(http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/featur- es/timeline/civilwar/aasoldrs/soldiers.htm). Abraham Lincoln was opposed to African American soldiers because he thought it might make the Border States, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, have more of a reason to join the South. Since the border states were all slave states, but decided to stay with the Union, they could be easily persuaded to join the Confederacy. All they needed to turn against the North was one little reason (Henretta 42). Soon after 1862, the Union army was losing the majority of their battles and the general public had low spirits. Abraham Lincoln turned to African American soldiers to save his country. He organized two African American regiments: the First South Carolina Volunteers and the First Kansas Colored Volunteers. The officers of these regiments and other African American regiments were white (Roberts 67). .
On July 17, 1862, Congress approved two acts permitting the enlistment of African Americans. Actual enrollment, however, did not begin until September of 1862. It took so long for congress to pass the law and begin enrollment because most white soldiers, officers, and congressmen believed that African Americans had no courage to fight well or fight at all. In October of 1862, African American soldiers of the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers marked the first time that an African American regiment experienced combat during the Civil War. At the battle of Island Mound, Missouri in October of 1862, the African American soldiers drove away attacking Confederates. This was the first battle of the Civil War that African Americans participated in (http://hist.unt.edu/09w-acwd.htm). By August of 1863, fourteen "Negro Regiments" were battling in the war. On May 27, 1863 at the battle of Port Hudson in Louisiana. the African American soldiers advanced across an open field face to face with lethal gunfire.