Members of my family volunteered for the Union Army and fought in the Civil War. [View all]
So I have a personal interest in making sure we all understand the facts about that War to the extent possible.
The Union Army consisted of 2,647,341 soldiers.
178,975 were African-American.
3,350 were Native American.
Just wanted to clarify these facts.
Many white people fought against the rebellion of the South and many of the soldiers fought because they opposed laws that permitted white slaveholders from the South to capture slaves in the North. Many of the white men who fought for the Union despised slavery so much that they were willing to die to abolish it.
Please do not forget the selfless sacrifice of any of these soldiers, regardless of race, for the Union -- our United States -- and for the abolition of slavery.
We owe them so much. And some of them were very, very young.
http://www.nps.gov/civilwar/facts.htm
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