Bureau of Colored Troops

This act allowed President Abraham Lincoln to receive into the military service persons of African descent and gave permission to use them for any purpose "he may judge best for the public welfare."

Headed by Major Charles Warren Foster, the bureau was to systematize the process of raising black units and securing officers for them.

But in the Militia Act of 1862, Congress set the pay for black soldiers at $10 per month, $3 of which could be in clothing, which was the rate for military laborers.

However recruitment was slow until the support of prominent figures of African American cultures such as Frederick Douglass and Martin Delany.

Volunteers began to respond, and in May 1863 the Government established the Bureau of Colored Troops to manage the burgeoning numbers of black soldiers.