African Americans saw the Civil War as a fight for their freedom, but early in the war freed black men who tried to enlist in the Union Army were turned away because a 1792 federal law still barred blacks from bearing arms for the U.S. Army, even as the U.S. Navy allowed African Americans to serve in roles such as shipboard firemen, stewards, coal heavers, and boat pilots. Abolitionists urged President Abraham Lincoln to free the slaves and recruit African-American men, but he feared this would push border states like Missouri to secede, and many white Americans, influenced by racist ideas, resisted allowing African-American troops in combat and instead considered them better suited to support work. The Battle of Island Mound was the first time African-American troops saw combat in the Civil War, and white officers praised the bravery and combat skill of the black troops in the First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry in official reports and newspaper letters, while Southerners who fought there also gave positive remarks to the press. After the battle, favorable national coverage helped make it more acceptable for African Americans to join the military and fight in combat. On Jan. 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, officially allowing the Union Army to recruit African-American men to fight for the Union and their freedom. Black soldiers then faced racial prejudice, unequal pay, and the danger that if captured they could be enslaved or executed under Confederate policy, though threats of Union reprisal forced somewhat better treatment. Some Union officials kept black soldiers away from the front lines for protection, but by the end of the Civil War about 180,000 black men had served as soldiers in the U.S. Army and almost 18,000 in the Navy, with nearly 40,000 black soldiers dying during the war, including 30,000 from infection or disease. Nearly 80 black commissioned officers served, and black carpenters, chaplains, cooks, guards, laborers, nurses, scouts, spies, steamboat pilots, surgeons, and teamsters, as well as black women serving as nurses, spies, and scouts, also contributed to the war effort.