Were there black soldiers in the civil war?

Answer 1

Thousands of Blacks served the Confederate forces as teamsters, cooks, servants and laborers. Some no doubt "saw the elephant." That number, however, is much disputed. Although some Black Confederate regiments were organized in early 1865, they never saw action. Some websites, however, assert that thousands fought for the South. "There were many Black regiments," they say. The problem with that argument, quite simply, is that there is no proof --- no Confederate records, nothing in the "Southern Historical Society Papers," nothing in the "Official Records," nothing in diaries. If thousands had fought, if there had been Black regiments, somebody somewhere would have made a note of it. Figures for the North are much better documented. According to Boatner, about 300,000 served in some 166 Union regiments. Of these, about 175,000 saw combat.

Answer 2

Yes, on both sides.

When the Union armies liberated Southern slaves during their campaigns, they didn't know what to do with them, so they put them to work in the camps, performing fatigues that the white troops didn't want to do. Presently, white troops realised that enlisting black troops into the ranks would help their own chances of promotion, and eventually there were many black regiments, some of them serving in the front line.

The Confederates refused to put slaves into uniform until right at the end. But some free blacks did serve in the Southern armies, perhaps for the same reason as many of the poor white trash, who cared nothing about the slavery debate - just because they wanted to get into a darn good fight.

Answer 3

Black soldiers added a lot to the population of the Union army. They had skills from working hard, and required little to no pay. They added many to the Union army, as the Confederate army had an overwhelming amount of white soldiers.