black soldiers in the civil war in the navy

He has not found details showing a documented “muster” of the 1st SCVAD as a regiment. That’s where Allen believes some historical quibbling might emerge from his findings, because the official mustering is what is often used for unit histories and placing such events in a historical context. Later that month the First Kansas Volunteers began forming and later mustered in early 1863. Rufus Saxton deployed to the Georgia-Florida region with Company A, 1st SCVAD, and the company conducted the first Black unit combat operations on St. Two months later, in July, Congress passed the Militia Act of 1862, authorizing black armed service. On May 8, 1862, the first 150 “contraband” volunteers enlisted at Hilton Head, South Carolina. By April 1862, Army leaders had requested equipment for a Black regiment, initiating the “Port Royal Experiment” that would see former slaves take arms against Confederates. Sherman was left to manage the slaves, at that time labeled “human contraband” due to their slave status. All of the whites living in the area fled, abandoning an estimated 10,000 slaves.Īrmy Maj. 7, 1861, a Union Navy-Army task force seized and occupied “Port Royal,” a deep-water port adjacent to what is now Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, as part of the Union blockade of the Confederacy. What he found was as inspiring a story of Black history in the Army as he could have imagined. They emphasize that in this effort they are amateur historians simply trying to share what they’ve found.īut Allen did know that the 54th Massachusetts hadn’t started recruiting until February 1863. (Library of Congress)īoth Allen and Hodges say their knowledge of such Civil War units mostly comes from a few history classes and the movie “Glory,” decades ago. 1, 1863 Emancipation Day ceremony at Camp Saxton, South Carolina. Prince Rivers with the 1st South Carolina Volunteers of African Descent at their Jan.

Black soldiers in the civil war in the navy