FACT #11
The issue of African Americans serving in the US military turned out to be a key issue in ending slavery and eventually, ending the Civil War.  

Jacob Dodson April 23, 1861 letter to the U.S. Secretary of War informed that there were “some three hundred reliable colored free citizens of this City, who desire to enter the services for the defense of the City.” The reply was “this Department has no intention at present to call into the service of Government any colored soldiers.” It would be two years into the war before the U.S. Army’s policy changed.

The US Navy was more receptive, and black sailors began serving in September 1861, with approximately 480 black men born in the District serving in the Navy during the Civil War.  The Army’s First Regiment, US Colored Troops, was organized and trained in spring and summer of 1863 in Washington, DC. They trained at Analostan Island (now Roosevelt Island). 

LEARN MORE courtesy of the American Battlefield Trust.

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