Found 3 collections related to United States. Army -- African American troops -- History

The Corps d'Afrique was officially known as the Louisiana Native Guards. The First Louisiana Native Guards was raised in August 1862 by Union general Benjamin Butler and mustered in on September 27, 1862. It was the first Black regiment in the United States. The Second Louisiana Native Guards was mustered in on October 1862, and the Third in November 1862. This collection includes a muster and payroll for the First Regiment of Engineers under Colonel Justin Hodge. The roll contains the names and ranks of officers, a musician, and individual soldiers in the regiment, and date and place of enrollment. less

The Middleton "Spike" Harris Civil War and Reconstruction collection consists of documents pertaining to the Civil War from both the Union Army and the Confederate states. Among other items, there is a pay claim issued by the Confederate Army, U.S. Army discharge papers, and an amendment to the Negro Soldier Bill investing Confederate General-in-Chief Robert E. Lee with full power to call slaves into service. Included is a letter from William Lloyd Garrison in which he declares that the U.S. government should be held responsible for abolishing slavery. The Reconstruction era is represented by three documents including a signed loyalty oath, 1865, and a letter to President Andrew Johnson from someone seeking to be appointed an agent to sell cotton brought to market by freedmen in Texas, 1867. less