A GRAND ARMY OF BLACK MEN

Between a rock and a hard place were black soldiers in the Civil War. They were not allowed to fight for 2 years, until 1863. When they were allowed to fight due to that "military necessity " described by Lincoln, they were still discriminated against in respect to their pay, provisions and commissions, for another year, until 1864. But, most critically the only officers permitted them, these United States Colored Troops (USCT) were non-line of command officers, chaplains and doctors . All white were the rest of these valiant black troops' commanding officers.A few were quite good, most were not. As it was with black soldiers, so was it with freed black slaves--the "contraband," as they were called. Actually conditions were worse for the wives and children of the USCT, since their year-long boycott of unequal pay by the soldiers had an even greater adverse affect on their families. Their letters to home and from home to the soldiers, spelled out so plaintively in the book, A GRAND ARMY OF BLACK MEN edited by Edwin S. Redkey (1993), makes this all crystal clear.