06/04/2026
From Michael Pensinger on Facebook
DC National Memorial Day Parade 2026: Living History Co. LLC - Associates of the Black Phalanx Brigade: Afro-Militaria Historians & Reenactors Guild, as the United States Colored Troops Ceremonial Guard, 1862-1867
They Freed Themselves!
US Colored Troops, 1862-67, US Civil War
Back when America was “great” (though things weren’t that great back then), the nation was marked by the enslavement of over 4 million African Americans, along with slave catching, lynching, political exclusion, unfair sharecropping practices, segregation, widespread hate crimes, and other forms of racial and class oppression. Between 1862 and 1867, there were over 209,145 people who helped make up nearly 170 regiments of an element of the US armed forces called the Bureau of the United States Colored Troops (USCT). This organization worked diligently to free people of color from oppression:
- 6 Cavalry Regiments
- 13 Heavy Artillery Regiments
- 10 Light Artillery Regiments
- 137 Infantry Regiments
American Civil War regiment sizes ranged from 300 to 1,000 men in each unit. They were supported by several unaccounted or unattached units, such as engineer detachments and small Black and culturally diverse militias, including the Black Brigade of Cincinnati and other Black militias in predominantly Black communities like the Massasoit Guards, Attucks Guards, and Hannibal Guards, as well as Explorer Jacob Dodson’s 300 and Newton Knight’s Guerrillas of the Free State of Jones.
Additionally, nearly 18,000 overlooked or forgotten individual sailors constituted 12-25% of the US Navy. Over 37,000 Colored soldiers and sailors of the American Civil War made the ultimate sacrifice by giving their lives in their efforts to liberate African Americans and save the Union.
The USCT comprised approximately 10% of the US Army and 12-25% of the US Navy during the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era. Through fighting first for their self-interest in human and civil rights, emancipation, equality, inclusion, education, equity, enfranchisement, socio-economic mobility, justice, resistance, chivalry, sovereignty, survival, safety, self-rule, and pride in themselves, their community, their nation, and their diaspora, they turned the tide of war in favor of the Unionists during its most fatigued hour. They changed the narrative to be about actual freedom instead of mere concerns over money, power, influence, territory, and inconveniences. They were symbols of true freedom, similar to all Colored US servicemen between 1775 and 1863, because through their own involvement and efforts, they freed themselves! They did not wait for support from President Lincoln; instead, they took the initiative to play a part in their own story and effect change in their lives. Many Black Americans then and now refer to this period in history as the Second Haitian Revolution, as they were inspired by the original Haitian Revolution, which emancipated and enfranchised millions and had a similar impact on history. Many people of African descent belonged to knowledge circles where they traded military knowledge and equipment between the Caribbean, America, and other components of the African Diaspora, thereby intertwining the Second Haitian Revolution with the American Civil War and other wars of the 19th Century.
Over 7,122 commissioned officers led the enlisted body of the USCT, which was composed of approximately 200,000 people of color, mostly of African descent. However, it also included individuals of Latino, Native American, South Asian, and Pacific Islander descent—essentially anyone dark-skinned, many of whom were of Afro-mixed heritage. Within these Colored units, these commissioned officers were supported by approximately 20,000 non-commissioned officers or supervisors of color, from the ranks of corporal to sergeant major, again mainly of African descent. Several of these troops were devout Christians (especially Methodists and Baptists), but the USCT also included Muslims and Jews, creating a very diverse crowd of different ethnicities and religions. While most commissioned officers were White Americans, approximately 100-125 commissioned officers were of African descent.
Not all Colored participants served within the Bureau. Some regional, state, county, and municipal units operated independently of the Bureau, and there were several individuals of African descent and other people of color who joined as individuals in what had long been perceived as “all-White units.” Numbers range from an additional couple of hundred to a couple of thousand people serving as individuals in and/or attached to White units.
Outside of the Bureau, all federal or Union soldiers were supported by several thousands of “Contrabands,” who were typically self-emancipated runaways and federally acquired slaves (seized illegal property also known as contraband, mainly from Confederate sympathizers, but also from some Union-sympathizing slave owners referencing the Border States). These Contrabands followed all federal or Union troops as refugee civilian laborers, commonly functioning as scouts, spies, logisticians, body servants and guards, nurses, cooks, cleaners, skilled craftsmen, transporters, and civil engineers during the American Civil War.
Through the participation of Colored people, they not only helped to save the Union from itself and outside influences like the United Kingdom, which was sending weapons and supplies to the Confederacy, and Austrian Dictator Maximilian in Mexico (referencing the actions of the 25th Army Corps enforcing the Monroe Doctrine), but they also earned the rewards of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. These amendments not only provided freedoms to all USCT soldiers and their families but also extended to all people of the United States, not just African Americans:
- 13th Amendment: Abolishment of legal slavery, with the exception of incarceration. (Legal slavery still exists within jails and prison systems, especially for-profit institutions.)
- 14th Amendment: Establishment of rules, rights, and privileges of citizenship and equal protection under the law. (This inspired and gave foundation to Civil Rights laws from the 1950s to today.)
- 15th Amendment: Universal male suffrage. (This inspired the later 19th Amendment, which granted rights to women to vote.)
The involvement of the USCT also opened doors for African Americans and other people of color to enter full-time federal and state government and military roles. This included congressional roles, senatorial roles, governorships, governmental and military contracting positions, and both regular and reserve status in the military. An example of this progression is seen in the Buffalo Soldiers (1866-1951), including the US Army Regulars of the 9th and 10th US Cavalry Regiments along with the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st US Colored Infantry Regiments, which later became the 24th and 25th Infantry Regiments. I should also mention that many USCT veterans enlisted and were commissioned into the Buffalo Soldier units. After discharge from service, many became community leaders and civil rights activists, fighting to maintain and build upon the positive legacy of the American Civil War and Reconstruction Eras, despite facing discrimination and oppression primarily from White Confederate sympathizers, but also from White Union sympathizers.
Women played a vital role in supporting USCT units. They primarily served in skilled labor, medical, and logistical roles. However, some served as spies, scouts, and recruiters, and some even sneaked into the ranks of soldiers, dressed as men. Notable figures include Harriet Tubman, Maria Lewis, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, Susie King Taylor, Mary Bowser, Cathay Williams, Mary Touvestre, and Sojourner Truth, among others. Women were an integral part of the backbone of the USCT and overall US armed forces during the American Civil War.