SmithĪnother type of soldier also served the Union - somewhat unusual, these troops were Confederate soldiers called Galvanized Yankees. Military.īlack Infantry at Fort Corcoran, VA, 1865 William M. By the end of the Civil War, almost 200,000 black men served as soldiers in the U.S. However, by mid-1862, with the declining number of volunteers and the need for more troops, the Union Army pushed the Government into allowing African-Americans to serve. These men were called “Unionists,” though Southerners were often called “Homemade Yankees.” Nearly 120,000 “Unionists served in the Union Army during the Civil War, and every Southern state raised Unionist regiments.ĭuring the war, the Lincoln administration wrestled with the idea of authorizing the recruitment of black troops. Many people living in the Border States opposed secession and supported the Union. However, when it was apparent that it would take more than 90 days to put down the insurrectionists, the Federal Government began to offer bounties to volunteers and instituted a draft. Initially, the call for volunteers was easily met by abolitionists, patriotic Northerners, and many immigrants enlisting for a steady income. With a drastic shortage of men, President Abraham Lincoln called on the states to raise a force of 75,000 men for three months to put down the “insurrection.” Though Lincoln thought the war would be brief, he was wrong, and on July 22, 1861, Congress authorized a volunteer army of 500,000 men. Army, and many of these were Southern officers who resigned to join the Confederate States Army. When the Civil War began in April 1861, there were only 16,000 men in the U.S.
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