Ethnicity, Race, and the Military

In 1864, a company of United States Colored Troops on foraging detail were brutally attacked and killed by a group of Confederate guerrillas at Ross's Landing, Arkansas. The event, which was largely forgotten, was documented in 1864 newspapers and later rediscovered through meticulous burial records.

The individuality of the figures in the Shaw Memorial is one of the monument's most striking and affecting characteristics. This version is on display at the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site near Cornish, New Hampshire.

The 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the first regiment of African Americans from the North to serve during the Civil War, bravely assaulted Battery Wagner in Charleston Harbor. Their bravery increased Northern efforts to enlist African Americans. By war's end, over 180,000 African Americans fought in the US Army, roughly 10% of the fighting men.

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.

For thousands of African Americans during the Civil War, Washington, D.C. was a beacon of freedom - and a place where they could work to assist the war effort. There they found themselves digging fortifications, driving wagons, or cooking, but as free men and women selling their services, many for the first time in their lives.

Although many Irishmen were found throughout the Union, and to a lesser degree, Confederate forces, numerous specifically "Irish" regiments and companies enabled new immigrants to join comrades with a similar background. Most famous was the Irish Brigade of the Army of the Potomac, particularly distinguished for hard fighting at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg.