African Americans in the Civil War
by Pamela Nosek
On May 22, 1863, the War Department
established the Bureau of Colored Troops. This bureau was responsible for recruiting
black soldiers, organizing regiments, commissioning officers to command the
troops and keeping the records.
Fifteen states raised volunteer regiments
under their state designations, only to have them eventually redesignated as
USCT - United States Colored Troops - the exceptions being the state designated
units from Massachusetts, Connecticut and Louisiana.
There were nearly 180,000 soldiers
who served in the USCT, comprising over six cavalry regiments, one hundred thirty-five
infantry regiments, twelve regiments of heavy artillery and ten batteries of
light artillery and engineering units. Nearly 10,000 African Americans also
served in the Navy. … Approximately 225,000 black civilians also worked
for the government. They served as teamsters, cooks, nurses, hostlers and servants.
Our own state of Iowa raised a regiment
designated as the 1st Infantry of the 60th USCT, organized under special orders
from the War Department on July 27, 1863. At that time there were less than
1500 African Americans living within the state.
Six companies of this regiment were
recruited in Iowa and comprised of almost every able-bodied black male within
the state. When it was finally mustered on December 4,1863, there were a total
of 1153 men.
In the course of the 60th USCT service,
eleven men were killed, two wounded, one died of wounds, fifty-four were discharged
for wounds, disease or other causes and three hundred thirty- three died of
disease. Thirty-six of these men are buried in National Cemeteries, including
the National Cemetery in Keokuk.
Currently, the African American Historical
Museum and Cultural Center of Iowa is in the midst of a project to identify
every gravesite of an African American Civil War veteran buried in the state
of Iowa.
Pamela Nosek is a research curator at the African American Historical Museum and Cultural Center of Iowa in Cedar Rapids.