First of all, nobody here except pro-Confederates disputes actual facts of history.
On the subject of black slaves serving their masters in the Confederate army, there is no dispute -- zero, zip -- about that.
Of course some did.
But how many, really?
Well, first we have to remember, the total number, everyone included, of whites in the Confederate Army approached one million.
According to this source, the number of blacks who shouldered arms for the Confederacy was circa 5,000 max 10,000 -- that is from one half of one percent to perhaps 1%.
Black slave laborers -- setting up camps, cooking, washing, building roads & fortifications, driving supply wagons, etc. -- numbered maybe another 50,000.
This at a time when total black slaves numbered about four million, of whom at least one million were military age men.
So fewer than 1% of the Confederate Army were black troops, and fewer than 1% of military age slaves served as Confederate soldiers.
To my knowledge, no all-black Confederate units actually fought against Union forces.
- "But unless readers think that black Confederates were truly enamored of the South's cause, [John] Stauffer related the case of John Parker, a slave forced to build Confederate barricades and later to join the crew of a cannon firing grapeshot at Union troops at the First Battle of Bull Run.
All the while, recalled Parker, he worried about dying, prayed for a Union victory, and dreamed of escaping to the other side.
'His case can be seen as representative,' said Stauffer. 'Masters put guns to (the heads of slaves) to make them shoot Yankees.' "
At the same time, nearly 180,000 freed-blacks (about 10% of total Union forces and half from Confederate states) volunteered as paid soldiers in the Union Army, in 175 regiments, usually as rear garrison guards, but sometimes fighting -- notably in the Crater at Petersburg, Fort Wagner & Nashville.
At Fort Pillow, around 300 US colored troops were massacred by Confederates under Nathan Bedford Forrest.
"The 41st USCT regiment was among those present at the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox."
Eighteen Union colored troops won the Congressional Medal of Honor:
Source for data on Union colored troops.:
US Colored troops at Fort Lincoln (Washington DC), November 1865:
Sgt. Major Christian Fleetwood, Medal of Honor recipient: