Fighting for America Black Soldiers-the Unsung Heroes of World War II

Chapter 1 Two Americas? [1776 to 1941] I once had a conversation with historian Stephen Ambrose, who was gracious enough to listen quietly as I made a complaint about the movie Saving Private Ryan. Ambrose had served as consultant on the movie, and so I asked him why black soldiers had been left out of the D-Day invasion. He told me he had provided the filmmakers with information about several hundred blacks at Utah and Omaha Beach on D-Day, but that the story was taken in a "different direction." Among the ablest historians of World War II, Ambrose believed that racism was at the heart of Nazi philosophy, and that its arteries extended to many nations, including our own. He assured me that military historians were taking a fresh look at the subject and that Americans would come to learn and appreciate more about the contributions of African-American soldiers throughout American history. Black Soldiers and American Freedom On the night of March 5, 1770, Crispus Attucks, a free black dockworker, marched together with fifty laborers and sailors into a dangerous confrontation with British soldiers, whose presence in Boston was sharply resented. The soldiers fired into the crowd and Attucks fell instantly, becoming the first of five men to die that night. American patriots hailed Attucks's heroism and declared the Boston Massacre the event that sparked the American Revolution. In January 1776, Gen. George Washington finally lifted a prohibition against black enlistment in the Continental Army, thus opening the ranks to free black men. Some colonies also allowed slaves to win their freedom by serving the American forces. Between 5,000 and 8,000 blacks fought for the patriot cause. At the climactic Battle of Yorktown, about a quarter of Washington's Continental Army was made up of black soldiers. More than 10,000 enslaved men, women, and children also provided labor for the Americans, transporting munitions, provisions, and constructing fortifications and barricades in the Thirteen Colonies. Interestingly, many enslaved Americans took advantage of a British offer of freedom in return for military service, and more than 20,000 slaves fought and labored for the British side during the war. By the time of the War of 1812, federal law restricted militia service to "free and able-bodied white citizens," and the U.S. Army and Marine Corps did not permit blacks to enlist. Although free blacks and slaves did fill support roles as laborers and teamsters in army camps, the navy was the only service that officially admitted blacks in a fighting capacity. Black troops served at the Battle of Lake Erie and at the Battle of New Orleans, under the command of Gen. Andrew Jackson, although they were excluded from later parades commemorating the New Orleans victory. From the opening salvo of the Civil War, thousands of free blacks and fugitive slaves volunteered for the Union Army, only to be denied service by President Lincoln, who maintained that the war was being fought to restore the Union, not to end slavery. Believing the war would be short-lived and the Union successfully restored, Lincoln prohibited black soldiers from the Union ranks in order to avoid angering his own border states, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri, where slavery was still protected by the Constitution. However, as the war dragged on, President Lincoln's slavery policy (or strategy) changed profoundly. On September 22, 1862, he issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which effectively warned that if the South did not end its rebellion within 100 days (by January 1, 1863) all slaves in the South were to be freed. The edict also permitted former slaves and northeMoore, Christopher Paul is the author of 'Fighting for America Black Soldiers-the Unsung Heroes of World War II', published 2005 under ISBN 9780345459619 and ISBN 034545961X.