Voices of the Civil War courtesy of the Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit. The Voices of the Civil War is a five-year film series dedicated to celebrating and commemorating the Civil War over the course of the sesquicentennial. Each month, new episodes cover pertinent topics that follow the monthly events and issues as they unfolded for African Americans during the Civil War. Within these episodes there are various primary sources – letters and diaries, newspaper reports, and more - to recount various experiences of blacks during this period.
Episode 39 : "Civil War Ends" Posted by The Wright Museum on Thursday, 23 April 2015. On April 9, 1865 Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, ending the American Civil War. Only three days later, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre. While mourning the loss of President Lincoln and the more than half million lives lost in battle, Americans celebrated the end of the war.
Episode 38: "Battle of Natural Bridge" Posted by The Wright Museum on Wednesday, 25 March 2015. The Battle of Natural Bridge was fought on March 6, 1865, in Newport, Florida near Tallahassee, one of the few southern capitals not invaded by the Union. On the evening of March 5, 1865 the 2nd and 99th United States Colored Infantries arrived at Natural Bridge and prepared to cross, but were met with Confederate forces. The fighting took place at close range and involved heavy fire from both small arms and artillery. The Union force was badly beaten and by the end of the day was in full retreat back to the St. Marks Lighthouse. The Confederate army held the bridge and prevented Tallahassee from being taken.
Episode 37: "Martin Delany" Posted by The Wright Museum on Thursday, 26 February 2015. In February 1865, Martin Robison Delany was commissioned as the first black combat major in the Union army, achieving the highest rank of an African American during the Civil War. In his life he worked to bring educational and economic opportunities to newly freed African Americans, and encouraged emigration back to Africa.
Episode 36: "Special Field Order No. 15" Posted by The Wright Museum on Thursday, 29 January 2015. On the evening of January 12, 1865, Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton and Union General, William T. Sherman met with twenty of Georgia’s black ministers to discuss what some historians now call the nation’s first act of Reconstruction. The purpose of the meeting was for Sherman and Stanton to gather information on how freedmen understood the war, and how they imagined their future in a post-war America. Based on the conversation that took place that evening, on January 16, 1865, William T. Sherman issued Special Field Order No. 15. Upon Sherman’s order, 400,000 acres of land, including Georgia’s Sea Islands and the mainland thirty miles in from the coast, were redistributed to newly freed slaves.
Episode 35: "African American Relief Organizations" Posted by The Wright Museum on Wednesday, 24 December 2014. On December 19, 1864, The Ladies’ Sanitary Association of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Philadelphia gave a holiday fair for the benefit of sick and wounded black soldiers. For Civil War charities working year round, the holiday season became an important moment to remind Americans of the needs of soldiers, freedmen, and others who were suffering under the burdens of war. For African American communities, these fundraising efforts became vital tools for providing much needed food, clothing, and other forms of assistance to black troops, who often lacked the most basic supplies provided to white Union soldiers. One of the most well known women who raised money for African American soldiers and freedmen was Elizabeth Keckley.
Episode 34: "Lincoln's Re-election" Posted by The Wright Museum on Wednesday, 26 November 2014. By the fall of 1864, with the war in its fourth year, President Abraham Lincoln faced many challenges on his road to reelection. Americans certainly recognized that the 1864 election would determine the entire direction of the war: if Lincoln won, the war would be fought until the South had surrendered unconditionally; however, if George B. McClellan proved victorious, there would almost surely be a reconciliation between the North and the South. Many African Americans, and especially black men serving in the USCT regiments, actively supported Lincoln’s bid for reelection. Black soldiers, few of whom had the right to vote, inundated black newspapers with letters urging family and friends to support Lincoln’s campaign and to vote, if they could, in the November election. On Tuesday, November 8, 1864, Americans participated in an election that truly changed the course of American history.
Episode 33: "Women in the Civil War" Posted by The Wright Museum on Wednesday, 22 October 2014 in Voices of the Civil War. The stories of Cathay Williams, Mary Bowser, Susie King Taylor, and Sojourner Truth demonstrate that African American women contributed to and aided Civil War efforts in a variety of crucial ways. Often lost, ignored, or simply overlooked in the history of the Civil War, these women’s stories serve as an important reminder of black women’s active roles and experiences during wartime.
Episode 32: "Battle of Chaffin's Farm" Posted by The Wright Museum on Wednesday, 24 September 2014. On the morning of September 29, 1864, Union troops, including several black regiments, crossed the James River and surprised the Confederate troops at Chaffin’s Farm. Some historians consider the Battle of Chaffin’s Farm and New Market Heights as the defining moment in African American military history. To honor African American troops who fought during the Battle of Chaffin’s Farm and New Market Heights, Major General Benjamin F. Butler commissioned a special medal officially known as the Army of the James Medal.
Episode 31: The Civil War and the Black Press. In August of 1864, Thomas Morris Chester became the first African American war correspondent to work for a major daily newspaper in the United States. He became an eyewitness to fierce battles between the Union and Confederates and reported on the bravery of African American soldiers on the front lines.
Episode 30: The Battle of the Crater. Stuck in a stalemate during a particularly hot and humid Virginia summer, on the morning of July 30, 1864, General Ambrose Burnside decided to take drastic measures: Union troops would dig a tunnel, pack it with explosives, and blow up the Confederate line. The explosion immediately killed 278 Confederate soldiers. For African American soldiers, the Battle of the Crater proved particularly devastating. Caught in the deep hole of the crater, black troops became easy targets of Confederate soldiers thirty feet above them, even as many tried to surrender. African American survivors of the Battle of the Crater viewed their sacrifice and valor on the battlefield as an integral process of transformation in American society that they hoped would result in the rights of full citizenship.
Episode 29 : "Equal Pay". On June 15, 1864, Congress finally approved an act to equalize pay amongst all Union soldiers. African American soldiers were now paid $13 per month plus a $3.50 uniform allowance, equal to that of white soldiers. Nevertheless, Congress made a distinction between freed and formerly enslaved soldier in determining retroactive pay. This distinction divided African American regiments and lowered morale.
Episode 28 "The Battle of the Wilderness". On May 4th, 1864 Lieutenant General-in-Chief of the Union Army Ulysses S. Grant ordered the Army of the Potomac to cross the Rapidan River and march through an area of dense woodland known as the Wilderness. Grant’s plan was for Union troops to move quickly through the Wilderness in order to slip behind Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and invade Richmond, Virginia. Grant and Lee’s troops engaged in what would become the Battle of the Wilderness. Although the United States Colored Troops were not fighting on the front lines, their duties to guard Union supplies, rail lines, and beachheads proved to be necessary and perilous. The Battle of the Wilderness ended on May 6, 1864 marking the first of several engagements African American Union soldiers had with Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.
Episode 27 "Battle of Fort Pillow". On April 12, 1864, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest invaded the Union garrison at Fort Pillow, Tennessee with 1500 Confederate soldiers. Union Major Lionel F. Booth commanded the garrison with an estimated 600 troops. The Battle of Fort Pillow is often referred to as the Fort Pillow Massacre due to the overwhelming Union casualties, and as the Confederate army specifically targeted African American soldiers.
1st Kansas Colored Infantry. On March 20, 1864 the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry fought in a battle at Roseville Creek, Arkansas. This infantry was the first black infantry to form and engage in combat in the north. Formed in August 1862 as the First Kansas Colored Infantry and re-designated on December 13, 1864 as the 79th U.S. Colored Troops, the recruits were freedom seekers from surrounding pro-slavery states like Arkansas and Missouri.
. In December 1863, a lifelong slave named Robert Smalls became the first black captain of a United States vessel. From that point onward, he would earn $150 per month, making him one of the war's highest paid black soldiers. But Smalls' most memorable accomplishment came a year earlier, in one of the most audacious acts of the Civil War.
In episode 9, we explore the bounds of citizenship for the newly released slaves on the Sea Islands of South Carolina during the Port Royal Experiment. If slaves were treated like freedmen, were they not citizens? And if the privileges of citizenship were extended to refugee slaves, was the Civil War indeed a conflict about slavery?