Top 10 Myths About the Civil War

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When Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation he said that all slaves who came into northern lines would be free. Some slaves didn't find out about this because they couldn't read, or their master just wouldn't tell them. Slave owners didn't want their slaves to run away. Although some slaves didn't find out, others did. Somehow, some slaves escaped from their masters and entered northern lines where they were free. Some received help from the Underground Railroad, while others escaped on their own.

Some of the slaves who escaped to freedom fought for the North while others who stayed in the southern territory were forced by their masters to fight for the South. Blacks who fought in the Civil War didn't only fight for the North. Some fought for the South because their masters pushed them and made them. Even though some Blacks helped fight for the South, more Blacks fought for the North because slaves were escaping to freedom and believed that fighting for the North would help end slavery.

Early in the war, Blacks who lived in the North who wanted to fight in the war to try to end slavery, tried to enlist in the Union (northern) Army. The Army wouldn't let them go fight the war. The Whites felt the war was a "white man's war." The Union government began to allow Blacks to perform support services for the northern war effort in 1863. Over time, about 200,000 Blacks worked for the Union Army as laborers, cooks, scouts, spies, and nurses.

The war didn't end as fast as people thought. White soldiers who died needed to be replaced, so the Union Army began to increase the number of black soldiers enlisted. This helped the war effort for the North because it gave them more men to fight the war. The few Blacks who were allowed to fight were very good fighters, but didn't get the same amount of money a white soldier would get. At first, Blacks in the Union (northern) Army received only half the amount of money Whites received. Congress finally granted Blacks equal pay in 1864.

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