At last—­after a great many men had been killed and the Emancipation Proclamation had changed the status of the Negro—­enlistment was decided on.  The policy was that Negroes might be non-commissioned men while white men who had seen service would be field and line officers.  In general it was expected that only those who had kindly feeling toward the Negro would be used as officers, but in the pressure of military routine this distinction was not always observed.  Opinion for the race gained force after the Draft Riot in New York (July, 1863), when Negroes in the city were persecuted by the opponents of conscription.  Soon a distinct bureau was established in Washington for the recording of all matters pertaining to Negro troops, a board was organized for the examination of candidates, and recruiting stations were set up in Maryland, Missouri, and Tennessee.  The Confederates were indignant at the thought of having to meet black men on equal footing, and refused to exchange Negro soldiers for white men.  How such action was met by Stanton, Secretary of War, may be seen from the fact that when he learned that three Negro prisoners had been placed in close confinement, he ordered three South Carolina men to be treated likewise, and the Confederate leaders to be informed of his policy.

The economic advantage of enlistment was apparent.  It gave work to 187,000 men who had been cast adrift by the war and who had found no place of independent labor.  It gave them food, clothing, wages, and protection, but most of all the feeling of self-respect that comes from profitable employment.  To the men themselves the year of jubilee had come.  At one great step they had crossed the gulf that separates chattels from men and they now had a chance to vindicate their manhood.  A common poster of the day represented a Negro soldier bearing the flag, the shackles of a slave being broken, a young Negro boy reading a newspaper, and several children going into a public school.  Over all were the words:  “All Slaves were made Freemen by Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, January 1st, 1863.  Come, then, able-bodied Colored Men, to the nearest United States Camp, and fight for the Stars and Stripes.”

To the credit of the men be it said that in their new position they acted with dignity and sobriety.  When they picketed lines through which Southern citizens passed, they acted with courtesy at the same time that they did their duty.  They captured Southern men without insulting them, and by their own self-respect won the respect of others.  Meanwhile their brothers in the South went about the day’s work, caring for the widow and the orphan; and a nation that still lynches the Negro has to remember that in all these troublous years deeds of violence against white women and girls were absolutely unknown.