?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
RECRUITMENT OF COLORED TROOPS (MILITARY--CIVIL WAR.) Come Join Us Brothers, Published by the Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments, 1210 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. Chromolithographic recruitment poster, 13-1/8 x 17-7/8 inches; paper evenly toned, a few shallow chips to the edges, one short closed tear to the right margin. Average margins one inch or more. Philadelphia, 1863
This rare recruitment poster was issued shortly after Lincoln's decision to use colored troops. It was printed with several different captions as well as in different sizes, some as large as might cover a wall. The soldiers shown here are the recruits at Camp William Penn, outside of Philadelphia. The United States War Department issued General Order Number 143 on May 22, 1863, establishing a "Bureau of Colored Troops" to facilitate the recruitment of African-American soldiers to fight for the Union Army. Regiments, including infantry, cavalry, engineers, light artillery, and heavy artillery units, were recruited from all states of the Union and became known as the United States Colored Troops (USCT). Approximately 175 regiments composed of more than 178,000 free blacks and freedmen served during the last two years of the war. Their service bolstered the Union war effort at a critical time. By war's end, the men of the USCT composed nearly one tenth of all Union troops. The USCT suffered 2,751 combat casualties during the war, and 68,178 losses from all causes. Disease caused the most fatalities for all troops.
