Old Opinions, New Glory: An Investigation of Rank and Battlefield Mortality among All-Black Units during the American Civil War
*The companion set of all visualizations can be found here.
I. INTRODUCTION
On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the now famed Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all those held in bondage in states in rebellion. This was obviously a major step forward towards ending the cruelty and injustice of American slavery, but was too a major military advancement. Prior to this declaration, those escaping slavery were prohibited by law from enlisting as soldiers in the fight for freedom. Thereafter, however, tens of thousands of African Americans (both free and former slaves) rushed to enlist in the service of the Union. This project attempts to provide some clarity on the factors which affected their experience after enlistment.
More specifically, this project endeavors to examine how pre-war perceptions may have influenced the assignment of rank and the likelihood of mortality for African Americans serving the Union cause. Through a quantitative analysis of more than 8,000 enlistment records, it is the goal of this project to explicate the effects of these perceptions, and to reconcile, at least in part, how black military service was shaped by white bias.
II. DATA & METHODOLOGY
This project utilizes as its foundation the 1977 sample dataset “Union Army Recruits in Black Regiments in the United States, 1862-1865,” co-authored by economic historians Jacob Metzer and Robert A. Margo. Compiled from Union Army Regimental Records, this dataset represents about 5% of all black recruit records from this conflict and has a stated geographical focus on the Southern states. (Metzer and Margo)The data reflects recruit characteristics including physical traits such as skin, eye, and hair color, age, birthplace, location of enlistment, regiment and company assignment, rank, and pre-war occupation. The data also reflects rates of mortality and the causes thereof. It is on the latter of these characteristics, namely rank, occupation and mortality, that this project focuses.
As regards method, this project favors quantitative over qualitative analysis. Consequently, most observed traits and characteristics are omitted from the below argumentation, save for observed pre-war occupational skill level. The focus of this analysis are the relationships between this feature and rank distribution and battlefield mortality, thus contemporary perceptions thereof are indispensible. That said, it is necessary to acknowledge the probable observer bias inherent to these valuations, and to remember they reflect the opinions of military officials at that time.
It is likewise important to reiterate that these records reflect but a small percentage of total recruit data, and are focused both southward and on units of purely African American composition. This is an imperative acknowledgment, for the scope of any conclusions drawn from this analysis must be tempered by these limitations.
III. SETTING THE STAGE: TRENDS IN ENLISTMENT
Before endeavoring to conduct the rank and mortality analyses that are at the heart of this project, it is first necessary to observe and report the basic enlistment trends which precipitate them. To that end, the data suggests a rapid increase in enlistment in 1862, with a peak in 1863 and relative decline thereafter. This is perhaps unsurprising, given the necessity of the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation to facilitate enlistment. Prior, as reflected by General Benjamin Butler’s 1861 pronouncement of fleeing slaves as “contraband of war,” escapees were denied the status necessary to enlist in the Union Army. Fleeing slaves were refused the ability to serve as soldiers,, and were instead employed by General Butler and others as sources of manual labor. (Benj. F. Butler to Lieutenant Genl. Scott, 27 May 1861) Emancipation, however, gave this population the freedom to join up, which they did en masse.
Also noteworthy is the growth of enlistments outside of the recruit’s birth state. This trend, which spiked and then began to reduce as the war progressed through 1864 and 1865, is likewise unsurprising given the nature of the data reflected here. With the stated focus on enlistees in and about the Southern states, it is logical that recruits had to travel beyond their homes to enlist early in the war, only to have the Union lines descend and envelope them later. The map below demonstrates this shifting concentration of enlistments as the war progressed further and further south.
IV. SERVING THE UNION: RANK AND MILITARY PERCEPTIONS
Having now established the basic features of African American enlistment reflected in this data, it becomes possible to conduct an analysis of how rank was affected by the occupational perceptions of those processing such assignments. As the below chart indicates, rank distribution and density rose to a high in 1863, retreating thereafter. This seems to logically mirror the enlistment trends already stated.
To better demonstrate this change in rank distribution, the base rank private comprised approximately 90% of all recruits in 1862, but fell to a low of 86% in 1863. At that same time, when enlistment was at its peak, the density of corporals and sergeants reached highs of 8% and 6% respectively. This indicates that, at the height of black enlistment, the greatest number of recruits achieved superior ranks. This is telling, as the above chart likewise demonstrates that the density of upper-level ranks reduced yearly thereafter, consolidating recruits once more as privates. But why?
The data is not clear to this end. According to the above chart, recruits of baser occupational skill levels represented in 1862 approximately 71% of all enlistments, though this rose with total enlistment rates in 1863 and 1864 to roughly 95% annually. That percentage dropped in 1865 to approximately 87%, at the same time the density of privates reached its peak at roughly 94%. There seems to be no statistical evidence that pre-war occupation affected rank assignment, the hyper concentration of which at the rank of private near the end of the war perhaps being explainable through some other factor. The same, however, cannot be said of the relationship between such observed perceptions and rates of mortality for these soldiers.
V. DYING FOR FREEDOM: MORTALITY AND PRE-WAR OCCUPATION
At least one factor affecting African American entry into the Union Army having thus been explored, we turn to factors affecting their exit. More specifically, the relationship of mortality and perceptions of pre-war skill level are discussed in this section.
Before endeavoring any further, it is important to note that the leading causes of mortality among black troops were health-related. According to the data, the top seven afflictions that resulted in death were ailments such as dysentery, fever, cholera, etc. Consensus suggests that these units were less-frequently deployed in combat than were others, so it is logical that deaths during and following combat are reflected in fewer numbers. (Schamel and West) Examples such as the gallant stand of the 54th Massachusetts, depicted in the motion-picture Glory, were relative anomalies; therefore, campaign conditions, not battlefield wounds, were the leading cause of troop fatalities in these units.
Of the confirmed 1,711 deaths recorded in this data, it is telling that less than 5% were evaluated as skilled or semi-skilled at the time of their enlistment. When compared to the total distribution of these observed skill levels through the ranks, the results are somewhat intriguing. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the greatest density of all troops, alive and dead, reflects the label of fieldhand. Counter intuitively, however, this population of soldiers uniquely experienced a higher mortality rate than total enlistment rate. Approximately 89% of all enlistees were given this label, but they represent 93% of all fatalities. No other observed skill level reflects this proportionally increased mortality rate. Domestics represented 4% of total enlistment, with only 2% of overall deaths. Semi-skilled workers accounted for 2% and 1.5% respectively, with skilled laborers following suit as 5% of total enlistments and only 3% of all fatalities.
The meaning is clear. Given the primacy of illness as a contributory factor in black recruit deaths, and the unproportional increase in mortality of unskilled fieldhands, the data suggests that these soldiers were less healthy and more susceptible to fatal illnesses than other troops. Whether this speaks to pre-war health conditions or varying degrees of concern and health care for troops of different skill levels and rank is unclear in the data, but the statistical variation certainly indicates a fatal relationship between illness and perceived pre-war occupational skill levels. (For more on the health of black troops during the Civil War, see Margaret Humphreys’ Intensely Human)
VI. CONCLUSIONS
Deductions to be drawn from this project are not Earth-shattering. Overall, the quantitative analyses conducted here reinforce prevalent historiographical understandings regarding the experience of African Americans in Union service during the Civil War. Predominantly, that experience was shaped by bias and prejudice on the part of white commanders, including in part reservations to deploy these units in combat and reduced care for them medically and morally. That said, the data examined in this study does indicate a questionable relationship between mortality and perceptions of pre-war occupational skill level, which is to say that those observed as more basic in their occupational training were statistically more likely to perish than were other of higher skill sets. It is highly probable that a host of other factors affected this relationship, but the initial statistical relationship is intriguing and deserves greater scrutiny.
VII. SOURCES
“Benj. F. Butler to Lieutenant Genl. Scott, 27 May 1861,” B-99 1861, Letters Received Irregular, Secretary of War, Record Group 107, National Archives. http://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-civil-war/general-benjamin-f-butler-reacts-to-self-emancipating-slaves-1861/
Humphreys, Margaret. Intensely Human: the Health of the Black Soldier in the American Civil War. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
Metzer, Jacob, and Margo, Robert A. Union Army Recruits in Black Regiments in the United States, 1862-1865. [distributor], 2007-07-24. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09426.v1
Schamel, Wynell Burroughs, and Jean West. “The Fight for Equal Rights: a Recruiting Poster for Black Soldiers in the Civil War.” Social Education 56, no. 2 (1992): 118.