The Union Army as an Educational Institution for Negroes, 1862-1865

Abstract

Despite the catastrophe of Hiroshima and limited wars in Korea and Vietnam, the Civil War was undoubtedly America's most unparalleled military, political, and social experience. The American Civil War led to many tactical and strategic innovations in warfare and weaponry: repeating rifles, machine guns, extensive trenches and fortifications, land mines, torpedoes, ironclad ships, an organized military signal service, a military draft, the Congressional Medal of Honor, the national income tax, and the systematic use of Negro troops. On the political front, seven Union officers later became presidents of the United States (Andrew Johnson, Ulysses Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, Benjamin Harrison, and William McKinley). Perhaps the most significant innovation of the Civil War was the institution of a national welfare program to aid and educate the oppressed, destitute, and illiterate Negro.1