Did Blacks Typically Serve as Confederate Soldiers?
by Henry Robert Burke
Marietta, Ohio
burkeh06@wirefire.com
Did "free blacks" and slaves serve voluntarily as soldiers with the Confederate Forces during the American Civil War? This is a subject that has been brought up from time to time by some American Civil War historians, namely ones who espouse the Confederate cause. The short answer is that the Confederate Forces barred the enlistment of blacks, slave or free, from serving as soldiers. Logic should prevail when this question is brought up.
Why would a person who had been subjugated and brutalized by the institution of slavery wanted to perpetuate their misery? Slaves were forced into service by Confederate military units as civilian laborers, teamsters, cooks, hospital personnel and other non-combat duties, but these people do not fit the description of soldiers. Soldiers are primarily citizens who are enlisted or commissioned by their government. Soldiers are required to take an oath of allegiance. Soldiers are trained to bear and use arms. The pension records of Confederate Forces simply do not show any significant number of black veterans.
While reviewing the Union Civil War records researched and documented by our esteemed local historian, the late Jerry Devol, I came across the name of an ex-slave named Charles Taylor, who enlisted with the Union Army and served with Company C, 27th United States Colored Troops (USCT). Taylor's experience, taken from his own words in his pension records, illustrates my point concerning blacks serving with the Confederate Forces.
The words of Charles Taylor, aged 52 in 1898, when he applied for his pension as a Veteran of the Union Army.- "I first served about 3 months as a cook in the Confederate Army during the summer of 1863. I was put into this service by Charley Jenkins, a son of my old master, Jefro Jenkins. During this time I was stationed at Norfolk, Virginia, but when General Butler ordered them to evacuate Norfolk, I went with the Confederate Army, which was in charge of General Longstreet, to Winchester, Virginia. I then got away from the Confederate Army, and went with (Union) General Cook's Army to Gauley Bridge, West Virginia. I remained with the Union Army until I volunteered in Company C, 27th USCT at Marietta, Ohio.
I was then sent to Camp Delaware, Ohio (Columbus) for training, and then back to Virginia, where our regiment and the 4th and 6th Maryland Regiment were brigaded together under General Payne in the 18th Army Corps at Deep Bottom, Virginia.
I had lived with my master, Jefro Jenkins for several years before I was put to cooking for the Confederate Army. I can't give the name of anyone who would have known me prior to my time with the Confederate Army.
I had no settled place to live from the time I came out of the Union Army until 1872, but stayed mostly near Cutler, in Washington County, Ohio. I was then a laborer in Jackson County, Ohio for one year, then I removed to Chillicothe, Ross County, Ohio. I moved to Athens, County Ohio in 1894, and have lived here since that."
There are several points in the story of Charles Taylor.
He was a slave, and was sent by his master to cook for the Confederate Army, he was not a soldier.
When he had the opportunity, he left the Confederate Army and went with the Union Army at Gulley Bridge, West Virginia.
He finally did become a soldier when he joined the 27th USCT at Marietta, and he drew a pension for his service with the Union Army.
Charles Taylor's story is typical of many ex-slaves who were forced into service with the Confederate Forces. Would Confederates have felt comfortable arming people who had for generations been systematically brutalized under their hands? I do not think so!
You make the illogical assumption that all were brutalized. You would not assume they mistreated or brutalized horses or mules, or any other valuable. You also ignore the Stolkholm Syndrome. The dominant-submissive relationship was a way of life.
If the union army destroyed the plantation and all about it, the slave family could starve or freeze to death.
Moreover, some marauding troops could easily have persuaded the Southern black that the Yankee was not his friend.
SOURCE: Horace Greeley, The American Conflict, Vol 2, 1866, p. 245
[nc - In 1862] Gen. Buell's Provost-Marshall, Henry Dent, at Louisville, Ky., issued an order to his (mounted) provost-guard to flog all Blacks, free or slave, whom they should find in the streets after dark; and for weeks the spectacle was exhibited, to the admiration of thousands of active and passive Rebels in that city, of this chivalric provost guard, wearing the national uniform, chasing scores of unquestionably loyal and harmless persons at nightfall through the streets, over the pavements, and down the lanes and alleys, of that city; cutting and slashing them with cowhide and cat, while their screams of fright and agony made merry music for the traitors of every degree. Many were lashed unmercifully; but with no obvious advantage to the national cause, nor even to the improvement of the dubious loyalty of those whom the exhibition most delighted and edified.
may i gently suggest that you go read BLACKS IN BLUE & GRAY, before you make any more UNknowledgeable comments. Dr Blackerby was at the time he wrote his book the Dean of Arts & Sciences at Tuskegee College (now Tuskegee University) & was a former professor of history at Morehouse College.
btw, speaking of Morehouse College, Graves Hall is built over the graves of over 150 FREE black CSA soldiers, who died BRAVELY during the defense of Atlanta. (you know those black soldiers that you BELIEVE don't exist! that's where SOME of them are BURIED.)
free dixie,sw
their SERVICE RECORDS are there for anyone to see.
also MANY black men belonged to the United Confederate Veterans & were welcome participants in UCV activities as long as they lived. (do you REALLY believe that their white comrades-in-arms would have allowed a NON-veteran to join their camp, especially during the "jim crow" days????)
one of our SCV camp's members gr-grandfather was a black Confederate States Marshal and Confederate States Treasury Guard (read:Secret Service Agent);he was a LIFE MEMBER of the UCV. he was buried in the 1930s in Danville, VA in what up to that date was the largest funeral in Danville's history.
so much for the "myth of the black CSA veteran"!!!
free dixie,sw