A recruitment poster displayed by the U.S. Army to attract Black soldiers to service in the United States Colored Troops during the Civil War. Recruits were promised freedom from enslavement and equal pay and notably states that white "rebel" soldiers will be held as hostages for trade with Black U.S. troops.
United States Colored Troops Recruitment Poster
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COLORED SOLDIERS!
EQUAL STATE RIGHTS!
AND MONTHLY PAY WITH WHITE MEN!!
On the 1st day of January, 1863, the President of the United States proclaimed
FREEDOM TO OVER
THREE MILLIONS OF SLAVES!
This decree is to be enforced with all the power of the Nation. On the 21st of July last he issued the following order:
PROTECTION OF COLORED TROOPS.
WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE,
Washington, July 21.
General Order, No. 233.
"The following order of the President is published for the information and government of all concerned:—
EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, July 30.
"It is the duty of every Government to give protection to its citizens, of whatever race, color, or condition, and especially to those who are duly organized as soldiers in the public service. The law of nations and the usages and customs of war, as carried on by civilized powers, permit no distinction to be made in the treatment of prisoners of war as public enemies. To sell or enslave any captured person on account of his color, is a relapse into barbarism, and a crime against the civilization of the age.
"The Government of the United States will give the same protection to all its soldiers; and if the enemy shall sell or enslave any one because of his color, the offense shall be punished by retaliation upon the enemy's prisoner's in our possession. It is, therefore, ordered, for every soldier of the United States, killed in violation of the laws of war, a rebel soldier shall be executed; and for every one enslaved by the enemy, or sold into slavery, for the purpose of enforcing obedience to the laws of war, and securing to the soldier the protection due him by the law of war, if any soldier of the United States be enslaved by the enemy, or sold into slavery, a rebel soldier shall be placed at hard labor on the public works, and continued at such labor until the other shall be released and receive the treatment due in prisoners of war."
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By order of the Secretary of War.
E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant General."
That the President is in earnest the rebels soon began to find out, as witness the following order from his Secretary of War:
WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington City, August 7, 1863.
"SIR:—Your letter of the 3d inst., calling the attention of this Department to the cases of Orin H. Brown, William H. Johnston, and Wm. Wilson, three colored men captured on the gunboat Isaac Smith, has received consideration. This Department has directed that three rebel prisoners of South Carolina, if there be any such in our possession, and if not, three others, be confined in close custody and held as hostages for Brown, Johnston, and Wilson, and that the fact be communicated to the rebel authorities at Richmond.
"Very respectfully your obedient servant,
"EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.
"The Hon. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy"
And retaliation will be our practice now—man for man—to the bitter end.
Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration
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