Arkansas would be credited with 5,526 men in six regiments of African descent for Federal service. Allowing African-American men to serve was due in part to the Emancipation Proclamation and the Militia Act of 1862. In the Emancipation Proclamation, President Abraham Lincoln stated, “And I further declare and make known that such persons of suitable condition will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations and other places and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.” The Militia Act of 1862 provided that black soldiers would serve in the Federal service in non-combat support roles with significantly less pay than white soldiers. Up until that point, Congress had decreed that only white male citizens should be enrolled.

In Helena, the First Arkansas Volunteers of African Descent spent its formative days on “standing details” and “fatigue duty with many of the five hundred and fifty-men without shoes and deficient in comfortable clothing.” Colonel William Wood of the First Arkansas expressed his concerns on April 26, 1863, in a letter to Brigadier General Willis Gorman, commander of U.S. forces at Helena: “In consequence of the heavy details for fatigue duty we have lost during the last three days fifty men by desertion and many others are but waiting to run away. Objections to enlisting are made by negroes who but for this heavy fatigue duty would enlist and make good soldiers.…”
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