The Civil War

1861-1865
It started as a war to preserve the union, but ended as a war of
liberation. Within months after Abraham Lincoln's election as president,
nine southern states had succeeded from the union. Fearful that this
Republican from Illinois would abolish slavery, the south rallied around
the leadership of Jefferson Davis and declared itself the Confederate
States of America. Slavery would remain a cherished institution in this
new nation.
The north would not tolerate a split nation and a four year war of attrition
started with the first battle at Manassas in 1861 and continued until
Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomatox in 1865. In the process of
combat, the war shifted from a conflict over states' rights to a campaign
to liberate a people. In the process, millions of Americans - both black
and white - bravely acquitted themselves in battle.
The document that changed the focus of the war was the charter of
freedom known as the Emancipation Proclamation. It was shortly after
the victory at the Battle of Antietam in September of 1862 that President
Lincoln granted freedom to slaves in states in rebellion against the
United States as of January 1, 1863. It was at that moment that African
Americans could mark as their first step toward freedom.
Blacks fought hard to win this freedom. At the time the war began it is
estimated that there were about 500,000 free blacks and several million
slaves in the continental United States. It is known that over forty
percent of the free blacks joined the Union Army and hundreds of
thousands of southern slaves were saboteurs. Against such odds, the
Confederacy was doomed.
Whenever and wherever they were allowed to join the combat, African
Americans fought with courage and bravery. The stories of the fabled
54th Massachusetts Infantry and their service at Fort Wagner in South

Carolina were passed from soldier to soldier and were but one example
of black heroism.
http://hoover.archives.gov/exhibits/africanamerican/jimcrow/index.html