were immune to all the tropical diseases that swarmed through the military camps. Officials mistakenly believed that the blacks' ancestors had lived in Africa and had become immune to some diseases. But it turned out that these diseases were not the same kind of diseases found in Africa. Many of the black troops had never been exposed to these diseases, and many died.

Black regiments also suffered medically. They had a hard time getting doctors because there were not enough doctors, and doctors were assigned to white regiments first; thus, the white volunteers had priority over the black enlisted men. Many regiments also did not receive proper nutrition. One regiment went without vegetables for five months.

Another reason for the unequal death rates is that when blacks joined the army they were given old and worn weapons. Forty percent of the men in one black regiment were given imitation Enfield muskets, made in Philadelphia, which had a defective main spring so the gun would not fire. The accoutrements that were given to these soldiers were often old and worn, too.

Some black regiments fought well despite these disadvantages. The 29th regiment was among those that helped defeat Lee's army. This regiment also suffered many fatalities. In one battle, called the Crater, in Petersburg, Virginia, the regiment lost 72 percent of its troops. In this battle the Union army decided to blow up one of the Confederate army's ammunition arsenals. A tunnel was dug under the storage area and dynamited. The Union army thought that most of the Confederates had either fallen into the hole during the explosion or had gone into it later to assist the wounded. Union officers sent some white and many black soldiers into the huge hole or crater left in the ground in order to capture the Confederates. When the soldiers got into the hole they found no Confederates there; then the Confederates led an attack and surrounded the hole and slaughtered the men in the hole. Among them were most of the 29th Regiment, almost all killed or wounded. One of those wounded was Pvt. Charles H. Griffin, whose grandson, Ernest A. Griffin, was a major source of information for this article. He also has been a major contributor to the commemoration of black Civil War soldiers.

Although the blacks from Illinois did an excellent job fighting, they could have contributed more if both the state and national governments provided as much support to them as they did to the white soldiers. In spite of the hardships, those soldiers fought their best and gained respect from white soldiers and others who knew of their accomplishments.—[From Arthur C. Cole, The Era of the Civil War; Taylor C. Cornish, The Sable Arm; Joseph T. Glathaar, Forged in Battle; Virginia Hamilton, Many Thousand Gone; Handon B. Hargrove, Black Union Soldiers in the Civil War; Victor Hicken, Illinois in the Civil War; Robert P. Howard, Illinois: A History of the Prairie State; William K. Katz, An Album of the Civil War; Joe H. Mays, Black Americans and Their Contributions Toward Union Victory in the American Civil War, 1861-1865.]

This illustration in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper depicts black cavalry
officers bringing rebel prisoners to Vicksburg.

ILLINOIS HISTORY / FEBRUARY 1994

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