This cased photo of an unknown African-American soldier standing in front of a backdrop of a camp scene, holding a musket with attached bayonet, shows a typical member of the United States Colored Infantry.
With a guarded endorsement of arming African-Americans contained in Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, the Union army launched a vigorous recruitment drive that raised 166 Black regiments, consisting of 7,122 officers and 178,895 African-American enlisted men. More than 80% of the enlisted men came from Confederate states, and most were former slaves.
