I found myself spending most of my time on this assignment just looking through countless different advertisements, not just looking to try and pick one out for the assignment, but instead just thinking about all of the different stories behind the advertisements posted all around the United States. A common trend I saw with many of the advertisements were freedpeople looking to reunite with their family that had been forcefully torn apart. One stood out to me though, it was from a man named O. B. Armstrong, he was searching for his brothers, but not his blood brothers, instead his brothers in arms during the Civil War. Why was he searching for them instead of his family, could he possibly already have all of his family with him, or maybe he knows that they all perished? Also, I am curious as to what the U.S.C.T actually is and what they were apart of.
While this ad was posted in 1910, Armstrong decides to try to reach out to his troops from the Second Division U.S.C.T. (United States Colored Troops), a division that he served in as a 1stSgt during the Civil War in the 1860s. The establishment of the USCT to fight for the Union was made possible by the Emancipation Proclamation in which President Lincoln stated in 1863, “that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service”. If Armstrong is reaching out 45 years later to find any of his troops, that means they had to have been a very important part of his life. This was a time in which many African-Americans in the south were trying to leave and join the Union Army and Navy to get away from the horrible treatment they were receiving from their enslavers. The camaraderie that was displayed between these men must have been immense, according to the American Yawp, a majority of the 180,000 black soldiers that made up about 1/10th of the Union Army were formerly enslaved, to be able to escape hell and given the opportunity to fight alongside fellow freedpeople against the tyranny that was the south must have created a very tight bond, a bond in which Armstrong displays as he reaches out to his old division.
This monumental step brought about by President Lincoln was a great step, but still, the freedpeople that were fighting were not treated equally, even by the Union Army that they were serving. According to the American Yawp, "Black soldiers in the Union army endured rampant discrimination and earned less pay than white soldiers, while also facing the possibility of being murdered or sold into slavery if captured." This mistreatment and discrimination continued to be a dire problem in the U.S. all the up into the 1960s, where black soldiers fighting overseas in the Vietnam War were discriminated upon at the homefront all the same, just like the 2nd Division USCT and O. B. Armstrong faced while trying to serve their Nation. The fight for equality was a long, horrible road, and the Civil War was one of the first major pit stops, the men of the USCT were some of the first pioneers and fighters to embark on the journey towards true freedom.
Closing Question: What were incentives for freedpeople to fight for the Union?
This was great Garrett! I love the photos you found. This ad is striking because as you stated in the post, you can tell how much those relationships meant to Armstrong if he was searching for connection 45 years later. I appreciate your question and wish we had more time in this class to delve into the reasons why freedpeople fought for the Union. The main incentive was freedom. Many Black men and women escaped from the South at the beginning of the war and started showing up at Union army camps. (When I say many, I mean tens of thousands! Many!) The Union incorporated these people into their wartime strategy--but it was really the Black men and women who took the initiative to leave and force the Union to make a definitive statement about whether they would be allowed to serve.