The military history of Black-Americans spans African-American history, the history of the United States and the military history of the United States from the arrival of the first enslaved Africans during the colonial history of the United States to the present day. Black Americans have participated in every war which has been fought either by or within the United States, including the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War, the Civil War, the Spanish–American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the war in Afghanistan, and the Iraq War.

American Revolution

Black Americans, both as slaves and freemen, served on both sides of the Revolutionary War. Gary Nash reports that recent research concludes there were about 9,000 black soldiers who served on the American side, counting the Continental Army and Navy, state militia units, as well as privateers, wagoneers in the Army, servants, officers and spies.Gary B. Nash, "The African Americans Revolution", in Oxford Handbook of the American Revolution (2012) edited by Edward G Gray and Jane Kamensky, pp. 250–270, at p. 254. Ray Raphael notes that while thousands did join the Loyalist cause, "A far larger number, free as well as slave, tried to further their interests by siding with the patriots."Ray Raphael, A People's History of the American Revolution (2001), p. 281.

Black soldiers served in Northern militias from the outset, but this was forbidden in the South, where slave-owners feared arming slaves. Lord Dunmore, the Royal Governor of Virginia, issued an emancipation proclamation in November 1775, promising freedom to Patriot-owned slaves who fought for the British; Sir Henry Clinton issued a similar edict in New York in 1779. Over 100,000 slaves escaped to British lines, however only roughly 1,000 of them served on the front lines. Many Black Loyalist migrated to Nova Scotia and later to Sierra Leone. Many of the Black Loyalists performed military service in the British Army, particularly as part of the only Black regiment of the war, the Black Pioneers, and others served non-military roles.

In response, and because of manpower shortages, Washington lifted the ban on black enlistment in the Continental Army in January 1776. All-black units were formed in Rhode Island and Massachusetts; many were slaves promised freedom for serving in lieu of their masters; another African American unit came from Haiti with French forces. More than 5,000 African American soldiers fought as Revolutionaries, and at least 20,000 served with the British. Peter Salem and Salem Poor are the most noted of the African American Patriots during this era, and Colonel Tye was perhaps the most noteworthy Black Loyalist. African Americans also served with various of the South Carolina guerrilla units, including that of the "Swamp Fox", Francis Marion,Gray, Jefferson M., "Francis Marion Foils the British", Military History Quarterly, August 3, 2011. half of whose force sometimes consisted of free Blacks. These Black troops made a critical difference in the fighting in the swamps, and kept Marion's guerrillas effective even when many of his white troops were down with malaria or yellow fever.

The first black American to fight in the Marines was John Martin, also known as Keto, the slave of a Delaware man, recruited in April 1776 without his owner's permission by Captain of the Marines Miles Pennington of the Continental brig USS Reprisal. Martin served with the Marine platoon on the Reprisal for a year and a half and took part in many ship-to-ship battles including boardings with hand-to-hand combat, but he was lost with the rest of his unit when the brig sank in October 1777.

At least 12 other black men served with various American Marine units in 1776–1777; more may have been in service but not identified as blacks in the records. However, in 1798 when the United States Marine Corps (USMC) was officially re-instituted, Secretary of War James McHenry specified in its rules: "No Negro, Mulatto or Indian to be enlisted". Marine Commandant William Ward Burrows instructed his recruiters regarding USMC racial policy, "You can make use of Blacks and Mulattoes while you recruit, but you cannot enlist them." The policy was formulated to set a higher standard of unit cohesion for Marines, with the unit to be made up of only one race, so that the members would remain loyal, maintain shipboard discipline and help put down mutinies. The USMC maintained this policy until 1942.

Use of servants in the early Army

Both during and after the Revolutionary War, the newly formed United States Army was still operating on a European styled system of military structure/culture. This included the use of enlisted soldiers as servants for officers', where they would perform tasks set by their commanding officer. With a total ban of African Americans from enlisting in the military, some slave owning officers sought to use their own slaves for use in servitude positions. Hamdani explains how it was discovered that Lt. Robert Rowan enlisted his own personal slave in the Army for the sole purpose of being his waiter, where after the discovery, the slave was discharged and the incident was reported to the Secretary of War, James McHenry. Near the end of the 18th century, the first restriction on servitude within the military was passed, where soldiers now had to voluntarily submit themselves to become servants to officers, but also allowed officers to hire "domestics" to become their servants (however costs for rations, clothing, etc. were paid by the officer who employed the servant). This first restriction would set into motion further legislation that incentivized the used of slaves in servitude positions within the military.

At the start of the War of 1812, Congress officers allowed to hire personal servants where funds for clothing and rations would be paid for by military, which further incentivized officers to use other means of servitude instead of the use of soldiers. The final piece of legislation came in 1814 that directly outlawed the use of soldiers as servants as well as reducing the amount of servants officers could have, but allowed officers to cover the costs of private servants with military money. This allowed slave owning officers to incorporate their slaves as servants and have the costs fully covered, which incentivized other officers to follow suit.

War of 1812

During the War of 1812, about one-quarter of the personnel in the American naval squadrons of the Battle of Lake Erie were black, and portrait renderings of the battle on the wall of the nation's Capitol and the rotunda of Ohio's Capitol show that blacks played a significant role in it. Hannibal Collins, a freed slave and Oliver Hazard Perry's personal servant, is thought to be the oarsman in William Henry Powell's Battle of Lake Erie.Copes, p. 63. This is in some dispute. See here Collins earned his freedom as a veteran of the Revolutionary War, having fought in the Battle of Rhode Island. He accompanied Perry for the rest of Perry's naval career, and was with him at Perry's death in Trinidad in 1819.

No legal restrictions regarding the enlistment of blacks were placed on the Navy because of its chronic shortage of manpower. The law of 1792, which generally prohibited enlistment of blacks in the Army became the United States Army's official policy until 1862. The only exception to this Army policy was Louisiana, which gained an exemption at the time of its purchase through a treaty provision, which allowed it to opt out of the operation of any law, which ran counter to its traditions and customs. Louisiana permitted the existence of separate black militia units which drew its enlistees from freed blacks.

A militia unit, In Louisiana, the 2nd Battalion of Free Men of Color, was a unit of black soldiers from Santo Domingo led by a Black free man and Santo-Domingue emigre Joseph Savary offered their services and were accepted by General Andrew Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans, a victory that was achieved after the war was officially over.

Blacks fought at the Battle of Bladensburg August 24, 1814, many as members of Commodore Joshua Barney's naval flotilla force. This force provided crucial artillery support during the battle. One of the best accounts is that by Charles Ball (born 1785). Ball served with Commodore Joshua at the Battle of Bladensburg and later helped man the defenses at Baltimore. In his 1837 memoir, Ball reflected on the Battle of Bladensburg: "I stood at my gun, until the Commodore was shot down… if the militia regiments, that lay upon our right and left, could have been brought to charge the British, in close fight, as they crossed the bridge, we should have killed or taken the whole of them in a short time; but the militia ran like sheep chased by dogs." Barney's flotilla group included numerous African Americans who provided artillery support during the battle. Modern scholars estimate blacks made up between 15 and 20%, of the American naval forces in the War of 1812.Charles E. Brodine, Michael J. Crawford and Christine F. Hughes, editors Ironsides! The Ship, the Men and the Wars of the USS Constitution (Fireship Press, 2007), 50.

Just before the battle Commodore Barney on being asked by President James Madison "if his negroes would not run on the approach of the British?" replied: "No Sir…they don't know how to run; they will die by their guns first."Elizabeth Dowling Taylor A Slave in the White House: Paul Jennings and the Madison's Palgrave (McMillen: New York 2012), p. 49. The Commodore was correct, the men did not run, one such man was young sailor Harry Jones (no. 35), apparently a free black. Harry Jones was wounded in the final action at Bladensburg. Due to the severity of Jones wounds, he remained a patient at the Naval Hospital Washington DC for nearly two months.Register of Patients at Naval Hospital Washington DC 1814 With the Names of American Wounded from the Battle of Bladensburg Transcribed with Introduction and Notes by John G. Sharp Harry Jones was patient number 35 and see note 8. Accessed 22 May 2018.

African Americans also served with the British. On April 2, 1814, Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane issued a proclamation to all Americans wishing to emigrate, similar to the aforementioned Dunmore's Proclamation some 40 years previous. Any persons would be received by the British, either at a military outpost or aboard British ships; those seeking sanctuary could enter His Majesty's forces, or go "as free settlers to the British possessions in North America or the West Indies".The text of the proclamation has been widely published, and copies of the printed original are in UK National Archives WO 1/143 f31 and ADM 1/508 f579. Among those who went to the British, some joined the Corps of Colonial Marines, an auxiliary unit of marine infantry, embodied on May 14, 1814. British commanders later stated the new marines fought well at Bladensburg and confirm that two companies took part in the burning of Washington including the White House. Following the Treaty of Ghent, the British kept their promise and in 1815 evacuated the Colonial Marines and their families to Halifax Canada and Bermuda.

Servitude still continued throughout the War of 1812 due to previous legislation in 1802 that allowed African American servants to be given rations paid for by the government and not by their commanding officers. As the war continued, Congress allowed more rations/gear to be given to private servants that also came out of the government’s purse as well as finally passing a ban on use of soldiers as servants, which would incentivize the use of African Americans within the military as officers could now only use private servants.

1815 to 1840