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African Americans as Sailors and Soldiers for the Union in the Civil War

While the United States was beginning to develop, conflict between the individual states was the cause for division among America in 1861. When several of the Southern states broke away from the Union the Civil War was starting to fuel. From there one of the most bloody wars in American history took place when the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter, the Federal military base in South Carolina. Through all of the battles and deaths, one of the greater aspects of the war was the courage and involvement of African-American soldiers and sailors of the Union army.
In 1861, the United States Navy needed an astounding number of people in order to blockade hundreds of miles of Confederate coast with not many troops. Due to a shortage of sailors, the Navy had to rely on a large number of African-Americans to fill these ranks. Luckily for the Navy, African-Americans have had experience in sailing on ships dating as far back to the Revolutionary War.
African-Americans only repre...

Posted by: Garrick Christian

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