294 The American Civil War
months later, Congress endorsed Butler's
policy in the First Confiscation Act.
As the Union forces penetrated into the
Confederacy, more and more slaves entered
their camps. Many Federal officers objected
to the idea of returning slaves, especially to
owners in seceded states, and the practice
distracted military personnel from their
primary duty of suppressing the rebellion. In
early 1862, the War Department prohibited
the use of soldiers in retrieving slaves. The
institution of slavery broke down a bit more.
After the failure of McClellan's campaign
against Richmond in mid-1862, Lincoln
re-evaluated his approach to the war.
Recruiting had slowed to a trickle, and the
largest untapped resource, African-Americans,
was not being exploited. Slavery, moreover,
had been the basis of secession, and the
enemy had used slaves to help their cause. If
the Union planned to prosecute the war fully,
it must take slaves away from the Rebels and
employ them for the Federal Government,
both in and out of uniform. And if
Northerners hoped eventually to bring the
seceded states back into the Union, they
must put that one unsolvable problem,
slavery, on the road to extinction. Lincoln
determined to issue an Emancipation
Proclamation and to recruit blacks as soldiers.
For these controversial decisions, the
President had tacit support from Congress.
Aware that Federal forces were their ticket to freedom,
slaves began fleeing to Union troops whenever they
approached nearby. Often they grabbed whatever they
could carry, but in this case the refugees were able to
use a wagon and horses to convey them to freedom.
(Library of Congress)On 17 July 1862, Congress passed the
Second Confiscation Act, which authorized
the President to confiscate all slaves of
Rebels, That same day, Congress adopted the
Militia Act, which permitted Lincoln to
employ blacks for any military duties that he
believed they were competent to perform.
Lincoln also justified emancipation by his
powers as commander in chief. Slaves aided
the Rebel war effort. Surely he could deprive
them of their use. As it turned out, Lincoln
decided to await the next major Union
victory, which did not occur until September
1862 at Antietam. before issuing the
proclamation. But that summer, he began
bringing African-Americans into uniform.
The first black soldiers came from a New
Orleans militia unit, the 1st Louisiana Native
Guards, The Native Guards had black
company-grade officers and even a black
major. Several months later, the Union
recruited the first black regiment from
scratch, the 1st South Carolina (Colored)
Infantry, later called the 33rd US Colored
Infantry, with all white officers.
The idea of putting blacks in uniform was
extremely controversial. To increase the
policy's acceptability, the administration
sought competent whites to command these
soldiers. By the end of the war, well over
7,000 whites had received commissions in
the United States Colored Troops, while only
125 or so blacks were made officers.
Although black abolitionist Frederick
Douglass and others promised that blacks
would make excellent soldiers, it was
essential for these first regiments to fight
well. And they did. At Port Hudson, the
1st and 3rd Louisiana Native Guards charged
Confederate works valiantly, and suffered
heavy losses. After a New York Times
newspaperman witnessed the attack, the
paper declared, it is no longer possible to
doubt the bravery and steadiness of the
colored race, when rightly led.'
Several weeks later, black soldiers
participated in a brutal fight at Milliken's
Bend, Louisiana. The black regiments had
only a few days of training and many had
never fired their rifles. In a vicious assault by