Black soldiers during American Civil War

Among the soldiers who fought for the North during the American Civil War were nearly 200,000 blacks. Many were former slaves who had escaped through a system of hiding places called the Underground Railroad. Although they were often discriminated against, in pay and other ways, they fought courageously. (Below: Black and white soldiers on the field at the Battle of Olustee, Florida , 1864.) (Grolier's New Book of Knowledge Encyclopedia)