Black Union Soldiers: 180,000 Serve, Face Unequal Pay and Confederate Murder

The Bureau of Colored Troops was established May 22, 1863; by war's end approximately 180,000 Black men served in 175 regiments of the United States Colored Troops. Black soldiers received $10 per month versus $13 for white soldiers, a wage disparity Congress equalized only in June 1864. The Confederate government declared it would execute Black Union soldiers as insurrectionists rather than treat them as prisoners of war, a policy carried out at Fort Pillow and other engagements.