African American Soldiers from Columbia, PA in the Civil War

African American Soldiers from Columbia, PA
in the Civil War

Augustus Saint-Gaudin's Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Regiment

"Locally as well as nationally, recognition of service to the Union cause has been largely one-sided and ignores the valor, sacrifice, and altruism of almost 200,000 men of color who fought on land and sea to defend a country and constitution that had denied them the basic right of citizenship just four years before the outbreak of the war" (Leroy Hopkins, LCHS Journal, Volume 95, No. 1, p 20).

Objectives after completing this lesson, students will be able to:

Describe issues or problems facing African Americans soldiers during the Civil War.
Make inferences based on a charts and lists.
Analyze primary source documents.
Use a variety of primary sources to clarify, elaborate, and understand a historical period.
Make a connection between local participation in the Civil War and the national history of the Civil War.

National standards this lesson plan addresses:

National History Standards, Era 5-Civil War and Reconstruction (1850 - 1877); Standard 2A-Demonstrate understanding of how the resources of the Union and the Confederacy affected the course of the war; specifically: Identify the turning points of the war and evaluate how political, military, and diplomatic leadership affected the outcome of the conflict. [Assess the importance of the individual in history].
National History Standards, Era 5-Civil War and Reconstruction (1850 - 1877); Standard 2B-The student understands the social experience of the war on the battlefield and homefront. Specifically: Compare the motives for fighting and the daily life experiences of Confederate with those of white and African American Union soldiers. [Evidence historical perspectives]
Possibly some National Civics and Government Standards as well.

Time Required 50 minutes (5 minutes of lesson plan reading is included in the 50 minutes).

Introduction (15 minutes)
Perhaps the most famous, yet still little understood, regiment of African American soldiers during the Civil War is the 54th regiment of Massachusetts, immortalized by the movie Glory. In order to better understand the larger history of African American soldiers prior to, during, and following the Civil War, we will look at an online article about the assult on Fort Wagner, written by Kim O'Connell, at http://www.ugrr.org/civil/cw-ess5.html and a summary of the 54th regiment, found at http://www.afroammuseum.org/site1.htm.

Answer these questions after reading this summary:

Were African Americans allowed to join the Civil War if they wanted to in 1860? If not, when were they able to and why? Can you think of any ulterior motives President Lincoln had for admitting African Americans into the Union army?
Name some of the soldiers mentioned in these articles?
Who was the first African American to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor? Why did he receive it?
Is there anything ironic about African American participation in the Civil War? If there is, what is it?

Using Primary Documents to confirm Columbian Participation in the 54th Massachusetts Regiment (15 minutes)
Use Appendix I of Leroy Hopkins, "No Balm in Gilead: Lancaster's African-American Population and the Civil War Era," LCHS Journal, 1993, Vol. 95, No. 1, p. 31-37 and the "Casualty list of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment from the assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina, July 16-18, 1863", found at http://www.archives.gov/exhibit_hall/american_originals/54thmass.html, to confirm that at least one soldier from Columbia participated in the assault on Fort Wagner. The appendix of Hopkins' article lists Charles W. Body as having served in the 54th Massachusetts Volunteers in Company G. Under the category "Death", it mentions that Body was missing at Fort Wayne. If you look at the casualty list of the 54th found at the National Archives (linked above), you will find Charles Body listed in the right hand column. What does this information say to you? How would you use it in a classroom setting?

Read/look at the short article/announcement from the

regarding the recruitment of African American soldiers in Columbia into the 54th Regiment , found at http://tweis.millersville.edu/ugrr/54thReg.html of Massachusetts. As you read, think about these questions: What is the tone of this article? How do you think European Americans viewed African Americans? How do you think African Americans viewed European Americans? How do you think these feelings transferred to the atmosphere in the army camps and on the battlefield? African Americans participated in the Confederate war effort as well, do you think you could have found a similarily written article about African American enlistment in a Southern newspaper? Why or why not? Do you think it would have been written differently?

As recently as 1993, at least three hundred men of color had been identified as Lancaster County participants in the war effort between 1862-67 in each of the U.S.C.T. regiments of Pennsylvania and the famous Massachusetts regiments. Others served in the Navy and regiments formed in Virginia and Tennessee. The northward migration caused by the war meant that some of the men who enlisted were not Pennsylvania natives. There is proof that men from Mississippi and England were mustered into Pennsylvania regiments. "When one considers the status of African-Americans in Lancaster County and the Commonwealth in general before 1860, it is obvious that this enthusiastic response was rooted in a vision of the war being a final barrier to full integration into American society. Unfortunately, this hope found no justification in the events preceding, during, and after the war." (Hopkins, 20-21).

Camp William Penn's Black Soldiers in Blue (15 minutes)
Camp William Penn was a training camp for African-American soldiers based in Philadelphia. 11,000 African Americans were trained there; among them were probably participants from Columbia that joined the 3rd U.S.C.T. Read the article written by Donald Scott , found at http://afroamhistory.about.com/library/prm/blsoldiersinblue6.htm?terms=Donald+Scott, that is about the training camp in order to gain insight into the possible experience of the African American soldiers from Lancaster County. After you read the article, pick at least one soldier you know participated in the 3rd U.S.C.T. (refer to Appendix I) and outline a number of letters he or she would have possibly written home to their family to tell them about the soldier's camp experience (at the camp, during the war, etc.). Write one letter and include a comparison and contrast with other soldiers, Confederate or Union.

Alternative Assignments:

Analyze the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial using resources at the NARA exhibit and Museum of Afro American History. A Painting Analysis Worksheet based on documents created by NARA may help in this analysis.
Analyze various photographs of African American soldiers of the Civil War using the Photograph Analysis Worksheet created by NARA. The Photographic Analysis Form created by the Library of Congress may also be a helpful tool for analysis. Photos to be analyzed can be found at http://extlab1.entnem.ufl.edu/olustee/free_blacks.html and http://www.nara.gov/exhall/originals/54thmass.html. Pictures of modern day re-enactors may be useful for comparison and contrast.
A Painting Analysis Worksheet can be used to analyze an enlarged version of the painting found at http://www.kron.com/specials/blackhistory/infantry.html.
A classroom guide to "The 54th Massachusetts Regiment," a film developed by the History Channel, is available.
Though interviews from Pennsylvania are not available at the Library of Congress' American Memories Collection of WPA Life Histories, this may be a useful resource to access actual interviews with African American soldiers of the Civil War. Both text and audio are available.

SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION (40 minutes)
Meet with others who used these resources to share insights, ideas, and reflections on your experience of doing this activity. Begin by briefly sharing your ideas for the presentations and then discuss the activity, using the following questions as prompts:

What could students learn from this activity about the historical significance of African American soldiers participation in the Civil War? What kinds of background information would students need to effectively engage in this activity?

Would this activity, or some variation of it, work in your classroom or site? How would you reshape it for your audience? How would you combine it with other resources or sequence it with other lessons?

What do you see as the strengths and weaknesses of this activity? Is it a good vehicle for developing skills in inquiry, exploring primary sources, and developing arguments?
How would you describe the pedagogy (or principles of teaching/learning) that informs this activity? What aspects of the activity help to make it effective? What skills and modes of thinking does it support? Do the electronic resources suit the assignment's goals? What can we learn from this activity about the kinds of inquiry assignments that work best when using new media?