The SCV version of 'belief' in 'Black Confederates'

[jgoodguy]

The stated purpose of this thread is to discuss what the SCV sees as a belief in 'Black Confederates'. Let us look at the aspects of the belief, how it has evolved over time, origins and so on.

 

[jgoodguy]

First up is
https://scv.org/contributed-works/black-confederates/
Black Confederates

Why haven’t we heard more about them? National Park Service historian, Ed Bearrs, stated, “I don’t want to call it a conspiracy to ignore the role of Blacks both above and below the Mason-Dixon line, but it was definitely a tendency, which began around 1910.” Historian, Erwin L. Jordan, Jr., calls it a “cover-up” which started back in 1865. He writes, “During my research, I came across instances where Black men stated they were soldiers, but you can plainly see where ‘soldier’ is crossed out and ‘body servant’ inserted, or ‘teamster’ on pension applications.” Another black historian, Roland Young, says he is not surprised that blacks fought. He explains that “…some, if not most, Black southerners would support their country” and that by doing so they were “demonstrating it’s possible to hate the system of slavery and love one’s country.” This is the very same reaction that most African Americans showed during the American Revolution, where they fought for the colonies, even though the British offered them freedom if they fought for them.

It has been estimated that over 65,000 Southern blacks were in the Confederate ranks. Over 13,000 of these, “saw the elephant” also known as meeting the enemy in combat. These Black Confederates included both slave and free. The Confederate Congress did not approve blacks to be officially enlisted as soldiers (except as musicians), until late in the war. But in the ranks it was a different story. Many Confederate officers did not obey the mandates of politicians, they frequently enlisted blacks with the simple criteria; “Will you fight?” Historian Ervin Jordan, explains that “biracial units” were frequently organized “by local Confederate and State militia Commanders in response to immediate threats in the form of Union raids…”. Dr. Leonard Haynes, an African-American professor at Southern University, stated, “When you eliminate the black Confederate soldier, you’ve eliminated the history of the South.”

1. The “Richmond Howitzers” were partially manned by black militiamen. They saw action at 1st Manassas (or 1st Battle of Bull Run) where they operated battery no. 2. In addition two black “regiments”, one free and one slave, participated in the battle on behalf of the South. “Many colored people were killed in the action”, recorded John Parker, a former slave.

1. At least one Black Confederate was a non-commissioned officer. James Washington, Co. D 34th Texas Cavalry, “Terrell’s Texas Cavalry” became it’s 3rd Sergeant. In comparison, The highest-ranking Black Union soldier during the war was a Sergeant Major.

1. Free black musicians, cooks, soldiers and teamsters earned the same pay as white confederate privates. This was not the case in the Union army where blacks did not receive equal pay. At the Confederate Buffalo Forge in Rockbridge County, Virginia, skilled black workers “earned on average three times the wages of white Confederate soldiers and more than most Confederate army officers ($350-$600 a year).

1. Dr. Lewis Steiner, Chief Inspector of the United States Sanitary Commission while observing Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson’s occupation of Frederick, Maryland, in 1862: “Over 3,000 Negroes must be included in this number
   [Confederate troops]. These were clad in all kinds of uniforms, not only in cast-off or captured United States uniforms, but in coats with Southern buttons, State buttons, etc. These were shabby, but not shabbier or seedier than those worn by white men in the rebel ranks. Most of the Negroes had arms, rifles, muskets, sabers, bowie-knives, dirks, etc., and were manifestly an integral portion of the Southern Confederate Army.”

1. Frederick Douglas reported, “There are at the present moment many Colored men in the Confederate Army doing duty not only as cooks, servants and laborers, but real soldiers, having musket on their shoulders, and bullets in their pockets, ready to shoot down any loyal troops and do all that soldiers may do to destroy the Federal government and build up that of the rebels.”

1. Black and white militiamen returned heavy fire on Union troops at the Battle of Griswoldsville (near Macon, GA). Approximately 600 boys and elderly men were killed in this skirmish.

1. In 1864, President Jefferson Davis approved a plan that proposed the emancipation of slaves, in return for the official recognition of the Confederacy by Britain and France. France showed interest but Britain refused.

1. The Jackson Battalion included two companies of black soldiers. They saw combat at Petersburg under Col. Shipp. “My men acted with utmost promptness and goodwill…Allow me to state sir that they behaved in an extraordinary acceptable manner.”

1. Recently the National Park Service, with a recent discovery, recognized that blacks were asked to help defend the city of Petersburg, Virginia and were offered their freedom if they did so. Regardless of their official classification, black Americans performed support functions that in today’s army many would be classified as official military service. The successes of white Confederate troops in battle, could only have been achieved with the support these loyal black Southerners.
2. Confederate General John B. Gordon (Army of Northern Virginia) reported that all of his troops were in favor of Colored troops and that it’s adoption would have “greatly encouraged the army”. Gen. Lee was anxious to receive regiments of black soldiers. The Richmond Sentinel reported on 24 Mar 1864, “None…will deny that our servants are more worthy of respect than the motley hordes, which come against us.” “Bad faith [to black Confederates] must be avoided as an indelible dishonor.”

1. In March 1865, Judah P. Benjamin, Confederate Secretary Of State, promised freedom for blacks that served from the State of Virginia. Authority for this was finally received from the State of Virginia and on April 1st 1865, $100 bounties were offered to black soldiers. Benjamin exclaimed, “Let us say to every Negro who wants to go into the ranks, go and fight, and you are free…Fight for your masters and you shall have your freedom.” Confederate Officers were ordered to treat them humanely and protect them from “injustice and oppression”.

1. A quota was set for 300,000 black soldiers for the Confederate States Colored Troops. 83% of Richmond’s male slave population volunteered for duty. A special ball was held in Richmond to raise money for uniforms for these men. Before Richmond fell, black Confederates in gray uniforms drilled in the streets. Due to the war ending, it is believed only companies or squads of these troops ever saw any action. Many more black soldiers fought for the North, but that difference was simply a difference because the North instituted this progressive policy more soon than the more conservative South. Black soldiers from both sides received discrimination from whites that opposed the concept.

1. Union General U.S. Grant in Feb 1865, ordered the capture of “all the Negro men… before the enemy can put them in their ranks.” Frederick Douglas warned Lincoln that unless slaves were guaranteed freedom (those in Union controlled areas were still slaves) and land bounties, “they would take up arms for the rebels”.

1. On April 4, 1865 (Amelia County, VA), a Confederate supply train was exclusively manned and guarded by black Infantry. When attacked by Federal Cavalry, they stood their ground and fought off the charge, but on the second charge they were overwhelmed. These soldiers are believed to be from “Major Turner’s” Confederate command.

1. A Black Confederate, George _____, when captured by Federals was bribed to desert to the other side. He defiantly spoke, “Sir, you want me to desert, and I ain’t no deserter. Down South, deserters disgrace their families and I am never going to do that.”
2. Former slave, Horace King, accumulated great wealth as a contractor to the Confederate Navy. He was also an expert engineer and became known as the “Bridge builder of the Confederacy.” One of his bridges was burned in a Yankee raid. His home was pillaged by Union troops, as his wife pleaded for mercy.

1. As of Feb. 1865 1,150 black seamen served in the Confederate Navy. One of these was among the last Confederates to surrender, aboard the CSS Shenandoah, six months after the war ended. This surrender took place in England.

1. Nearly 180,000 Black Southerners, from Virginia alone, provided logistical support for the Confederate military. Many were highly skilled workers. These included a wide range of jobs: nurses, military engineers, teamsters, ordnance department workers, brakemen, firemen, harness makers, blacksmiths, wagonmakers, boatmen, mechanics, wheelwrights, etc. In the 1920’S Confederate pensions were finally allowed to those workers that were still living. Many thousands more served in other Confederate States.

1. During the early 1900’s, many members of the United Confederate Veterans (UCV) advocated awarding former slaves rural acreage and a home. There was hope that justice could be given those slaves that were once promised “forty acres and a mule” but never received any. In the 1913 Confederate Veteran magazine published by the UCV, it was printed that this plan “If not Democratic, it is [the] Confederate” thing to do. There was much gratitude toward former slaves, which “thousands were loyal, to the last degree”, now living with total poverty of the big cities. Unfortunately, their proposal fell on deaf ears on Capitol Hill.

1. During the 5oth Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1913, arrangements were made for a joint reunion of Union and Confederate veterans. The commission in charge of the event made sure they had enough accommodations for the black Union veterans, but were completely surprised when unexpected black Confederates arrived. The white Confederates immediately welcomed their old comrades, gave them one of their tents, and “saw to their every need”. Nearly every Confederate reunion including those blacks that served with them, wearing the gray.

1. The first military monument in the US Capitol that honors an African-American soldier is the Confederate monument at Arlington National cemetery. The monument was designed 1914 by Moses Ezekiel, a Jewish Confederate, who wanted to correctly portray the “racial makeup” in the Confederate Army. A black Confederate soldier is depicted marching in step with white Confederate soldiers. Also shown is one “white soldier giving his child to a black woman for protection”. – Source: Edward Smith, African American professor at the American University, Washington DC.

1. Black Confederate heritage is beginning to receive the attention it deserves. For instance, Terri Williams, a black journalist for the Suffolk “Virginia Pilot” newspaper, writes: “I’ve had to re-examine my feelings toward the [Confederate] flag…It started when I read a newspaper article about an elderly black man whose ancestor worked with the Confederate forces. The man spoke with pride about his family member’s contribution to the cause, was photographed with the [Confederate] flag draped over his lap…that’s why I now have no definite stand on just what the flag symbolizes, because it no longer is their history, or my history, but our history.”

Books:

Charles Kelly Barrow, et. al. Forgotten Confederates: An Anthology About Black Southerners (1995). Currently the best book on the subject.

Ervin L. Jordan, Jr. Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia (1995). Well researched and very good source of information on Black Confederates, but has a strong Union bias.

Richard Rollins. Black Southerners in Gray (1994). Also an excellent source.

Dr. Edward Smith and Nelson Winbush, “Black Southern Heritage”. An excellent educational video. Mr. Winbush is a descendent of a Black Confederate and a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV).


This fact sheet is provided by Scott Williams. It is not an all-inclusive list of Black Confederates, only a small sampling of accounts. For more information about the SCV or “Confederates of Color” contact Mr. Williams at e-mail: swcelt@stlnet.com.

For general historical information on Black Confederates, contact Dr. Edward Smith, American University, 4400 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20016; Dean of American Studies. Dr. Smith is a black professor dedicated to clarifying the historical role of African Americans.

 

[5fish]

I found this about the Confederate Navy and Marines...

http://www.navyandmarine.org/ondeck/1862blackCSN.htm

Dr. Edward Smith, Dean of American Studies at American University, estimates that by February 1865, 1,150 Black Americans had served in the Confederate States Navy. This number would equate to approximately 20 percent of this branch of the Confederate military.

Confederate Naval Regulations allowed a ship’s captain a ratio of one black seaman to five white seamen. A higher percentage of black crewmen were allowed upon the captain filing an exemption. Since numerous exemptions were filed, it seems reasonable to conclude that the surface has barely been scratched where blacks in the Confederate Navy are concerned.

Most of the Confederate States Marine Corps records were intentionally destroyed at the end of the war, less they fall into enemy hands. As a result, research of any kind into this branch of service is very much a challenge. What follows are the names and descriptions of Black Americans I have been able to positively identify as having served with the Confederate States Navy and Marine Corps.

The linked has details and names...

 

[Andersonh1]

Why haven’t we heard more about them? National Park Service historian, Ed Bearrs, stated, “I don’t want to call it a conspiracy to ignore the role of Blacks both above and below the Mason-Dixon line, but it was definitely a tendency, which began around 1910.” Historian, Erwin L. Jordan, Jr., calls it a “cover-up” which started back in 1865. He writes, “During my research, I came across instances where Black men stated they were soldiers, but you can plainly see where ‘soldier’ is crossed out and ‘body servant’ inserted, or ‘teamster’ on pension applications.”

I was present when Dr. Walter Curry was giving a talk on his ancestor, Lavinia Corley Thompson, and he said much the same thing, that there was a "conspiracy" to remove these men from the historical record. I'd love to have had more details.

 

[jgoodguy]

I was present when Dr. Walter Curry was giving a talk on his ancestor, Lavinia Corley Thompson, and he said much the same thing, that there was a "conspiracy" to remove these men from the historical record. I'd love to have had more details.

'Conspiracy theories' are a form of 'belief'.

Conspiracy theory

A conspiracy theory is an explanation of an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful actors, often political in motivation,[2][3] when other explanations are more probable.[4] The term has a pejorative connotation, implying that the appeal to a conspiracy is based on prejudice or insufficient evidence.[5] Conspiracy theories resist falsification and are reinforced by circular reasoning: both evidence against the conspiracy and an absence of evidence for it, are re-interpreted as evidence of its truth,[5][6] and the conspiracy becomes a matter of faith rather than proof.[7][8]
​

 

[5fish]

At least one Black Confederate was a non-commissioned officer. James Washington, Co. D 34th Texas Cavalry, “Terrell’s Texas Cavalry” became it’s 3rd Sergeant. In comparison, The highest-ranking Black Union soldier during the war was a Sergeant Major.

Link:https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/blacks-civil-war

This person above was incorrect about the highest-ranking Black Union soldier... The Native Guard was originally led by Black officers...

By the end of the Civil War, roughly 179,000 black men (10% of the Union Army) served as soldiers in the U.S. Army and another 19,000 served in the Navy. Nearly 40,000 black soldiers died over the course of the war—30,000 of infection or disease. Black soldiers served in artillery and infantry and performed all noncombat support functions that sustain an army, as well. Black carpenters, chaplains, cooks, guards, laborers, nurses, scouts, spies, steamboat pilots, surgeons, and teamsters also contributed to the war cause. There were nearly 80 black commissioned officers. Black women, who could not formally join the Army, nonetheless served as nurses, spies, and scouts, the most famous being Harriet Tubman (photo citation: 200-HN-PIO-1), who scouted for the 2d South Carolina Volunteers.

 

[jgoodguy]

This person above was incorrect about the highest-ranking Black Union soldier... The Native Guard was originally led by Black officers...

By the end of the Civil War, roughly 179,000 black men (10% of the Union Army) served as soldiers in the U.S. Army and another 19,000 served in the Navy. Nearly 40,000 black soldiers died over the course of the war—30,000 of infection or disease. Black soldiers served in artillery and infantry and performed all noncombat support functions that sustain an army, as well. Black carpenters, chaplains, cooks, guards, laborers, nurses, scouts, spies, steamboat pilots, surgeons, and teamsters also contributed to the war cause. There were nearly 80 black commissioned officers. Black women, who could not formally join the Army, nonetheless served as nurses, spies, and scouts, the most famous being Harriet Tubman (photo citation: 200-HN-PIO-1), who scouted for the 2d South Carolina Volunteers.

There are lots of problems, but what it is, is evidence of a 'belief ' or 'myth'.

 

[jgoodguy]

Armistead-Hill-Goode SCV Camp 749
October 13 at 8:15 AM ·

 

[jgoodguy]

https://scv.org/contributed-works/the-role-of-black-soldiers-in-the-confederate-army/

Home/Contributed Works/The Role of Black Soldiers in the Confederate Army
By SSG Harry W. Tison, II

Many historians would have you believe that all minority groups such as Blacks, Indians, and Hispanics hated the Confederacy and what it stood for. This is completely untrue according to records that are recently been brought to the forefront of history. Groups such as the 37th Texas Calvary and the Sons of Confederate Veterans have for many years tried to make this information possible. For those who do not know, the 37th Texas Calvary is a Civil War reenactment group that prides itself on having minorities in their unit. The Sons of Confederate Veterans is a historical group only. There are men of color within this group and they are very proud of their heritage.

Why then have we not heard of these proud soldiers? The answer may lie in the fact that many of the history books that are in our schools were written by people who are either ignorant of the situation or by someone bent on covering up the true history of the past. I have found a lot of information about these soldiers on the Internet and have even met some of the blacks in the Sons of Confederate Veterans. This paper is to bring out the truth about them with the hopes that others will see exactly wha t the War of Northern Aggression was about.

First, the war was not 100% about slavery. Yes, there was a small portion of people in the South that owned slaves and thought that there was nothing wrong with it. But the majority of people believed that the North was oppressing them much the same way that the King of England was oppressing their parents and grandparents were in the Revolutionary War. The North was trying to put heavy taxes on things such as cotton, tobacco and other such items that the South was producing. Although very difficult, the way of life in the South was a matter of pride and not to be messed around with.

Although blacks were repressed in the South, the same was true in the North. Blacks were probably discriminated against in New York City and Boston more than they were in Charleston or Atlanta. Yes, they were ‘free’ in the North, but were still considered second-class citizens to many in the North. They still did not have the right to vote nor were they allowed in the same establishments as whites. This is why the majority of blacks stayed in the South when the war started. They stayed to fight for their homeland against the ‘Yankees’. There was between 50,000 to 100,000 blacks that served in the Confederate Army as cooks, blacksmiths, and yes, even soldiers. Hollywood would have us believe that the Union Army first started letting Blacks fight with the movie “Glory”, the story of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. This is not the case. Here is the history of these brave souls.

There are many references to the trials that blacks had to endure during this era. Not many though, tell the story of blacks that served in the Confederacy. Although it is true that a good number of slaves fled to the North, there were those that chose to stay in the South to stay with their families or to fight what they saw as the tyranny of the Yankees. There is the story of a slave whose name were Silas Chandler and his master Andrew Chandler. (www.37thtexas.org) Andrew enlisted in the 44th Mississippi Volunteer Regiment and took Silas along with him as many Southerners did. Andrew was 15 years old and Silas was nearly 17 and very close friends with Andrew. Silas traveled between the plantation in Mississippi and wherever Andrew was. Andrew wrote home on 31 Aug 1862, “If the Feds were to capture him, they might take him along with them.” “I greatly fear another raid, don’t let them catch Silas. Be sure to write when Silas gets home.”

Andrew was severely wounded in the Battle of Chickamauga. Army doctors were prepared to amputate his leg but Silas refused to let the doctors perform the operation. Instead, he used a piece of gold to buy whiskey, which he used to buy a bottle of whiskey to bribe the surgeons for Andrews release. He carried his master on his back and loaded him on a boxcar in Atlanta and better medical care. Andrew survived as a cripple and the two remained friends for the rest of their lives and both received pensions for serving in the war.

On the far side of Arlington National Cemetery, in a little known place, is the cemetery’s largest monument. It is the Confederate Memorial that stands over the graves of Confederate Soldiers. On this monument is a carving of a black soldier, not in chains, but in a Confederate uniform marching along side his fellow soldiers. The sculptor of this monument was Moses Ezekiel. A Confederate veteran who knew what the true history of the war was. Ezekiel himself was a minority in the Confederate Army being Jewish, so he knew some of the trials the blacks were facing in the country. He was a native Virginian who graduated from the Virginia Military Institute and fought in the Battle of New Market where several black Confederates saw action. (www.37thtexas.org)

Although the Confederates did not officially enlist blacks until March 1865, some states allowed them to serve on a local level as early as 1861. Nobody really knows how many blacks actually served in the Confederacy; some estimates go as high as 50,000. A Union officer noted in his diary shortly before the Battle of Sharpsburg:

“Wednesday, September 10: At 4 o’clock this morning the Rebel army began to move from our town, (Fredrick, Md), Jackson’s forces taking the advance. The movement continued until 8 o’clock pm, occupying 16 hours. The most liberal calculation could not give them more than 64,000 men. Over 3,000 Negroes must be included in this number. These were clad in all kinds of uniforms, not only in cast-off or captured United States uniforms, but in coats with Southern buttons, State buttons, etc. These were shabby, but not shabbier or seedier than those worn by white men in the rebel ranks. Most of the Negroes had arms, rifles, muskets, sabers, bowie-knives, dirks, etc. They were supplied with knapsacks, haversacks, canteens, etc and they were an integral portion of the Southern Confederate army. They were seen riding on horses and mules, driving wagons, riding on caissons, in ambulances, with the staff of generals and promiscuously mixing it up with all the Rebel horde.” (Union Sanitation Commission Inspector Dr. Louis Steiner, Sept. 1862.)

Another Black Confederate is Levi Miller, a former slave who became a Confederate hero. He was one of thousands of slaves who went to war with their masters as a body servant. He was voted by his regiment to be a full-fledge soldier after nursing his master back from a near fatal wound. He also exhibited bravery in battles in Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. During the fighting at Spotsylvania Courthouse, his former commander, Capt. J.E. Anderson, said of him, “Levi Miller stood by my side and no man fought harder and better than he did when the enemy tried to cross our little breastworks and we clubbed and bayoneted them off, no one used his bayonet with more skill and effect than Levi Miller. During several battles, Levi met several other Negroes that he knew either by friendship or as a relative. They attempted to get him to desert to the North, but would not.

Upon his death, it is ironic that his coffin was draped with the Stars and Bars at a hero’s funeral service. He was laid to rest in a black cemetery. This is perhaps the biggest irony of all since the cemetery is near the spot where R.E. Lee is buried.

In a letter dated 27 March 1865, Lt. Col. Charles Marshall wrote a letter to Lt. Gen. Ewell stating that Gen. Lee regretted the “unwillingness of owners to permit their slaves to enter the service”, and “His only objection to calling them colored troops was that the enemy had selected that designation for theirs”. Also, “Harshness and contemptuous or offensive language or conduct to them must be forbidden and they should forget as soon as possible that they were regarded as menials”.

The following is a list of 4 soldiers captured at Ft. Fisher when it fell to Union troops in January 1865:

Charles Dempsey, Private, Company F, 36th NC Regiment, Negro. Captured at Ft. Fisher and confined at Point Lookout, Md., until paroled and exchanged at Coxes Landing, Va. 14-15 Feb 1865. (Taken from North Carolina Troops, Volume I)

Henry Dempsey, Private, Company F, 36th NC Regiment, Negro. Captured at Ft. Fisher and confined at Point Lookout, Md., until paroled at Coxes Landing, Va. 14-15 Feb 1865. (Taken from North Carolina Troops, Volume I)

J. Doyle, Private, Company E, 40th NC Regiment, Negro, Captured at Ft. Fisher and confined at Point Lookout, Md., until paroled at Boulware’s Wharf, Va. On 16 Mar 1865. (Taken from North Carolina Troops, Volume I)

Daniel Herring, Cook, Company F, 36th NC Regiment, Negro. Captured at Ft. Fisher, and confined at Point Lookout, Md. Until released after taking Oath of Allegiance June 19, 1865. (Taken from North Carolina Troops, Volume I)

Notice that all 4 soldiers were black and that one of them signed an Oath of Allegiance only after Lee’s surrender.

If you look at the make up of Union troops, you can plainly see that blacks were segregated into separate units, while in the South, they were mixed in with the white troops. They were also given the same pay and rations as other Confederate troops as opposed to their counterparts in the North. In June 1861, Tennessee became the first state in the South to allow the use of black soldiers. The governor authorized the enrollment of those between the ages of 15-50 and have the same rations and clothing as white soldiers. Blacks started appearing in Tennessee regiments by September of that same year.

At the Battle of Fair Oaks near Richmond, a black cook and minister with the Alabama regiment picked up a rifle and was heard yelling, “Der Lor’ hab mercy on us all, boys, here dey comes agin!” As the Alabamians returned fire and mounted a charge, he was heard shouting, “Pitch in white folks, Uncle Pomp’s behind yer. Send them Yankees to de ‘ternal flames!” (Battlefields of the South. Vol. 2, page 253)

There are many stories about Black Confederates. I have listed only a few to give you a glimpse at them. There are many resources to go to and read if you wish to learn more. History can no longer be covered up by the ‘do-gooders’ that wish to wash our minds of the truth. I know where the hatred for the Confederate Battle Flag comes from, and it is not from the Old Confederacy. It comes from those who chose to degrade the good names of Confederate Soldiers. What they don’t realize though is that what they are hiding behind in the name of racial purity was fought and died for by men of all races; including blacks.

BIBILOGRAPHY FOR ROLES OF BLACKS IN THE CONFEDERATE ARMY

www.37thtexas.org. – The Black and the Gray

Washington City Paper-July 17, 1998

Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia by Ervin L. Jordan, Jr. (Charlottesville, Va: University Press of Virginia

Calico, Black and Gray: Women and Blacks in the Confederacy by Edward C. Smith, Civil War Magazine, Vol. VIII, No. 3, Issue XXIII, pg. 14

Battlefields of the South – Vol. 2

North Carolina Troops, Volume I

The Official Louisiana Tourism website – www.crt.state.la.us/crt/tourism/civilwar/overview.htm

 

[Andersonh1]

'Conspiracy theories' are a form of 'belief'.

I'm sure he based his opinion on some information he's come across, but I don't know what it is. I would like to, certainly.

 

[Tom]

Henry Hopkins Sibley was Italian?

 

[Tom]

I usually do my own research and don't rely on these websites.

They're almost as bad as the cwmemory and studycivilwar blogs.

 

[jgoodguy]

I'm sure he based his opinion on some information he's come across, but I don't know what it is. I would like to, certainly.

'Conspiracy theories' have some element of truth, they are not entirely fiction.
Is there any evidence such a conspiracy existed? If so why has no evidence of said conspiracy been published? Oh, the conspiracy prevents the publication of evidence and thus proves the conspiracy.

'It's a conspiracy' sounds better than 'there is no evidence'.

 

[jgoodguy]

http://www.flatfenders.com/scv/bc.htm


Welcome Compatriots!
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Membership info


website: chevelle@flatfenders.com

Amos Rucker---A Soldier Remembered

By: Calvin E. Johnson, Jr., Author of
When America stood for God, Family and Country.
1064 West Mill Drive
Kennesaw, Georgia 30152
Phone: 770 428 0978

Remember the American soldiers who defend our great nation.

A article recently appeared in a Charlotte, North Carolina newspaper about Wary Clyburn, a Black Confederate, who will be remembered on August 26, 2007 during a reunion of his descendants in Monroe, North Carolina. August 10th will also mark the 102nd anniversary of the death of a Black Confederate, Amos Rucker, of Atlanta, Ga.

Black Confederates, why haven't we heard more about them?
"I don't want to call it a conspiracy to ignore the role of the Blacks, both above and below the Mason-Dixon Line, but it was definitely a tendency that began around 1910"---Ed Bearrs, National Park Service Historian

Is American history still taught in our schools?

Today, the news focus is on Michael Vick's troubles and Barry Bond's home runs. In 1905, newspapers led with the opening of Woolworth's stores, the Atlanta, Ga. Terminal Railroad Station dedication with the US Army Band playing "Dixie."..... And on August 10th, Atlanta grieved the loss of a beloved soldier.

The movie "Glory" enlightened people of the role played by African-Americans serving in the Union Army during the War Between the States, 1861-1865.

And books like, "Forgotten Confederates---An Anthology about Black Southerners" by Charles Kelly Barrow, J.H. Segars and R.B. Roseburg, further enlightened us to the role played by African-Americans who served the Confederacy. (webmaster note: It has been republished in 2004, as "Black Confederates". The book lists many black Confederate soldiers and support personnel, with solid proof.)

Frederick Douglas, abolitionist and former slave, reported, "There are at present moment many colored men in the Confederate Army doing their duty not only as cooks, but also as real soldiers, having muskets on their shoulders and bullets in their pockets."


Who was Amos Rucker?

Amos Rucker, born in Elbert County, Georgia, was a servant of Alexander "Sandy" Rucker and both joined the 33rd Georgia Regiment of the Confederate Army. Amos got his first taste of battle when a fellow soldier was killed by a Union bullet. Rucker quickly took the dead soldier's rifle and fired back at the enemy.

After the War Between the States, Amos Rucker came back to Atlanta where he met and married Martha and the couple was blessed with many children and grandchildren.

In Atlanta, Amos joined the W.H.T. Walker Camp of the United Confederate Veterans. It was made up of Southern Veterans whose purpose was to remember those who served in the war and help those in need. The meetings were held at 102 Forsyth Street in Atlanta where Amos was responsible for calling the roll of members.

Amos and Martha felt that the members of Walker Camp were like their own family. It is written that Amos would say, "My folks gave me everything I want." These UCV men helped Amos and his wife buy a house on the west side of Atlanta and John M. Slaton also helped prepare a will for Rucker. Slaton, a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Gordon Camp, would, as governor of Georgia, commute the death sentence of Leo Frank.

Amos Rucker's last words to members of his UCV Camp were, "Give my love to the boys."

His funeral services were conducted by preacher and former Confederate General Clement A. Evans. Rucker was buried with his Confederate gray uniform and wrapped in his beloved Confederate Battle Flag. Today, some members of the Martin Luther King family are buried near Amos and Martha at Southview Cemetery.

The Reverend T.P. Cleveland led the prayer and when Captain William T. Harrison read the poem, "When Rucker Called The Roll" there was not a dry eye among the crowd of many Black and White mourners.

The grave of Amos and Martha Rucker was without a marker for many years until 2006, when the Sons of Confederate Veterans remarked it.

Did you know that the first military monument, near our nation's Capitol, to honor an African-American soldier is the Confederate Monument at Arlington National Cemetery?

"When you eliminate the Black Confederate soldier, you've eliminated the history of the South."---quote by the late Dr. Leonard Haynes, Professor, Southern University, or some say it was General Lee in 1864. Good quote, whoever said it.

Lest We Forget!!!

======================================================

================================================

Frederick Douglas wrote: “There are at the present moment, many colored men in the Confederate Army doing duty not only as cooks, servants, and laborers, but as real soldiers, having muskets on their shoulders and bullets in their pockets, ready to shoot down loyal troops and do all that soldiers may do to destroy the Federal government and build up that of the traitors and rebels. “

================================================

How did blacks serve in Gen. N.B. Forrest's command? The most reliable military resource concerning the Civil War documents their real roles.

"The forces attacking my camp were the First Regiment Texas Rangers [8th Texas Cavalry, Terry's Texas Rangers, ed.], Colonel Wharton, and a battalion of the First Georgia Rangers, Colonel Morrison, and a large number of citizens of Rutherford County, many of whom had recently taken the oath of allegiance to the United States Government. There were also quite a number of negroes attached to the Texas and Georgia troops, who were armed and equipped, and took part in the several engagements with my forces during the day." — Federal Official Records, Series I, Vol XVI Part I, pg. 805, Lt. Col. Parkhurst's Report (Ninth Michigan Infantry) on Col. Forrest's attack at Murfreesboro, Tenn, July 13, 1862.
........................................................................................................................

Letter to the Editor in Midland, TX by Col. Kelley

I called Principal Winget's office yesterday and sent the following Email to him of which he acknowledged receipt to help him prepare for this meeting:

...I am aware of the hearing that has been instigated regarding certain of the symbols, names and traditions associated with your school. I wish to offer my aid in preparing you to discuss this matter based on historical fact to counter Ms. Templeton's emotions.

As a Civil War historian and Texas Confederate reenactor I am well aware that Ms. Templeton's "offense" is the result of lack of knowledge of history and the resultant failure to understand the topic about which she is so highly motivated. Like many people on both sides of the issue she is operating from a position of emotion, belief and assumption rather than a solid grounding in historical fact.

Ms. Templeton specifically suffers from a lack of education or understanding of the nature of the Confederate States of America and the Confederate Army, especially the Confederate Army of Texas. She demands that her misconceptions become the rule by which others must conduct their lives.

The Union Army was strictly segregated and remained so until 1950. During the Civil War all non-whites were compelled to serve in "United States Colored Troop" regiments - this included Blacks, mulattos, Hispanics, Indians and anyone who was simply not "white enough." Often recruiting of Black Southerners for these regiments involved hunting them down, capturing them and even torturing them to get them to "volunteer" as documented in the Federal Official Records.

The Union Army had used Irish immigrants as "cannon fodder" to absorb the highest casualties in battle so Northern sentiments would not turn against the war being waged for economic domination of the agrarian South which provided 70% of the Federal budget. When the supply of "Micks" ran low they turned to the USCT to die in droves:

"...As usual with the enemy, they posted their negro regiments on their left and in front, where they were slain by hundreds, and upon retiring left their dead and wounded negroes uncared for, carrying off only the whites, which accounts for the fact that upon the first part of the battle-field nearly all the dead found were negroes." - Federal Official Records, Vol. XXXV, Chapter XLVII, pg. 341 - Report of Lieutenant M. B. Grant, C. S. Engineers, Savannah, April 27, 1864 - Battle of Ocean Pond (Olustee)

U.S. Grant issued "General Orders No. 11" in December, 1862, which expelled "all Jews, as a class" from his area of operations. It so disaffected his men that Jewish Union officers resigned en masse.

The Confederate Army included in its unsegregated combat ranks: 13,000 Indians, including Cherokee Chief and Confederate Brigadier General Stand Watie; 6200 Hispanics, 19% of them officers, nine of them Colonels and Texas Col. Santos Benavides who was so successful his area of Texas was known as "The Texas Benavides Confederacy;" 3500 Jews, including among the first and last Confederate officers to fall in battle and the Confederate Secretary of State, a Jewish lawyer from New Orleans; Filipinos from Lousiana whose ancestors were brought there by Spanish colonists before there was any African slave trade; tens of thousands of immigrants from all over the world; two Amerasian sons of Chang and Eng, the original "Siamese Twins," who served with Virginia cavalry and were both wounded in battle; and an as yet undetermined but significant number of Black Confederate combat soldiers, some of them regularly enlisted, who saw combat from the first battles of the war to the last as documented in the Federal Official Records, European newspapers, Northern and Southern newspapers and the letters and diaries of Union and Confederate soldiers.

"Almost fifty years before the (Civil) War, the South was already enlisting and utilizing Black manpower, including Black commissioned officers, for the defense of their respective states. Therefore, the fact that Free and slave Black Southerners served and fought for their states in the Confederacy cannot be considered an unusual instance, rather continuation of an established practice with verifiable historical precedence." - "The African-American Soldier: From Crispus Attucks to Colin Powell" by Lt. Col [Ret.] Michael Lee Lanning

In March, 1861, President Buchanan and President-Elelct Lincoln supported and lobbied for the passage of the "Corwin Amendment," a proposed 13th Amendment to the Constitution.

"Article Thirteen: No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State." - Submitted to the Senate by Corwin and supported by President-Elect Lincoln as the proposed 13th Amendment to the Constitution as voted on by that body on February 28th, 1861. The Senate voted 39 to 5 to approve this section passed by the House 133-65 on March 2, 1861. Two State legislatures ratified it: Ohio on May 13, 1861; and followed by Maryland on January 10, 1862. Illinois bungled its ratification by holding a convention.

 

[jgoodguy]

http://www.flatfenders.com/scv/bc.htm


In December, 1862, only two months before Lincoln issued the "Emancipation Proclamation" (which freed not a single slave) in his State of the Union Address Lincoln offered the Confederacy a plan of gradual compensated emancipation with slavery not ending completely until 1900.

In comparison, your school's namesake had made his position clear some years before:

"There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil. It is idle to expatiate on its disadvantages. I think it is a greater evil to the white than to the colored race." - Col. Robert E. Lee, United States Army, December 27, 1856

Offered the opportunity to come back into the Union successful in preserving slavery before a single shot was fired the Confederacy maintained its independence. Offered another chance to have 37 years to wean itself from slavery the Confederacy again maintained its independence.

The South did not secede nor did it fight to maintain slavery. The real issues were taxation, Federal revenues and national economics:

"The South has furnished near three-fourths of the entire exports of the country. Last year she furnished seventy-two percent of the whole...we have a tariff that protects our manufacturers from thirty to fifty persent, and enables us to consume large quantities of Southern cotton, and to compete in our whole home market with the skilled labor of Europe. This operates to compel the South to pay an indirect bounty to our skilled labor, of millions annually." - Daily Chicago Times, December 10, 1860

"They (the South) know that it is their import trade that draws from the people's pockets sixty or seventy millions of dollars per annum, in the shape of duties, to be expended mainly in the North, and in the protection and encouragement of Northern interest.... These are the reasons why these people do not wish the South to secede from the Union. They (the North) are enraged at the prospect of being despoiled of the rich feast upon which they have so long fed and fattened, and which they were just getting ready to enjoy with still greater gout and gusto. They are as mad as hornets because the prize slips them just as they are ready to grasp it." ~ New Orleans Daily Crescent, January 21, 1861

"...the Union must obtain full victory as essential to preserve the economy of the country. Concessions to the South would lead to a new nation founded on slavery expansion which would destroy the U.S. Economy." - Pamphlet No 14. "The Preservation of the Union A National Economic Necessity," The Loyal Publication Society, printed in New York, May 1863, by Wm. C. Bryant & Co. Printers.

"What were the causes of the Southern independence movement in 1860?
. . Northern commercial and manufacturing interests had forced through Congress taxes that oppressed Southern planters and made Northern manufacturers rich . . . the South paid about three-quarters of all federal taxes, most of which were spent in the North." - Charles Adams, "For Good and Evil. The impact of taxes on the course of civilization," 1993, Madison Books, Lanham, USA, pp. 325-327

Does Ms. Templeton think THESE Confederate soldiers would be "offended" by the Confederate links of your school?

Andrew and Silas Chandler (Free Black), both regularly enlisted in the 44th Mississippi Infantry Silas saved Andrew's life at the Battle of Chickamauga

Mulatto Confederate Soldier Daniel Jenkins and his wife. Jenkins was with the Confederate 9th Kentucky Infantry and was killed at Shiloh on 4/6/62.

South Carolina Confederate Indian soldier

Private Marlboro, a free black Confederate Volunteer



Mixed-race Confederate

More specifically, would these Texas Confederate cavalry troopers be "offended" by your school's remaining Southern traditions or by Ms. Templeton's failure to know about them?

Ms. Templeton needs to significantly further her education before she discusses "being offended."

Perhaps Irish-born Confederate Major General Patrick Cleburne predicted it best in his January, 1864, letter which proposed the mass emancipation and enlistment of Black Southerners into the Confederate Army:

"Every man should endeavor to understand the meaning of subjugation before it is too late...It means the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy; that our youth will be trained by Northern schoolteachers; will learn from Northern school books their version of the war; will be impressed by the influences of history and education to regard our gallant dead as traitors, and our maimed veterans as fit objects for derision...The conqueror's policy is to divide the conquered into factions and stir up animosity among them..."

Through painstaking research and thorough, uncommented documentation we celebrate the courage, sacrifice, and heritage of ALL Southerners who had to make agonizing personal choices under impossible circumstances.

"The first law of the historian is that he shall never dare utter an untruth. The second is that he shall suppress nothing that is true. Moreover, there shall be no suspicion of partiality in his writing, or of malice." - Cicero (106-43 B.C.)

We simply ask that all act upon the facts of history. We invite your questions.


Your Obedient Servant,

Colonel Michael Kelley, CSA
Commanding, 37th Texas Cavalry (Terrell's)
http://www.37thtexas.org
"We are a band of brothers!"

". . . . political correctness has replaced witch trials and communist hearings as the preferred way to torment our fellow countrymen." "Ghost Riders," Sharyn McCrumb, 2004, Signet, pp. 9

"I came here as a friend...let us stand together. Although we differ in color, we should not differ in sentiment." - Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, CSA, Memphis Daily Avalanche, July 6, 1875


Black Confederate Participation
by Tim Westphal

"...And after the battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, ...reported among the
rebel prisoners were seven blacks in Confederate uniforms fully armed as
soldiers..."


- New York Herald, July 11, 1863. [1]

I. Introduction


As far back as the American Revolution, African Americans have fought in
every conflict this country has been engaged in. A number of authors have
studied the participation which blacks played for the Union and Confederate
governments during the Civil War. Most of these writers have focused on the
Union army since it employed a large number of blacks as soldiers during
the
conflict. "When authors do cover the Confederate side, they usually limit
their coverage to the free blacks of New Orleans who formed a regiment of
"Native Guards" for the Louisiana militia and the Confederate effort late
in
the war to employ slaves as soldiers" [2]. Civil War historians have not
given these blacks their due recognition, and have left the truth of their
involvement for the Confederacy covered in obscurity and confusion.

As many as 90,000 blacks, slave and free, were employed in some capacity by
the Confederate army. The majority of these men fall into two categories,
as
military laborers or body servants. The fact that some Southern blacks
might
have played an important role for the South is a very controversial issue.
Scholars have avoided the difficult task of linking any blacks to the
Southern war effort. One of the main reasons they choose not to attempt
this
is because they are afraid of confronting the great paradox that exists.
Why
would any slaves or free blacks work towards a Southern victory when this
war was seen as one to sustain blacks' enslavement and degradation? The
point of this paper is to seek out exactly what kind of role any blacks,
free or slave, served in the South during the war and to examine the
reasons
why they would support the Southern war cause.

The Louisiana Native Guards demonstrate what free blacks, from Louisiana,
thought about the Confederacy. The Louisiana Native Guards was a militia
regiment comprised of 1400 black men and officers, "who offered their
services to Dixie" in April of 1861 [3]. The following year 3000 black men
and officers organized themselves into the 1st Native Guard of Louisiana.
These pro-Confederate blacks formed for the protection of New Orleans.
After
parading through the city they were described in the newspaper as "rebel
Negroes...well drilled...and uniformed" [4]. Historians argue the Native
Guards were a unique circumstance. The difference between Louisiana and the
rest of the South was its peculiar tri-racial system. The state of
Louisiana
was home to a population, which was different than the rest of the
country's. The population consisted of many Spanish and "Creole" families.
It was easier for Louisiana to accept these men for military service. For
that reason historians like to separate the free "blacks" in that state
from
the rest of the free blacks in the South. Many other states had blacks
volunteer their services, and some states accepted these volunteers. There
were slaves in Alabama who were organized as soldiers in the fall of 1861.
There were also 60 free blacks in Virginia who formed their own company and
marched to Richmond to volunteer their services to help in the war effort.
"Several companies of free Negroes offered their services to the
Confederacy
Government early in the war" [5]. The War Department decided they wouldn't
be needed at this time so they sent them home.


II. Body Servants and Laborers


Body servants consisted of slaves or free blacks. They were between the
ages
of sixteen and sixty. They accompanied both Confederate soldiers and
officers into the war. "Body servants in a continuation of the master-slave
relationship, tended their wounded soldiers, sometimes escorting their
bodies home and occasionally fought in battles" [6]. The number of body
servants in the Confederate army was considerable in the early days of the
war. The jobs of the body servants varied greatly. An officer's servant was
expected to keep the officer's quarters clean, to wash the clothes, brush
uniforms, polish swords and buckles, and to run errands, such as going to
the commissary and getting rations. The servant was supposed to look after
his master's horse, making sure it was well groomed and well fed. It was
the
duty of one of these servants to have the horse ready in the morning by the
time the officer was ready to ride.

Slaves who came from plantations with their owners were the most loyal
under
difficult incidents. "Negroes who had been treated well before the start of
the war were more faithful during the most trying days of the conflict"
[7].
In many cases, soldiers and servants had been childhood playmates. The
result of this was a genuine affection for each other, which further
cemented during the shared hardships brought on by the war. "No other
slaves
had as good opportunities for desertion and disloyalty as the body
servants,
but none were more loyal" [8].


A personal servant would have been chosen from among the slaves that had
been affiliated with the family for a long time. For that reason these
slaves often felt a responsibility for the protection of their master when
going into the war. The owners of body servants respected the devotion and
loyalty displayed by their black servants. "Owners frequently made
provisions for their servants freedom, and after the war blacks dressed in
'Confederate Gray' were among the most honored veterans in attendance at
soldiers reunions" [9].

 

[jgoodguy]

http://www.flatfenders.com/scv/bc.htm

Blacks fought because they were loyal to their masters. From a servant's
perspective their life as a body servant was less burdensome than field
slavery. Slavery was an oppressive institution and the war offered them
previously denied options. Unlike the plantation in camp the Confederate
servants had ample time to hang out with other blacks. Black soldiers
(servants) ate the same food as the officers did. These servants were the
best-fed soldiers in the Confederate army. They could also play cards and
when given the chance they would sneak away with other blacks to some
obscure location and play dice. Servants were able to obtain whiskey,
either
from their master or on one of their foraging missions. "Servants had
opportunities to earn money on the side from any number of way" [10]. They
were allowed to charge small amounts for washing clothes for men in their
company. They made money for running errands and sold what they were able
to
pick up off the battlefield. Making money was just one reason blacks would
sign up to work for the Confederacy.


Black servants, many who were excellent musicians and good singers, kept
the
soldiers spirits up in camp. "When life became sad or monotonous for Jeb
Stuart's officers, they frequently built a roaring fire, formed a large
circle, and had the servants dance and sing to the music of the banjo"
[11].
Soldiers who had come from plantations knew about their slaves musical
talents - a fact, which might explain why a few body servants were called
on
to, be musicians for the units to which their masters belonged.

Blackbody servants fought in battles for the Confederacy. A newspaper
correspondent from the New Orleans Daily Crescent, reporting on one of the
early battles of the war stated a servant named Levin Graham refused to
stay
in camp during a fight, "but obtained a musket, fought manfully, and killed
four of the Yankees himself" [12]. Furthermore "Captain George Baylor told
the story of two body servants who had supplied themselves with equipment
left on the field by Federals at the battle of Brandy Station. These two
servants joined in the company charges and succeeded in capturing a Yankee
and brought him back to camp as a prisoner" [13].

Robin, a black servant with the Stonewall Brigade, demonstrates black
patriotism. According to the newspaper the Richmond Whig, he was imprisoned
for a time away from his master and then offered his freedom on the
condition he take an oath and swear allegiance to the United States. Robin
stated, in the Richmond Whig, "I will never disgrace my family by such an
oath" [14]. After the siege of Vicksburg there were servants who were
captured along with their masters who could have had their freedom. But
instead of their freedom they chose to share in the cruelties of the
northern prisons with which they had been serving in the Confederate army.


Free blacks voluntarily became body servants for wages and whatever other
advantages they might negotiate. Self-preservation was the paramount
objective for the free blacks who offered their services as servants. Free
blacks in the South knew there was a difference between them and the slave
population, they saw this as a way to separate themselves even further from
the slave class. "Being a body servant enabled individual
'Afro-Confederate'
males to embellish their Confederate allegiance by publicly integrating
themselves with Confederates" [15]. The free blacks stood ready to imitate
the white class in its patriotism and loyalty, believing this was a way to
attain priviligese previously denied to them and to prove they were
superior
over the slaves.

Unlike the life of a body servant the experience for black laborers working
on Confederate defenses was excessively harsh and physically exhausting.
Especially during the winter months, when they were fighting with constant
exposure while building batteries or earthworks. "The tedious work of
digging, shoveling, and heaving earth, as well as the erection of massive
embankments demanded tremendous physical stamina" [16].

The principal object of the defensive works was to protect Confederate
troops from enemy fire and to allow the Confederate soldiers to deliver
their own fire with devastating consequences.


"Union soldiers... sallied up to Rebel breastwork that were often
impregnable. They began to complain, finding the Negro with his pick and
spade, a greater hindrance to their progress than the Rebel's cannon balls"
[17].

Therefore to triumphantly repulse Union attacks the army needed
satisfactorily constructed entrenchments.


The blacks' brawn and skill were key elements of Confederate transportation
and fortification. That is why in summer of 1861 "Negro labor, under
supervision of state engineers, was immediately committed to the
construction of defensive lines" [18]. Whether free or slave the blacks
that
worked as laborers contributed a supporting effort to the war. In the South
during the years between 1861-1865, there was a constant construction of
defensive works designed to repulse attacks by Federal armies. "Without the
aid of the Negro the South never would have been able to last four years in
the war" [19].

While the overwhelming majority of black laborers were common laborers
there
were some highly skilled craftsmen. The conventional laborer provided
manpower in the foraging of food, and raw materials such as coal, iron and
timber. "Black artisans provided their skills in subsequent stages of
refinement and processing of commodities into manufactured items in
arsenals, armories, iron works, and machine shops" [20].

James Brewer described the five methods used for obtaining black labor:
"slaves were offered by their masters without request for compensation;
free
Negroes volunteered their services; Negroes, free and slave, were hired by
the Engineer Bureau; labor was impressed by commanding officers because of
the exigencies of war; and conscription laws were passed by Confederate
congress" [21]. The Confederate government had to rely on conscription laws
for the last two years of the war because: the blacks, slave and free knew
about the changes of the war (that it had become one to free them from
bondage); and 2) the owners didn't want to give up their slaves, due to the
hard work that the laborers had to sustain.

III. Loyalty and Patriotism


Black Confederate loyalty was pervasive and real. American historians
failed
to recognize this loyalty. "By the summer of 1861 Southern blacks who
supported and allied themselves with the Confederacy were looking to
volunteer" [22]. Despite the Confederate government's refusal to admit
blacks in the army, six Southern states did so otherwise, mostly consisting
of state militias. Eyewitness accounts by officers in the Federal army
offer
some evidence of African American participation on the battlefields for the
South. Records show that New York officers on patrol reported they were
attacked near New Market, Virginia, by Confederate cavalry and a group of
700-armed blacks on December 22, 1861. The Northerners killed six of the
blacks before retreating; officers later swore out affidavits that they
were
attacked by blacks and later complained: "If they fight with Negroes, why
should we not fight with them too?" [23]


Alfred Bellard, a white soldier of the 5th NJ Infantry, reported in his
memoirs the shooting of two black Confederate snipers by member's of the
Berdan's Sharpshooters in April of 1862.


"One of the Negro Confederates was only wounded, but the other was killed
one afternoon after leaving the security of a hollow tree (probably to
relieve himself). Two Confederates tried to get to his body but were driven
away by the Union gunfire" [24].


This wasn't an isolated case. One of the best marksmen in the Confederacy
was an African-American who outfitted himself in a sniper's roost in an
almost perfect hiding spot inside a brick chimney from which he proceeded
to
shoot Yankees at their nearby camp. Any Union soldier who dared to come
into
his range was fired at. Several times the Federalize called up to the
sniper
to desert, but the black Confederate ignored their appeals. This ordeal
ended when a regiment was marched off to fire a volley at the chimney,
eventually putting a bullet through the sniper's head.


Serving in a military capacity wasn't the only way blacks could prove their
loyalty to the Confederacy. Black patriotism took many forms, "some were
sincerely patriotic, others were alarmed individuals acting on
self-preservation and economic interest" [25]. There are other prominent
cases of black patriotism among slaves and free men. Many of these people
saw their cause as protecting their homes. "Despite the hardships of
slavery
loyal blacks made financial and material contributions to the Confederacy"
[26]. In Alabama some slaves brought 60 dollars worth of watermelons to
Montgomery to be donated to the soldiers of that state. A South Carolina
slave was impelled to donate all the money here had saved, which ended up
being 5 dollars. Some slaves used their talents to raise money for the
Confederacy. The Confederate Ethiopian Serenaders were one such group. They
were a collection of slave singers "who turned over profits from some of
their shows to the Confederate cause" [27]. By doing this, these slaves
hoped the restrictions they lived under I the institution of slavery would
be loosened. It became a custom for slaves to demonstrate their loyalty by
holding balls and concerts to raise money for the aiding of Southern
soldiers and their families.


The 1st Battle of Manassas offered black Confederate the chance to prove
their loyalty. An English officer, Arthur Freemantle, describes the story
of
a slave who had run away to the Federal line just before the battle began.
The slave was recaptured a short time after the battle ended. "Two
patriotic
servants were of the opinion that he should be shot or hanged as a traitor"
[28]. He was then turned over to these slaves and met a more severe death
than any white man could have given him. These slaves did this out of
patriotism and these servants probably also felt threatened by a runaway
slave. They knew that a runaway was a threat to their freedom as servants
and soldiers. They wanted to show the white soldiers in the army that they
weren't anything like this runaway. They achieved that goal by violently
killing him.


IV. Why were blacks loyal?


The motivation of black Confederates was to protect their homeland with a
faith of what the future could be. By 1860 there were 500,000 free blacks
in
the United States, the vast majority in the South. Slaves knew freedom was
attainable from the sight of free blacks in their communities. They knew
some has been freed through manumission, while others purchased their
freedom by working side jobs. Blacks Confederates and African Americans had
to position themselves in case the South won the ear. They had to prove
they
were patriots in the anticipation their future would be better. From this
risk of their display of unequivocal patriotism they hoped to be rewarded.
Most black Confederates were not given an opportunity to serve in the front
line as soldiers. But they did what they could as loyal civilians.


Why would blacks support, and possibly want to fight for, the Confederacy?
One is money. The pay rate for the laborers was greater than that of the
white soldier's pay rate. The black laborers were paid 30 dollars a month
while the Confederate soldiers made only 11 dollars. By volunteering their
service to the South these blacks earned enough money for themselves and
their families back home. Blacks, both free and slave, were able to make
more money by trading whiskey, food, horses and other possessions they
might
steal through their foraging missions. There is a story of a servant who
was
captured by the Yankees, stole two horses, and got back to his Confederate
line. When he got back he sold one horse for fifty dollars and kept the
other one for himself.


"The quest for freedom also played a great role in black Confederate
decisions" [29]. With good service to the master or to the Southern cause,
there was the hope of being manumitted after the war. Slaves also knew the
army life offered them a chance for adventure and an opportunity to get
away
from the drudgery of plantation work. Like many of the white men who
volunteered and fought in the war because of strong regional pride, the
local attachment blacks felt prompted them to come to the aide of the
Confederacy.


Blacks placed their lives in danger for a country and its cause; a cause
which many Americans would not expect blacks to support. Slaves and free
blacks joined for different reasons. The Louisiana free blacks stated in a
letter written to the New Orleans' Daily Delta:

"The free colored population love their home, their property, their own
slaves and recognize no other country than Louisiana, and are ready to shed
their blood for her defense. They have no sympathy for Abolitionism; no
love
for the North, but they have plenty for Louisiana."

Prosperous free blacks realized that a Union victory would bring about
destruction to their economy, the basis of their livelihood, which gave
them
their special status. "Free blacks knew where their loyalties lay when the
war started because they stood to lose the status they enjoyed as free
people" [30]. Any well-to-do freeman probably prized his wealth and
standing, and deplored anyone who would endanger it. The slaves who felt
compelled to volunteer for the South did so because they hoped it would
improve their status after the war. They knew if the North won they would
probably be freed, but if the South won, they would have to show support
during the war if they had hopes of being freed.

 

[jgoodguy]

http://www.flatfenders.com/scv/bc.htm



V. The Debate: Black Soldiers


During the war the Confederacy's question of making a soldier out of the
black, slave and free, received considerable attention. In the beginning of
the war many of the Southern states made provisions for placing blacks at
the disposal of the state governments. "The Tennessee legislature passed an
act in June, 1861, authorizing the governor, at his discretion to receive
into the military service of the State all male free persons of color,
between the ages of fifteen and fifty, or such numbers as may be necessary
who may be capable of actual service" [31]. The governor was also
authorized
to press free blacks into services if a sufficient number was not met.

Early in the year there began in the Southern armies a discussion of
enlisting slaves as soldiers. Lt. General Hardee called their corps and
division commanders, of the Western Campaign, to meet at General Johnston's
Headquarters on the night of January 2, 1863. There they were presented
with
a plan by Major General Pat Cleburne, who was urging the enlistment and
arming of the slaves, with freedom as a reward for their service. After
President Davis received a copy of this memorandum he replied, "deeming it
to be injurious of the public service that such subject should be mooted or
even known to entertain by persons possessed of confidence and respect of
the people. If it be kept out of the public journal its ill effect will be
much lessened" [32].

Perhaps the most effective argument against putting the slaves in the ranks
was that it laid the South open to charges of hypocrisy. It was known that
slavery was one of the basic principles of the Confederacy. "The primary
justification for slavery had been that it was in the interest of both
blacks and whites because of the blacks inferiority and incapability to
care
for themselves" [33]. To arm the slaves in the Confederacy would be a
reversal on its position completely. If the salves were freed by the
Confederate Government-and it was agreed that arming the slaves would
probably entail freeing them-then another basic principle of the
Confederacy
was disregarded. One of the main reasons for secession was their firm
belief
in states rights over that of a central government. If the Confederate
government stepped in and freed the slaves for faithful service, instead of
individual states, than it would be guilty of breaking their constitutional
rights.

By the summer of 1863 the victories had begun to shift to the northern
armies. Within one week the Confederacy suffered devastating defeats at
Vicksburg and Gettysburg. The momentum of war was being sung into the
Unions
direction. Hood's crushing defeat in Tennessee, Sherman's destructive march
through Georgia, and the threatened collapse of the whole military effort
left the Confederacy in need of reinforcements. The Southern armies were
being depleted. "There were 'exceptions', the 'detailed men', the numerous
state militias and there were the slaves. Before Christmas of 1864 was
over,
President Davis had come to the opinion that arming the salves was a good
idea" [34].

Meanwhile, William Smith, the Governor of Virginia, took up the subject
with
his legislators suggesting that Virginia should arm its slaves for its
defense by offering freedom as slaves' reward. 'With two hundred thousand
Negro soldiers already in the Union army, the Governor asked, "can we
hesitate, can we doubt, when the question is, whether the enemy shall use
our slaves against us or we use them against him (the North); when the
question may be between liberty and independence o one hand or our own
subjugation and utter ruin on the other?" [35].


The majority of those who advocated enlisting the slaves were of the
opinion
that such a step would mean giving them their freedom. This was met with
great opposition. Though this should not have been a deterring factor.
Given
that "slavery was already an expiring condition in the South; that
emancipation was already an accomplished fact if the Federalize succeeded;
that the situation was such that a choice had to be made between the loss
of
independence and the loss of property in slaves; that it was far better for
the Southerner to give up the Negro slave than be a slave himself" [36].

The matter immediately became the foremost topic of discussion in the whole
South by the fall of 1864. General Lee was asked for his view and on
January
11, 1865 he spoke out clearly for the arming of slaves-which he believed
should be accompanied by a gradual and general emancipation.

"It is the enemy's avowed policy to convert the able-bodied men among them
into soldiers, and to emancipate all. His progress will destroy slavery in
a
manner most pernicious to the welfare of our people... Whatever maybe the
effect of our employing Negro troops, it cannot be as mischievous as
this...
I think, therefore, we must decide whether slavery shall be extinguished by
our enemies and the slaves used against us, or use them ourselves at the
risk of the effects which may be produced upon our social institutions..."


"...The best means of securing the efficiency and fidelity of this
auxiliary
force would be to accompany the measure with a well digested plan of
gradual
and general emancipation. As that will be the result of the continuance of
this war, and will certainly occur if the enemy succeeds,it seems to be
most
advisable to adopt at once. Every day's delay increases the difficulty"
[37].


Finally, a little more than a month before the war ended, the Confederates
began to enlist blacks as soldiers in the army. "Steps were immediately
taken toward recruiting and organizing the slaves and free blacks" [38]. It
was too late; the South had waited too long to enlist blacks into their
army. When the war broke out many blacks, slave and free, wanted to
position
themselves with the winning side to better position themselves after the
war. In the winter of 1864-65 it was evident that the South was going to
lose the war. That is why recruiting the blacks was so difficult. If the
Confederate Government had acted on the initial enthusiasm displayed by
blacks then things probably would have been different in 1865.

 

[jgoodguy]

http://www.flatfenders.com/scv/bc.htm


VI. Blacks' contribution to the Southern War effort


It is often forgotten that while slavery was among the major causes of the
Civil War, its abolition was not the original goal of the North. President
Lincoln sated he didn't want to interfere with slavery in the states where
it already existed. Many Federal soldiers felt the same way, proclaiming if
the war was one turned into a fight for abolitionism they would stop
fighting. Faced with this attitude from the North black Southerners had no
reason but to be loyal to their homes. "The slaves had nothing to gain form
a Union victory, and free black men might actually stand to lose such
rights
and property they already had" [39].

Thus instead of revolts among the blacks, slaves and free, as many
Northerners predicted, some became possessed with a war fervor that was
stimulated by the white response. "The Negro who boasted of his desire to
fight the Yankees the loudest; who showed the greatest anxiety to aid the
Confederates, was granted the most freedom and received the approval of his
community" [40].

The readiness with which some blacks responded should only be surprising to
those who are unfamiliar with the true feelings of slaves. Their only hope
was to someday be free. "One thing that impressed the blacks greatly was
the
failure of Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner, and John Brown, whose e fate was held
up to them as the fate of all who tried to free the slaves or free
themselves" [41]. Therefore it should not be surprising to see blacks that
sprang at the chance to dig trenches and assist in any way possible for the
South.

To better comprehend these people we should understand that most people do
things for immediate reasons and not abstract ones. Instead of revolts
among
the blacks, slave and free, as predicted by some, many became possessed of
a
fervor - originating in fear - which was stimulated by an enthusiasm of the
white population. "The gaily decked cities; the flags, bunting and
streamers
of all colors; the mounted cavalry; the artillery trains with brazen
cannons
drawn by sturdy steeds; followed by regiments of infantry in brilliant
uniforms, with burnished muskets, glittering bayonets and beautiful plumes;
all these scenes greatly interested and delighted the Negro, and it was
filling the cup of many with ecstasy to the brim, to be allowed to connect
themselves, even in the most menial way, with the demonstrations" [42].
Blacks saw first hand what was going on. They knew they had an opportunity
to better themselves, which was all many of them really wanted. When the
war
broke out everybody thought it was going to be over quickly. Slaves and
free
blacks knew this too, which is why many of them displayed an enthusiasm
that
was gone by 1863, when the South began to lose the war.



----------------------------------------------------------------------------

----

Endnotes


1. New York Herald, July 11, 1863.


2. Bell Wiley, Southern Negroes, p. 247.


3. Ervin Jordan, Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees, p. 218.


4. New Orleans Daily Delta, from Walter Williams article.


5. Wiley, p. 148.


6. Jordan, p. 185.


7. Wiley, p. 66.


8. Wiley, p. 64.


9. Wiley, p. 144.


10. Wiley, p. 137.


11. Wiley, p. 138.


12. New Orleans Daily Crescent, from Jordan's Black Confederates.


13. Wiley, p. 139.


14. Richmond Whig, from Jordan's Black Confederates.


15. Jordan, p. 186.


16. James Brewer, the Confederate Negro, p. 135.


17. Joseph Wilson, The Black Phalanx, p. 103.


18. Brewer, p. 132.


19. Wilson, p. 460.


20. Brewer, p. 165.


21. Brewer, p. 140.


22. Jordan, p. 222.


23. Jordan, p. 217.


24. Alfred Bellard, Gone for a Soldier, p. 56


25. Jordan, p. 235.


26. J.K. Obatala, "The unlikely story of blacks who were loyal to Dixie",
p.
94.


27. Obatala, p. 96.


28. Jordan, p. 236.


29. Obatala, p. 100.


30. Author Bergeron, Free men of color in grey, p. 254.


31. Wiley, p. 147.


32. Robert Henry, The story of the Confederacy, p. 380.


33. Wilson, p. 485.


34. Henry, p. 382.


35. Henry, p. 388.


36. Wiley, p. 153.


37. Henry, p. 440.


38. Wilson, p. 487.


39. Bergeron, p. 249.


40. Wilson, p. 483.


41. Wilson, p. 484.


42. Wilson, p. 484-85.


Bibliography:


Bellard, Alfred, Gone for a Soldier: The Civil War Memoirs of Private Alfred Bellard. Boston, 1975.

Bergeron, Arthur. "Free Men of Color in Grey". Civil War History. 32, 1986: 247-255.

Brewer, James. Confederate Negro: Virginia's Craftsmen and Military Laborers. Duke, 1969.

Henry, Robert. The Story of the Confederacy. New York, 1911.

Jordan, Ervin L. Blacks Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia.
University of Virginia, 1995.

Obatala, J.K. "The Unlikely Story of Blacks Who Were Loyal to Dixie".
Smithsonian, March 1979: 94-101.

Wiley, Bell. Southern Negroes; 1861-1865. Yale, 1938.

Wilson, Joseph T. The Black Phalanx: A History of the Negro Soldiers of the
United States. Springfield, Massachusetts, 1887.

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"Don't even attempt tell me what I'm talking about whenever even you yourself don't even know what I'm talking about, let alone myself."
-- Pvt. Brandon Benner to angry math teacher, 2008

"The people of the free states have defended, encouraged, and participated; and are more guilty for it, before God, than the South, in that they have not the apology of education or custom."
-- Harriet Beecher Stowe on the North and slavery

"As I stood upon the very scene of that conflict, I could not but contrast my position with his, forty-seven years before. The flag which he had then so proudly hailed, I saw waving at the same place over the victims of as vulgar and brutal a despotism as modern times have witnessed."
-- Francis Key Howard, Ft. McHenry 1861

"Sharpshooters, like fiddlers, are born, not made" -- Gen A.P. Hill

....................

"Illegitimi non carborundum"

...................


"And what is good, Phaedrus,
And what is not good --
Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?"


"My Captain shouted for us to 'fix bayonets!'....I told him that mine 'Wasn't broken'; Then the 1st Sgt said that I was 'special'...; and THAT'S why I'm on picket duty...again..."


Lord, guide me from the succulent temptations of luxurious pie and strong beverage served by handsome women in the period family mixed garrison camp. Amen........................................
"The Gettysburg speech was at once the shortest and the most famous oration in American history...the highest emotion reduced to a few poetical phrases. Lincoln himself never even remotely approached it. It is genuinely stupendous. But let us not forget that it is poetry, not logic; beauty, not sense. Think of the argument in it. Put it into the cold words of everyday. The doctrine is simply this: that the Union soldiers who died at Gettysburg sacrificed their lives to the cause of self-determination - that government of the people, by the people, for the people, should not perish from the earth. It is difficult to imagine anything more untrue. The Union soldiers in the battle actually fought against self-determination; it was the Confederates who fought for the right of their people to govern themselves."

~ H. L. Mencken

 

[MattL]

Historian, Erwin L. Jordan, Jr., calls it a “cover-up” which started back in 1865. He writes, “During my research, I came across instances where Black men stated they were soldiers, but you can plainly see where ‘soldier’ is crossed out and ‘body servant’ inserted, or ‘teamster’ on pension applications.”

I find this comment especially deceptive. I've seen many of the records, pension, service, etc for Blacks (enlisted or not) in the Confederacy and almost none support the idea of them getting a "pension" soldier but most served as in fact "body servant", "teamster", or musicians.

What this historian seems to suggest is some conspiracy is in many cases (from what I've seen) simply correcting pension applications. This is not exclusive to Blacks. Both Whites in the Civil War and especially the Revolution often had rejected pensions for various errors. Often to be modified and re-submitted and accepted. Part of this is simply the lack of reliability on human memory as a reliable form of evidence. Memories change and if you were there day in and day out with a bunch of soldiers you might be inclined to look back more fondly and consider yourself a soldier. Of course these Blacks were met with many Whites that didn't feel quite the same. Likewise details change as ones memory changes. Additionally when requesting a pension it's not uncommon for the person to exaggerate their service not wanting to be rejected.

Certainly plenty of Blacks seemingly did indeed get thrown a weapon or pick up a weapon when the need called for it, but nearly every one of those (I have ever seen) wasn't enlisted as a full soldier (equal to Whites) and intended to service in that capacity (excepting those who passed for White of course).

So no seeing the words crossed out in pension applications wasn't an attempt to cover up all these Black enlisted soldiers, based on the actual records of enlistment and service it was to correct them to accurate represent their status within the Confederate military. With all that said this does form a part of the whole Black Confederate myth perpetuated by certain individuals. Exaggerating the service of such individuals and exaggerating how they were accepted or treated. As such it's an interesting piece of the sort of cover up "conspiracy" lol.

Part of this is motivation. Why develop such beliefs and myths.

For some it might genuinely be benevolent in intentions. Trying to recognize the contributions of Blacks in the Confederacy, with said Black people being the target of this. Personally I believe this is extremely rare. If this was the primary goal then one would start with the Black individuals and most accurately represent what they did, how they were treated, and how they served. If someone was a Confederate cook they wouldn't call them a loyal soldier for example. This disingenuous and potentially insulting to that person. From an objective point it's purely inaccurate and when someone deliberately pushed an inaccurate form of history you have to look at how it's different from the accurate history. If you made a cook who was a slave into a loyal soldier then it's clear your intention and agenda is to rewrite history to attribute more Black support to the Confederacy and its military.

I think the crux of that agenda comes down to the fact you cannot produce records of Black Confederate service anything like Black Union service. When the actual service records don't support your agenda then you have to rely on other forms (often less reliable) to support your agenda. For some reason a lot of White Southerners (and some outside) find it hard to believe that many (if not most) Blacks didn't like the Confederacy, so they have to find something, anything, to seed a belief that this is some sort of Northerner conspiracy, that most Black people loved the Confederacy and their White Southern slave masters. I think this linked motivation arrises from how much of a certain subset of modern day Southern Whites have enfolded "Confederate heritage" into their modern identity. To defend that identity they need to defend the long dead Confederacy.

 

[jgoodguy]

I find this comment especially deceptive. I've seen many of the records, pension, service, etc for Blacks (enlisted or not) in the Confederacy and almost none support the idea of them getting a "pension" soldier but most served as in fact "body servant", "teamster", or musicians.

What this historian seems to suggest is some conspiracy is in many cases (from what I've seen) simply correcting pension applications. This is not exclusive to Blacks. Both Whites in the Civil War and especially the Revolution often had rejected pensions for various errors. Often to be modified and re-submitted and accepted. Part of this is simply the lack of reliability on human memory as a reliable form of evidence. Memories change and if you were there day in and day out with a bunch of soldiers you might be inclined to look back more fondly and consider yourself a soldier. Of course these Blacks were met with many Whites that didn't feel quite the same. Likewise details change as ones memory changes. Additionally when requesting a pension it's not uncommon for the person to exaggerate their service not wanting to be rejected.

Certainly plenty of Blacks seemingly did indeed get thrown a weapon or pick up a weapon when the need called for it, but nearly every one of those (I have ever seen) wasn't enlisted as a full soldier (equal to Whites) and intended to service in that capacity (excepting those who passed for White of course).

So no seeing the words crossed out in pension applications wasn't an attempt to cover up all these Black enlisted soldiers, based on the actual records of enlistment and service it was to correct them to accurate represent their status within the Confederate military. With all that said this does form a part of the whole Black Confederate myth perpetuated by certain individuals. Exaggerating the service of such individuals and exaggerating how they were accepted or treated. As such it's an interesting piece of the sort of cover up "conspiracy" lol.

Part of this is motivation. Why develop such beliefs and myths.

For some it might genuinely be benevolent in intentions. Trying to recognize the contributions of Blacks in the Confederacy, with said Black people being the target of this. Personally I believe this is extremely rare. If this was the primary goal then one would start with the Black individuals and most accurately represent what they did, how they were treated, and how they served. If someone was a Confederate cook they wouldn't call them a loyal soldier for example. This disingenuous and potentially insulting to that person. From an objective point it's purely inaccurate and when someone deliberately pushed an inaccurate form of history you have to look at how it's different from the accurate history. If you made a cook who was a slave into a loyal soldier then it's clear your intention and agenda is to rewrite history to attribute more Black support to the Confederacy and its military.

I think the crux of that agenda comes down to the fact you cannot produce records of Black Confederate service anything like Black Union service. When the actual service records don't support your agenda then you have to rely on other forms (often less reliable) to support your agenda. For some reason a lot of White Southerners (and some outside) find it hard to believe that many (if not most) Blacks didn't like the Confederacy, so they have to find something, anything, to seed a belief that this is some sort of Northerner conspiracy, that most Black people loved the Confederacy and their White Southern slave masters. I think this linked motivation arrises from how much of a certain subset of modern day Southern Whites have enfolded "Confederate heritage" into their modern identity. To defend that identity they need to defend the long dead Confederacy.

I agree and note that sometimes when the application forms for servant ran out, the ones for a soldier would be used with correction.

Another problem with that conspiracy theory, is that the corrections were made long before 'Black Confederates' were an issue. It may be also that the instructions to the clerk taking the application were that any blacks were excluded from the CSA army by regulations were by law servants.