Throughout American history, Afro-Americans have had to decide 
whether they belonged in the United States or if they should go 
elsewhere. Slavery no doubtfully had a great impact upon their 
decisions. However, despite their troubles African Americans have made 
a grand contribution and a great impact on our armed forces since the 
Revolutionary War. The Afro-American has fought against its country's 
wars, and they have also fought the war within their country to gain 
the right to fight and freedom.

        America's first war, its war for independence from Great 
Britain was a great accomplishment. This achievement could not have
been performed if not for the black soldiers in the armies. "The first 
American to shed blood in the revolution that freed America from 
British rule was Crispus Attucks, a Black seaman." (Mullen 9) Attucks 
along with four white men were killed in the Boston Massacre of March 
5, 1770. Even though Attucks was a fugitive slave running from his 
master, he was still willing to fight against England along with other 
whites and give the ultimate sacrifice, his life, for freedom. This 
wasn't the only incident of Blacks giving it all during the War for 
Independence.

        From the first battles of Concord and Lexington in 1775, Black 
soldiers "took up arms against the mother country." (Mullen 11) Of the 
many Black men who fought in those battles, the most famous are Peter 
Salem, Cato Stedman, Cuff Whittemore, Cato Wood, Prince Estabrook, 
Caesar Ferritt, Samuel Craft, Lemuel Haynes, and Pomp Blackman. One of 
the most distinguished heroes o the Battle of Bunker Hill was Peter 
Salem who, according to some sources, fired the shot that killed Major 
John Pitcairn of the Royal Marines. But Peter Salem wasn't the only 
Black hero during the Revolutionary War.

        Another Black man, Salem Poor, also made a hero of himself at 
Bunker Hill. Because of his bravery at the battle, he was commended by 
several officers to the Continental Congress. "Equally gallant at 
Bunker Hill were Pomp Fisk, Grant Coope, Charleston Eads, Seymour 
Burr, Titus Coburn, Cuff Hayes, and Caesar Dickenson." (Wilson 32) Of 
these men, Caesar Brown and Cuff Hayes were killed during the battle. 
Even though the Afro-American soldiers clearly distinguished  
themselves as soldiers, they were by no means wanted in the army. 
"Shortly after General Washington took command of the Army, the white 
colonists decided that not only should no Black slaves or freemen be 
enlisted, but that those already serving in the Army should be 
dismissed." (Mullen 12)

        The colonists would probably have kept Blacks out of the 
military during the war if not for the proclamation by the Lord of
Dunmore. He stated "I do hereby... declare all... Negroes... free, 
that are able and willing to bear arms, they joining his Majesty's 
troops, as soon as may be, for the more speedily reducing this colony 
to a proper dignity." This meant that any black soldiers willing to 
fight for the British would be declared legally free. Therefore, the 
Americans couldn't afford to deny Black Americans, free or not, from 
joining the army. Less than a month following Lord Dunmore's 
proclamation, General George Washington officially reversed his policy 
about letting "free Negroes to enlist." (Fowler 21)

        "Of the 300,000 soldiers who served in the Continental Army 
during the War of Independence, approximately five thousand were 
Black. Some volunteered. Others were drafted. In addition to several 
all-Black companies, an all-Black regiment was recruited from Rhode 
Island. This regiment distinguished itself in the Battle of Rhode 
Island on August 29, 1778." (Wilson 22)

        Between 1775 to 1781 there weren't any battles without Black 
participants. Black soldiers fought for the colonies at Lexington,
Concord, Ticonderoga, White Plains, Benington, Brandywine, Saratoga, 
Savannah, and Yorktown. There were two Blacks, Prince Whipple and 
Oliver Cromwell, with Washington when he crossed the Delaware River on 
Christmas Day in 1776. "Some won recognition and a place in the 
history of the War of Independence by their outstanding service, 
although most have remained anonymous." (Craine 43) Unfortunately 
despite Afro-Americans' contributions to the war effort and the large 
amount of dead Blacks, few had gained their freedom. The War for 
Independence was just the first of a list of wars Afro-Americans
would have a chance to participate in.

        The second American war fought with Afro-American help was the 
War of 1812. As Martin Delany put it, the Afro-American were "as ready 
and as willing to volunteer in your service as any other... and Blacks 
were not compelled to go; they were not draughted. They were 
volunteers." (Wilson 47) Black Americans fought the British on land 
and sea, and they "were particularly conspicuous in the various naval 
battles fought on the Great Lakes under the command of Oliver H. 
Perry." (Mullen 16) At least one-tenth of the crews of the fleet on 
the lake region were African American. Captain Perry, like Washington, 
objected to the appointment of Blacks to his naval ships. But after 
the Battle of Lake Erie, Captain Perry was "unstinting" in 
Afro-American praise as men who "seemed insensible to danger." (Fowler 
46)

        After the Battle of Lake Erie the New York legislature 
authorized the forming of two Black regiments. These regiments
included slaves with their masters' permission, and two battalions of 
Black soldiers were enlisted for New Orleans and its surrounding area.

        The mobilization for New Orleans was particularly significant 
because it was there on September 21,1814, three months before the 
Battle of New Orleans, that General Andrew Jackson issued his 
proclamation "To the Free Colored Inhabitants of Louisiana." In that 
proclamation, Jackson, who needed to augment and strengthen his 
forces, called upon the free Blacks of Louisiana, which of course was 
a slave state, to answer the appeal of their country. In the appeal he 
confessed that "the policy of the United States in barring Negroes 
from the service had been a mistaken one." (Mullen 16)

        The United States won the War of 1812. The slaves who had been 
enlisted by their masters in the American army found themselves 
re-enslaved after the war was over and the United States had no 
further needs of their military services. The Afro-American thus found 
himself as a servant to the White masters until the Civil War.

        The third and most important war Black Americans fought in was 
the American Civil War. Deven though this war eventually resulted in 
the ending of slavery it was began between "Northern industrialists 
and Southern Slave owners to determine who would have hegemony over 
the federal government and who would be able to expand into the new 
territories of the West" (Mullen 18). The question of slavery would 
come later. "When the Civil War began, blacks weren't allowed to fight 
in the Union army." (Utley 18) Unfortunately, Abraham Lincoln was more 
concerned with political relations than the treatment of Afro-American 
slaves.

        The federal government and the Union army only began to "adopt 
a policy of allowing and even encouraging the recruitment of Blacks 
when it became clear that the war would be a long and drawn out 
conflict in which it was essential to mobilize all the resources 
possible and to weaken the enemy as much as possible. (Mullen 19 Utley 
47) Even then Black troops weren't really used. In Muly 1862, Congress 
authorized the use of black soldiers in the Civil War, but there "was 
no follow-up until January 1, 1863" when Abraham Lincoln put the 
"Emancipation Proclamation into effect." (Mullen 23)

        After the Emancipation Proclamation, the War Department moved 
rapidly to begin the enlistment of Black Americans. During January 
1863, the War Department authorized Massachusetts to raise two Black 
regiments. Because of this nearly 200,000 Afro-American soldiers were 
serving the army and an additional 300,000 were serving as laborers, 
spies, servants or general helpers. Before the end of the war, there 
had been 154 Black regiments formed in the army, of these 140 were 
infantry units. These regiments fought in "battles and skirmishes and 
suffered 68,178 fatalities on the battlefield in the course of the 
war." (Mullen 22)

        By the war's end there had been barely a battle where Black 
soldiers had not fought. The Afro-American soldiers' most outstanding 
achievement was the "charge of the Third Brigade of the Eighteenth 
Division on the Confederate fortifications on New Market Height near 
Richmond, Virginia." (Utley 48) Due to their heroic courage in that 
battle, thirteen Black soldiers received Congressional Medals of Honor 
in one day. "In all, twenty Negroes received the medal in recognition 
of gallantry and intrepidity in combat during the Civil War." (Mullen 
23)

        "John Hope Franklin estimates that the Black mortality rate in 
the Army was nearly 40 percent higher than among white soldiers. This 
was partially due to unfavorable conditions, poor equipment, bad 
medical care, and the rapidity with which the Blacks were sent into 
battle." (Fowler 73) However as W.E.B. Du Bois pointed out that the 
Black troops were "repeatedly and deliberately used as shock troops, 
when there was little or no hope of success."(Mullen 23) The 
African-American soldier not only had success on land but as seamen.

        Throughout the navy's history Blacks had not ever been barred 
or banned from enlisting. Due to an intense shortage of seaman, the 
navy went farther than any other American armed force and adopted a 
policy of signing up escaped slaves along with free Blacks. This 
shortage of men benefited the Afro-American extremely because the navy 
treated Blacks quite well. The navy was especially anxious to have its 
Black sailors re-enlist. African-American sailors made up about 
one-quarter of the sailors in the Union fleet. "Of the 118,044 
enlistments during the Civil War, 29,511 were Blacks. Some of the 
ships in the fleet were manned by predominantly Black crews, and there 
was scarcely a ship without Afro-American crew members." (Utley 37)

        The navy not only was the first armed force to accept fugitive 
slaves, it was also the first armed force to fully integrate both
Blacks and Whites. "Because of the close quarters on warships, it was 
never practical to segregate the Negroes within the crews, the same 
way the army did in all-Black units, and for that reason the navy was 
not only integrated as a service, but also was integrated within each 
ship." (Mullen 31)

        After the Civil War, the army was reorganized in 1886. Six 
Black regiments were for formed by law to be a part of the regular
army for their valor during the Civil War. In 1866, Congress passed an 
act creating four regiments: the Twenty fourth and Twenty-fifth 
Infantry and the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry. These regiments were to be 
permanent army regiments. Of these four regiments, the Ninth and Tenth 
Cavalry distinguished themselves during the Indian Wars in the West 
between 1870 and 1900. The Ninth and Tenth Cavalry were nicknamed 
"Buffalo Soldiers" by the Cheyenne and Comanche, and these soldiers 
were widely feared by the Indians. The Buffalo Soldiers constituted 
about 20 percent of the armed forces in the West.

        The 9th and 10th Cavalries' service in subduing Mexican 
revolutionaries, hostile Native Americans, outlaws, comancheros, and
rustlers was as invaluable as it was unrecognized. It was also 
accomplished over some of the most rugged and inhospitable country in 
North America. A list of their adversaries - Geronimo, Sitting Bull, 
Victorio, Lone Wolf, Billy the Kid, and Pancho Villa - reads like a 
quote of 'Who's Who' of the American West. (Academic Assistance 
Center)

        The Buffalo Soldiers also explored and mapped large areas of 
the southwest and strung thousands of miles of telegraph lines. The 
Black Soldiers built and fixed frontier outposts where towns and even 
cities would begin. "Without the protection provided by the 9th and 
10th Cavalries, crews building the ever expanding railroads were at 
the mercy of outlaws and hostile Indians." (Utley 62) The Buffalo 
Soldiers, despite extreme prejudices and the worst assignments, did 
their duties to the best of their abilities. Thus, they continued to 
receive more citations for valor than any other group in the United 
States military. 

        The Spanish-American War gave them but another chance to prove 
their abilities. African-American soldiers were involved in the war 
from the beginning. At least thirty Blacks were stationed on the 
battleship Maine when it exploded in Havana harbor on February 15, 
1898. Of these men, twenty-two of them were killed. Thousands of 
African-Americans volunteered to join the United States' deficient 
army. In the beginning, the newly formed Black regiments had no Black 
officers. "But a widespread campaign around the slogan 'No officers, 
no fight" succeeded in winning some concessions. In all about 
one-hundred officers were commissioned i the volunteer units in the 
course of the war." (Crane 52)

        "In fact, Black troops played a conspicuous part in all three 
of the major Cuban campaigns. Their performance was to be a source of 
pride to Afro-Americans for years afterward." (Mullen 36) Most of the 
Buffalo soldiers fighting in Cuba won the commendation of their "white 
officers." The distinguished Black Ninth and Tenth Cavalry saved 
Roosevelt and his Rough Riders from being completely slaughtered. 
Theodore Roosevelt bestowed great praise of the Afro-American soldiers 
at that time. The widespread heroism displayed by the African-American 
soldiers ended up with six Buffalo soldiers receiving the
Congressional Medal of Honor.