HISTORY OF JUNETEENTH PREFACE

“On June 16, 1858, Abraham Lincoln accepted the Republican nomination for President of the United States. The election of 1860 was  one of the most pivotal presidential elections in American history. The main issue of the election was slavery and states’ rights. Lincoln  emerged victorious and became the 16th President of the United States. Abolitionist and American treasure Frederick Douglass, in his  capacity as the 1st Black Presidential-Elector, NY stated,” Slaveholders know the day of their power is over, when a Republican  President is elected.”

In an attempt to form their own country (in order to protect the institution of slavery) eleven southern slave-holding states formed an  alliance, called the Confederacy and seceded from the United States in 1861. “The War Between the States,” began April 1861, when  South Carolinians (members of the Confederate States of America) launched an attack on Fort Sumter in the Charleston harbor. The  Confederacy was initially formed by seven secessionist slave-holding States South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia,  Louisiana, and Texas—in the Lower South region of the United States, whose economy was heavily dependent upon agriculture,  particularly cotton, and a plantation system that relied upon the labor of African-American slaves. After the Civil War began, four other  states-Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina joined the Confederacy to maintain their rights to hold slave’s captive as free  labor. Hence the bloodiest war in America’s history ensued.

“We have dissolved the late Union chiefly because of the negro quarrel … We have called our negroes ‘slaves’, and we have recognized  and protected them as persons and our rights to them as property.” Stated Robert Hardy Smith, in an Address to the Citizens of Alabama  on the Constitution and Laws of the Confederate States of America in 1861. Frederick Douglass argued that the enlistment of black soldiers would help the North win the war and would be a huge  step in the fight for equal rights: “Once [you] let the black man get upon his person the brass letters, U.S.; let him get an  eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket,” Douglass said, “and there is no powe r on earth  which can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship.” Ultimately, sixteen African American soldiers won the  Congressional Medal of Honor for their brave service in the fight for their freedom during the Civil War.

JUNE 19TH 1862

CHAPTER CXI–An Act to secure Freedom to all Persons within the Territories of the United States. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled that from and after  the passage of this act there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the Territories of the United States now existing,  or which may at any time hereafter be formed or acquired by the United States, otherwise than in punishment of crimes whereof the  party shall have been duly convicted.

SIGNED and APPROVED, by President Abraham Lincoln, June 19, 1862.

JULY  

• July 4, Lincoln reminded the embattled nation, “All men created equal” (but, this still did not include African Americans).

• July 12, Border States reject the Emancipation Proclamation to free enslaved people.

• After two grueling years of war, President Lincoln began to reconsider black soldiers, as equals and human enough to die  for their freedom. Besides, the Union Army badly needed soldiers. White volunteers were dwindling, and African – Americans were more eager to fight than ever.

• On July 17, Lincoln signed Congress 2^ND Confiscation Act of 1862 … any Confederate official, military or civilian, who did not  surrender within 60 days of the act’s passage would have their slaves freed in criminal proceedings; and, thereby the first step  towards the enlistment of African Americans in the Union Army.

AUGUST 

• August 4, 1st United States Colored Combat Troop (USCT)—Kansas Regiment  • August 25, US War Department began recruiting Colored Combat Troop in Gullah Geechee territory on the Sea Islands.

• August 25, US War Department began recruiting Colored Combat Troop in Gullah Geechee territory on the Sea Islands.

SEPTEMBER 

It was on September 22, 1862 that the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by Abraham Lincoln, the President of the United States, proclaiming January 1, 1863, the day that “all persons held as slaves within ANY state thenceforth and FOREVER FREE; and the Executive Government of the United States (and entities thereof) will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons; and will do no act or acts to repress such person in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom (and the celebration thereof). 

NOVEMBER 

• George McClellan was general-in-chief of the Union Army. Like many people at the time, McClellan opposed the  outright abolition of slavery, though he was committed to the preservation of the Union. General McClellan led the  Battle of Antietam, which was the single bloodiest day of combat in the Civil War. Frustrated that General McClellan  had failed to destroy Lee’s army, Lincoln officially removed him from command in November 1862.

DECEMBER 

• December 31 Lincoln signs legislation for the new “Free State” of West Virginia.

• African Americans hold Midnight Watch to Emancipation Proclamation

JANUARY 1863  

• January 1, 1863 church bells rings…FREEDOM  

A NEW ERA has begun!

Lincoln used the war powers of the presidency to issue the Emancipation Proclamation re-ordering the freedom of all enslaved people  in the areas “in rebellion” (the Confederacy) declaring … “”All persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the  people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive  Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such  persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.”

The mandate did not exempt border states and those areas of slave states not in rebellion and therefore beyond the reach of the  constitutional war power to emancipate its enslaved people. However, as soon as the Union Army arrived, it did liberate the enslaved in  that area. On the first day, it affected tens of thousands of enslaved people.

Some blacks took this as their cue to begin forming infantry units of their own.

• African Americans from New Orleans formed three National Guard units: the 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd Louisiana Native Guard. These became the  73rd, 74th and 75th United States Colored Infantry.

• The First Kansas Colored Infantry—79th United States Colored Infantry (fought in the October 1862 skirmish at Island  Mound, Missouri).

• The First South Carolina Infantry—33rd United States Colored Infantry (went on its first expedition in November 1862).  These unofficial regiments were officially mustered into service in January 1863.

FEBRUARY 

• February, the abolitionist Governor John A. Andrew of Massachusetts issued the Civil War’s first official call for black  soldiers. More than 1,000 men responded from as far away as Canada and the Caribbean. Frederick Douglass’ son Charles  Douglass was the first to enlist in the United States Colored Troops, USCT.

They formed the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, the first black regiment to be raised in the North. • February New state West Virginia allows emancipation of its enslaved population!

• February 18, Lincoln/Congress sign treaty w/England to increase suppression of International slave trade. • February 24 Fred Douglass, Recruiter for USCT in MA

▪ “MEN OF COLOR, TO ARMS” posters reprinted nationwide!

MARCH  

• March 16, New Freedmen’s Bureau

MAY 

• 60-day Battle of Port Hudson, USCT

• 73^rd USCT—Andre Cailloux, 1825 – May 27, 1863, was one of the first African American officers in the Union Army to be killed in  combat during the Civil War. He died heroically during the Siege of Port Hudson, LA.

JUNE 

• June 4, War Department pays USCT less money and no bounties.

• June 7,” African Brigade” 9^th LA USCT, 5^th Colored heavy artillery fought off Rebel attack at Milliken’s Bend. Louisiana’s newly  recruited slaves fought hand-to-hand and got high praise from Generals Grant, Stanton, Lincoln, et al! 

• Harriet Tubman became the first woman to lead an assault during the Civil War at the Combahee River Raid, 700 slaves set free.

JULY 

July 1863 was an extraordinarily bloody and decisive month, beginning with a three-day confrontation between General Robert E.  Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and Maj. Gen. George G. Meade’s Army of the Potomac around the Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg.  On the 4th, the Confederates suffered defeat at Helena, Ark., and, more important, surrendered the essential Mississippi River  stronghold of Vicksburg.

Black and Native American soldiers outnumbered whites in overlooked July 1863 clash in what is now Rentiesville, Oklahoma The Battle of Honey Springs, the  climatic engagement of the Civil War in Indian Territory, was fought on July 17,  1863, and had been in the making since the beginning of the war. Then, as part of  an overall plan for conquering the Confederacy, Federal forces invaded Indian Territory.

July 18, the 54th Massachusetts stormed Fort Wagner, which guarded the Port of Charleston, SC. It was the first time in the Civil War that African American troops led an infantry attack. Unfortunately, the 600 men of the 54th were outgunned and outnumbered-were killed. This is the storyline for the movie “Glory.”

July 30, Lincoln legislative order forbids mistreatment of African American Prisoners of War (POWs)