[presidio9]

About 18% of Union combatants died. Applying that percentage to the about 200,000 blacks (approximately 10% of the Union total) who served gives us about 35,000 blacks who died. Haven't been able to find a source that breaks black deaths out separately.

I will be the first to admit that I am no expert on this, but I was under the impression that very few of the free blacks who enlisted were given combat roles. First, because a lot of the whites refused to fight next to them, and second because the Confederacy threatened to execute all black prisoners.

Triva note: Presidio9 attended the same high school as Col. Robert Shaw, the Union officer Matthew Broderick portrayed in the film "Glory."

[Restorer]

It is true that comparatively few blacks were given combat roles. However, it is reasonable to suppose that their sanitary and medical facilities were skimped. Certainly they were paid less than white troops for most of the war. Therefore, I would suspect that a slightly higher death rate from disease would not be unreasonable. Combining a higher death rate from disease and a lower combat death rate, I would be surprised if black mortality rates were not comparable to white rates overall.

[Restorer]

According to this website, Union black deaths totaled 37,000, almost exactly what I suggested above.

http://www.njstatelib.org/NJ_Information/Digital_Collections/AAHCG/unit6.html

However, it is obviously an "ain't white racism awful" site. I'd take their numbers with a grain of salt. For instance, they claim blacks were used as "cannon fodder," and therefore had a higher death rate, even though from other sources it is easy to see that their death rates were very similar to those of white soldiers.