Tracking Ancestors

During the Civil War, about 179,000 black men, or over 10% of the Union Army, served as soldiers.  Another 19,000 served in the Navy.  Black soldiers could be found in artillery and infantry units, and performed all noncombat support functions as well.  For instance, there are records of black carpenters, chaplains, cooks, guards, laborers, nurses, scouts, spies, steamboat pilots, surgeons, and teamsters.  There were nearly 80 black commissioned officers.  Even black women served - as nurses, spies, and scouts.  Among these was a conductor on the Underground Railroad/  Harriet Tubman scouted for the 2nd South Carolina Volunteers.

A member of the South Carolina Volunteers

What I find potentially, at least to individuals, the most meaningful about all this, is that one can find any of one's ancestors who might have been among the 200,000 cited above.  Ancestry.com offers a tool to do so.