Final answer:
George Washington initially avoided using black men as soldiers due to the fear of armed slave revolts. Confederate troops did not officially accept black soldiers, while the Union initially refused to enlist even free blacks. However, black men were eventually allowed to serve in the Union army as the war progressed.
Step-by-step explanation:
George Washington and Congress initially avoided using black men as soldiers early in the war due to the fear of armed slave revolts, which they saw as a greater threat to white American society than the British redcoats. However, to help fill the depleted ranks of the Continental Army, Washington allowed the enlistment of free blacks with prior military experience in 1776, and extended the enlistment terms to all free blacks in 1777. Congress authorized the enlistment of all blacks, free and slave, in 1777, but only Maryland allowed African Americans to enlist.
In the South, white Confederates did not see African Americans as their equals or as soldiers, and enlisting slaves as Confederate troops would have gone against the whole theory of slavery. While the Confederate Congress authorized the recruitment of black soldiers in the last months of the war, only a few dozen African Americans enlisted and they never saw military action.
In the Union, President Lincoln initially believed that the presence of African American troops would threaten the loyalty of slaveholding border states and white volunteers might refuse to serve alongside black men. However, as the number of escaped slaves seeking refuge behind Union army lines increased, pressure from black Americans forced the federal government to act. The Union initially refused to enlist even free blacks, but as the war progressed, black men were eventually allowed to serve as soldiers.