This is the first of a series of documentary histories of emancipation designed to tell the story of the transit of black people from slavery to freedom in the United States. The series will provide a social history of emancipation, written in the words of the emancipated. This volume explains how black military service helped to destroy slavery, and how the experience of soldiering shaped the life of black people (in the army and out) during and after the war; it also provides a social history of black soldiers.