“Once you let the black man carry the brass letters, US, put an eagle on his button, a musket on his shoulder, and bullets in his pockets , and there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship in the United States. The Army's efforts and taking an initiative for the future. With President Abraham Lincoln's issuing of his preliminary draft of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, the Civil War transformed into a war to ultimately save the Union and to abolish slavery overall in the Union's victory, helping them to turn the tide against the Confederate Army. In all, there were approximately 200,000 black soldiers who served in over 100 units in the Union Army and Navy (10% of the Union). But while their involvement in the war effort was deemed valuable, there was tension on many fronts, there was strong anti-black prejudice against black involvement by people in free states and loyal slave states; that they were not in favor of arming black soldiers and letting them participate in combat. That said, what were the social conditions of blacks in the North (Franklin) and South (Augusta) before the war? How many African Americans participated in the war and how? Did these conditions exist post-war? The main purpose of this article is to track the contributions of African Americans to the war and illustrate how these contributions changed their social status in society. With the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, a huge change was predicted for the entire country... middle of paper......863. http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/papers/FN0000.• Christy, Jacob. “Franklin County: Jacob Christy to Mary Jane Demus, August 10, 1864.” The Valley of the Shadow, August 10, 1864. http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/papers/F3004.• Hargrove, Hondon B. Black Union Soldiers in the Civil War. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1988.• Jordan, Ervin L. Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in the Virginia Civil War. Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia, 1995.• Mobley, Joe A. Weary of War: Life on the Confederate Home Front. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2008.• Quarles, Benjamin. The Negro in the Civil War. Boston: Little, Brown, 1969.• Wesley, Charles H. African Americans in the Civil War: From Slavery to Citizenship. 1979 ed. International Library of African American Life and History. Cornwells Heights, Pennsylvania: Publishing Agency, 1978.