Alan Gan

For a long time the Civil War was declared the "white man's war" given the
amount of white men who had participated as soldiers in it -- the early Union army
consisted of 90% white soldiers and about 10% blacks. The real credit should go to
the gallant African American soldiers, despite their minority status in the military. A
subjective association of the Civil War to any group of people shouldn't draw its
reasoning from the members' physical contributions but rather the aura of hope and
passion that each member lends to the whole, which transcends the honor of
wielding arms in a battleground. To say the Civil War was a "black man's war",
however, is not entirely accurate, because both black and white soldiers played key
roles in the war. Rather than focusing entirely on the white soldiers when thinking
about Civil War combat, people should acknowledge the significance of the soldiers
of African American descent. Their presence in the war as combaters makes the war
much more than just a "white man's war." The black soldiers in the background
deserved more recognition for their valor and patriotic grit to fight for something
deeper than just territorial loyalty.
Unlike their white counterparts, black soldiers did not fight primarily based on
which region of the U.S they lived in. Most black soldiers were once slaves and thus
many of them fought for the Union side. There were also a handful of black soldiers
who fought for the Confederate Army in exchange for their freedom from slavery.
Although slavery was a key incentive to fight for African American soldiers on either
side, a lesser known, but widespread, reason they aimed to fight was to prove their
patriotism and gain an acceptance from their white peers. Much to their dismay,
most white soldiers typically ignored the wishes of African American soldiers and
designated them to lower jobs such as assistants or servants in the army. Despite

the hostile treatment received from the white soldiers, black soldiers serving in the
war were resilient and resolutely accepted such roles. Some soldiers wound up
forming their own all-black regiments to avoid such discrimination. To a black
soldier, it was more than just the ground upon which he was raised, but more so for
the sake of his brothers, his wife, or his children. During the period of slavery, many
black families were separated, children off to one state, mom and dad to two others.
For many black soldiers, everything was at stake; every shot, every move meant the
possibility of freedom for a family member or a close one. In contrast, the mindset
of the Union was to keep Southern states from secession, and the Confederacy
fought mainly for the continuation of slavery. Neither side had as touching a story as
black soldiers did. No man could say the he fought for what was right more than a
freed slave fighting for his family.
Sooner or later the inevitable had to happen as the focus of the war shifted
onto the topic of slavery. Lincoln finally passed the Emancipation Proclamation in
1863 after prior hesitation due to border state tension. The Proclamation was a
turning point for potential black enlisters in that it showed them what could happen
if they joined the side of the Union. With the surge in black enlisters in the Union
army, Confederate soldiers relentlessly targeted the former slaves, sending them
back to slavery in harsher conditions and sometimes even slaughtering them, albeit
surrendering. The most notorious of such events was the Fort Pillow Massacre in
which Confederate soldiers, under the orders of a general, brutally massacred a
group of black Union soldiers. This tragic event was not the only one of its kind;
especially in war time, racial segregation reveals its darkest colors. If asked who
fought the Civil War, most would answer the Union and the Confederacy, and the
more clueless would reply the white people. Most would say the war was fought

on slavery, like a man fights to keep a car from a robber, the African American
slaves being properties of someone who claims to be greater than them. But these
valiant soldiers were more than just machines in the field, and they should not be
accredited as such. With the help of Lincolns Proclamation black soldiers really took
ownership of the fight and began to show their independence from the white
society.
Regardless of the past, the black soldiers have shown their resilient character
in serving in the Civil War. They had conviction which many soldiers lacked. They
had a greater risk of danger on the battlefield, and it would be bitterly ironic to
disregard the soldiers of whose race both sides fought over. It wasnt a white mans
war, because there were black soldiers and it was equally theirs as anybody elses.
It wasnt a black mans war; a majority of the army consisted of white soldiers. The
heart of the war, however, lied within the ambitious black soldiers. It lied within
each slaves struggle for freedom, each slaves desire for equality, family, and all
other virtues valued by white men. The black soldiers stood out and sedulously
fought and sacrificed themselves for their own people, to spare them from suffering
and to engrave a name of strength and willingness for his people in the white mans
book. The pluck of some black soldiers does not deserve to be drowned out by the
Wars misnomer, the white mans war.