President Lincoln Seeks to Find Posts for Black Soldiers

January 14, 1862

Following up on his conversation with Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles the previous Saturday, President Lincoln writes General John A. Dix using “contrabands” as soldiers at two Virginia military installations –  Yorktown and Fort Monroe: “The proclamation has been issued.  We were not succeeding–at best, were progressing too slowly–without it.  Now, that we have it, and bear all the disadvantage of it, (as we do bear some in certain quarters) we must also take some benefit from it, if practicable.  I therefore will thank you for your well considered opinion whether Fortress-Monroe, and York-Town, one or both, could not, in whole or in part, be garrisoned by colored troops, leaving the white forces now necessary at those places, to be employed elsewhere.”

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