![]() ![]() According to Morton Montgomery, Reading was a hotbed of army recruiting and organization. But unlike white soldiers, African Americans yearning to enlist had to travel farther than their home town. ![]() When the Union finally acknowledged their desire to fight in 1863, many left their families and lives behind to uphold the cause. Records indicate that 497 African Americans lived in Berks County in 1860 (Montgomery 1886, 71). Historical documents suggest that all of the African Americans from Berks who had formally enlisted served as a part of the U.S.C.T. All African American regiments-with the exception of a notable few-lost their state designations and existed under the umbrella of the United States Colored Troops (U.S.C.T.) (Compiled Military Service Records 2003). The Union government took steps to organize African American regiments on May 22, 1863, with the creation of the Bureau of Colored Troops. Abraham Lincoln’s famed Emancipation Proclamation, delivered first in September 1862 and then officially on January 1, 1863, did just that, giving African Americans the opportunity to enlist in the army and fight for their country (“History”). ![]() Officially sanctioned African American regiments did not exist until 1863, after the Confederacy had dealt the Union several blows in major defeats at First and Second Bull Run and the Seven Days’ Battles, and the Union was eager to weaken the Confederacy’s infrastructure by any means possible (McPherson 1991, 20). Berks County African Americans in the Civil War - Woven With WordsĪlthough African Americans repeatedly voiced a desire to fight for the Union during the Civil War, the government refused their services through the war’s early phases under a 1792 federal law (“African American Soldiers”). ![]()
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