Posted on 03/13/2017 10:30:29 AM PDT by Bull Snipe
The Confederate Congress authorized the enlistment of slaves into the Confederate Army.
The CONFEDERATE? I didn’t know that. Wow that’s pretty crazy, fighting for the side that wanted to keep blacks as a slave. I wonder how that went. I would assume the weren’t exactly in a fighting mood but on the other hand blacks today vote mostly Democrat so maybe they did fight.
So they got to serve like what, 3 weeks?
Strange.
I’ve never heard this.
In exchange for emancipation. Gen Lee had advocated black soldiers for several years but the Confederate Congress wouldn’t hear of it.
Gen. Clebourne wanted this passed in 1863 right after Lincolns EP.
But still not that many were freed by Emancipation, and the ones that were forced to fight for the Confederacy probably ended up deserting.
It passed the Confederate Congress when it was too late. Many blacks served in the Confederate Army regardless.
I understand there was also an attempt to “Galvanize” troops. POWs were given the opportunity to serve the “other side” for their freedom from a POW camp.
It worked OK for those Confederates who ended up fighting Indians.
For those Yankee POWs, that took up arms for the South, I read they were in ONE fight and promptly deserted back to the Union.
Yep. Proposed in early 1864 when Confeds knew they were screwed.
There are tales that some 100,000 “served” in Confederate Army, and some absolutely did-—almost entirely as cooks, diggers, etc. We can’t come up with any number of black Confederates who carried weapons, but there is a picture of a black artillery battery in Richmond. Most estimates are that of the 1% of slaveholders who were free blacks, perhaps 1% of them may have been allowed to shoulder a firearm.
The numbers are in high dispute. See my note above.
The Confederate had a different view of blacks than the Union.
There were several all black confederate units and occasionally, black officers and noncoms commanded white soldiers, something that would never happen in the Union army.
It is a hard subject to define. Are cooks, drivers and engineers(earth work construction) soldiers? Some may have had uniforms many did not. Many were armed especially supply wagoners. Many blacksmiths in the CSA were black. Are they soldiers?
There are numerous field reports from Union officers about black CSA troops. Some even about black sharp shooters.
Fascinating.
And are you familiar with the process whereby blacks who were held as slaves by some Indian tribes were actually allowed to officially enroll in the early 20th century?
Amazing stuff, really. It would be fascinating to undercover in one’s family tree that you were “Indian” but without ever having been an “Indian” but just owned by Indians. Of course, if my memory is correct, descendants of those slaves are not able to enroll in tribes now, because they aren’t “actually” Indian.
If nothing else....it sort of shows the chaos and confusion (and to the enterprising, the opportunities) that exist as civil wars wind down. And for the poetic, reflecting on the heartbreak of it all is just incredible. So many layers of sadness. (And they were all American).
Thanks again for the little history lesson.
You are a national treasure and we are so grateful to have you around Free Republic.
Would the rest have been whitesmiths?
Sort of reminds me of John Laurens wanting to start a black battalion in the Revolution....
Ask a CB--a sailor who serves in a US Navy Construction Battalion.
It passed the Confederate Congress when it was too late.”
A great, poignant screenplay could be written about this. Don’t think anyone would touch it, because it would introduce too much human complexity into the situation and the education/entertainment just wants to paint a good/evil picture of north and south.
At the minimum, an epic poem should render this amazing, bizarre, tragic, and beautiful moment in history for posterity.
Simply as a mater of strategy, they would have been better off to have done that sooner. By that time, the war was all but over.
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