Existing comment:
Changing War:
"Fighting for Freedom"
By 1864, two-thirds of Spotsylvania's slaves had left the county. Some of them returned as soldiers to fight for the freedom of others, becoming the living embodiment of the power and promise of emancipation.
In the spring of 1864, the first regiments of United States Colored Troops (USCT) joined the Army of the Potomac in Virginia. Commanded exclusively by white officers, at first the African American units guarded trains, fixed roads, and dug earthworks. But as the spring of 1864 progressed and the army's losses mounted, the USCT moved to the front. |