African-American Soldiers in the Civil War

Early in the war, a group of slaves made their way form Confederate-controlled Norfolk County, Va., and presented themselves at Fort Monroe. The Union commander, Major General Benjamin Butler, refused to return them to slaveholders who supported the Confederacy, leading them to be classified as "contraband." After the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, thousands of former slaves and free blacks enlisted in the U.S. Colored Troops. Here, seven "contraband" soldiers, dressed in old Union uniforms, pose in front of old barracks in Cobb Hill, Va.

• Faces of the Civil War