African-American Soldiers in the Civil War

Civil War Photos, Black History Month
Library of Congress

African Americans fought during the Revolutionary War, but it was not until the advent of photography that evidence of black troops was widely seen. In this hand-colored, quarter-plate tintype created in 1863, an African-American soldier in the Union Army stands with his musket — bayonet fixed — and a revolver at Benton Barracks in St. Louis.

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