U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
“The issues of emancipation and military service were intertwined from the onset of the Civil war. News from Fort Sumter set off a rush by free Black men to enlist in U.S. military units. they were turned away, however, because a Federal law dating from 1792 barred Negros from bearing arms for the U.S. army… By mid-1862, however, the escalating number of former slaves (contrabands), the declining number of white volunteers, and the increasingly pressing personnel needs of the Union Army pushed the Government into reconsidering the ban.”