On this day in 1864, Congress passed a law requiring equal treatment for Black Union soldiers in pay, arms, equipment, medical care and other basic military services.
The measure addressed a long-standing inequity in the Union Army. Black soldiers had been serving in segregated units, often under white officers, while receiving less pay than white soldiers doing the same work. Black troops were paid $10 a month, with $3 deducted for clothing. White soldiers received $13 a month, with no clothing deduction.
The policy angered Black troops and their supporters. Many soldiers refused to accept the lower pay, even as they continued to serve. In Massachusetts, members of Black regiments went months without wages rather than accept compensation that treated them as unequal. Their protest put additional pressure on families who relied on their income, but it also helped force the issue before Congress.
The June 15, 1864, law required Black soldiers to receive the same uniforms, clothing, arms, equipment, camp gear, rations, medical and hospital care, pay and compensation as white soldiers in the same branch of service. Equal pay was made retroactive to Jan. 1, 1864, and some Black soldiers who had been free before the war could also seek additional pay dating back to their enlistment.
Black troops had already fought at Port Hudson, Milliken’s Bend, Fort Wagner, Petersburg and other major engagements as well as served as artillerymen, laborers, cooks, scouts, guards, teamsters and hospital workers. By the end of the Civil War, about 179,000 Black men had served in the U.S. Army, with another 19,000 serving in the Navy.
The law did not end discrimination in the military and Black soldiers still served in segregated units and still faced unequal treatment from some officers and deadly risks if captured by Confederate forces, which often refused to recognize them as legitimate soldiers.
