When the war broke out, a number of African Americans saw this as an opportunity to win their freedom and destroy the institution of slavery forever. Unfortunately the Lincoln administration wasn't so keen at promoting that issue. Lincoln was trying to retain the loyalty of the border states and in order to do so, he had to play down the black issue but African Americans forced the matter themselves. They began fleeing into Union lines, especially from Confederate military construction projects and so the Union government declared them contraband of war and subject to seizure. Once you open that door, then you began the process of destroying the institution of slavery because a number of them would bring their wives and children in tow. An individual would have to be rather heartless to return the wife and children and so the war began to destroy slavery. Lincoln gradually came to the realization that he must destroy the institution and he could employ African Americans in military service in a very effective way and so in the summer of 1862 he arrived at that and he made a decision. Since he delayed the Emancipation Proclamation, he proceeded with the enlistment of African Americans in the army.

The key to African Americans, because after all initially it was just an experiment, were three major battles -- Port Hudson, Milikens Bend and Fort Wagner. With the performance of Africans Americans there, it opened the doors for a much greater expansion of the usage of African Americans in the army. All told about 179,000 African Americans served in the war. The bulk of them came from the slave states, probably 150,000 of them. Most of the time they served under white officers because that made it more palatable to the Union public. African Americans fought in 41 major battles and about 450 minor affairs. They did extremely well, certainly as well as white soldiers. Sixteen African Americans received medals of honor from the Army and seven received them from the navy and about 37,000 African Americans gave their lives during the course of the war. In the aftermath of war, it was a very complicated situation, especially for those who came from the South. They had to return home and while they were heroes among their kinsmen, they were exceedingly unpopular among southern whites and so they suffered all sorts of indignities and hardships. Those who returned home to the North were very much like other northern veterans. They were, while discriminated against, they had largely their civil rights and they were admitted to all sorts of veteran organizations, if there weren't that African Americans that were even incorporated into them and some of them held offices in the GAR, the Grand Army of the Republic.