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The Fight for Equal Rights Black Soldiers in the polite WarHistorical BackgroundOnce let the unforgiving domain get upon his person the brass letter, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no mogul on earth that can deny that he has earned the justly to citizenship.Frederick Douglass The issues of emancipation and military service were intertwined from the onset of the Civil War. News from build up Sumter set off a rush by free foreboding(a) men to enlist in U.S. military units. They were turned away, however, because a national law dating from 1792 barred Negroes from bearing arms for the U.S. army (although they had served in the American Revolution and in the War of 1812). In Boston th fightted would-be volunteers met and passed a resolution requesting that the politics modify its laws to permit their enlistment. The capital of Nebraska administration wrestled with the idea of authorizing the recruitment of black troops, concerned that such a move would prompt the border states to secede. When Gen. John C. Frmont (photo computer address 111-B-3756) in Missouri and Gen. David Hunter (photo citation 111-B-3580) in randomness Carolina issued proclamations that emancipated slaves in their military regions and permitted them to enlist, their superiors sternly revoked their orders. By mid-1862, however, the escalating number of former slaves (contrabands), the declining number of purity volunteers, and the increasingly pressing personnel needs of the Union multitude pushed the Government into reconsidering the ban. As a result, on July 17, 1862, Congress passed the Second Confiscation and militia Act, freeing slaves who had masters in the Confederate Army. Two days later, bondage was abolished in the territories of the United States, and on July 22 President Lincoln (photo citation 111-B-2323) presented the preliminary draft of the license Proclamation to his Cabinet. After the Un ion Army turned back Lees first invasion of the North at Antietam, MD, and the Emancipation Proclamation was subsequently announced, black recruitment was pursued in earnest. Volunteers from South Carolina, Tennessee, and Massachusetts filled the first authorized black regiments. Recruitment was abate until black leaders such as Frederick Douglass (photo citation 200-FL-22) encouraged black men to become soldiers to ensure eventual full citizenship. (Two of Douglasss own sons contributed to the war effort.) Volunteers began to respond, and in May 1863 the Government established the Bureau of Colored forces to manage the burgeoning numbers of