Military History

Prince Dunsick was an African man, kidnapped as a child, enslaved in Massachusetts, and enlisted in the Continental Army. His story is representative of so many forgotten soldiers of African descent, who fought in the American Revolution on behalf of a nation that didn't always recognize them.

Say their names. These (out of thousands) are the names of men who were verified to have served in military units associated with American Fort Schuyler and therefore, the most likely to have served at the fort or in the Mohawk Valley at some point during the war.

Charles Ball escaped slavery to join the US Navy flotilla & served with distinction during the War of 1812, participating in Battles of St. Leonard Creek and Bladensburg in 1814.

Jordan B. Noble began his life in slavery, but he died as a revered war hero. This drummer boy of the Battle of New Orleans was a mainstay of War of 1812 commemorations until his death in 1890.

Among the earliest non-indigenous residents of California were hundreds of people of African background who descended from slaves taken to Mexico during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. These Afro-Latinos, as they have come to be called, helped shape the character of California by blazing trails and establishing towns and ranches that grew into major cities like Los Angeles, San Diego, Monterey, and San Jose.

Though the United States did not officially declare war on Spain, its southern neighbor, during this era of conflict, border problems along the gulf frontier exacerbated tensions and prompted the Patriot War of 1812–13. During this regional conflict, American settlers living in Florida organized an uprising against Spanish rule and coaxed US forces to intervene on their behalf.

As during the American Revolution, black sailors and soldiers saw the second war with Britain as a means to advance their own agenda. For free blacks, the War of 1812 provided the chance to broker their participation in ways that enhanced their individual and collective status within society. Yet for free blacks, the war did not advance their march toward equality but rather initiated a new era of prejudice and racial discrimination.

Coming from free states, or straight off of the plantations, freemen or former slaves, thousands of African Americans fought to destroy slavery once and for all with the United States Colored Troops. Despite the skepticism or outright hostility of some whites, these troops played a major role in both defending the Union capital and taking the Confederate one.

Although African-Americans served in every previous American war, it was through the decisions of specific commanders. In a controversial move, the War Department called for all Union commanders to receive black soldiers into the Union forces. This official action led to the formation of the 11th Regiment United States Colored Troops, among others, in the fall of 1863.

Although the documentation is fragmented, men of African descent did serve as soldiers and sailors aboard warships and on privateers during the war in substantial numbers on either side.