How were black people treated in the American Civil War?

On the Union side, they were not wanted at first by most of the troops, and black volunteers were restricted to menial labour in the camps. By the midpoint of the war, white soldiers began to see the benefit of putting blacks into uniform to fill up the junior ranks, as this could help to speed their own promotion. Slowly, black soldiers acquired credibility and acceptance in Union regiments, and by the end of the war, they had figured in a number of historic engagements.

On the Confederate side, the obvious advantage of recruiting the huge male slave population into the Army was treated as religious heresy, and when it was mentioned at a top military conference, the remark was struck from the record. Only in the last few weeks of the war did the General-in-Chief, Robert E. Lee, start to organise this agenda, too late to make any difference.