the Corps d'Afrique
*On May 1, 1863, the Corps d'Afrique was mustered into service. This Black Corps served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The Corps d'Afrique was formed from the four infantry regiments of the Louisiana Native Guard raised by Major General Benjamin F. Butler and the five colored infantry regiments raised by Brigadier General Daniel Ullman. Most of the remainder of the regiments were formed in New Orleans, Louisiana.
After Butler was replaced, General Orders No. 40, Department of the Gulf, was issued by Major General Nathaniel P. Banks and stated the intent of forming a corps-sized unit composed of colored soldiers: The major general commanding the department proposes the organization of a corps d'armee of colored troops to be designated as the Corps d'Afrique. It will consist ultimately of eighteen regiments, representing all arms -- infantry, artillery, cavalry -- making three brigades of two regiments each, and three divisions of three brigades each, with appropriate corps of engineers, and flying hospitals for each division, appropriate uniforms, and the graduation of pay to correspond with the value of services, will be hereafter awarded.
Though the Louisiana Native Guard regiments had Black officers, including Andre Cailloux and P. B. S. Pinchback, eventually, Banks would purge the Black officers of the Louisiana Native Guard and replace them with white soldiers from other units, primarily from the North. Units created after General Order No. 40 would be initially staffed with white officers.
First Lieutenant Charles Sauvinet would be the only Black officer from the Louisiana Native Guard to retain his commission until the war's end. Utilizing voluntary enlistment and conscription of freedmen and escaped slaves, the corps grew to over twenty regiments before being absorbed into the Bureau of Colored Troops in April 1864.
