Posted on 08/27/2006 9:13:18 AM PDT by smug
UDC marks another black Confederate grave By Clayta Richards / Chronicle staffwriter
On Sunday afternoon at Old Union Cemetery in southern White County, over 180 people gathered to pay a debt owed nearly 80 years. The group included members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Sons of Confederate Veterans, family and friends, all there to memorialize the service of Pvt. Henry Henderson, a black Confederate soldier.
Henderson was born in 1849 in Davidson County, NC. He was 11 years old when he entered service with the Confederate States of America as a cook and servant to Colonel William F. Henderson, a medical doctor. Records show Henry was wounded during his service, but he continued to serve until the war's end in 1865. He was discharged in Salem, NC, age 16.
After the war, Henry married Miranda Shockley, of White County, TN. The couple raised five children.
"We're here to honor him," said his great-grandson, Oscar Fingers, of Evansville, IN. "I think he would be proud his family has come this far and to know all we have done." Several other family members made the trip with Fingers from Indiana for Sunday's ceremony.
Sons Dalton and Lee received Henderson's first and last Tennessee Colored Confederate pension check upon their father's death in September 1926. The check provided enough funds to bury their father, but not enough to buy a headstone for his grave.
The 60,000-90,000 black Confederate soldiers are often called "the forgotten Confederates," but through the concerted efforts of the Capt. Sally Tompkins Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy along with the Sons of the Confederate Veterans, several graves have been found in the Upper Cumberland and have been or will be marked.
Pvt. Henry Henderson's service was finally recognized and his grave officially marked on Sunday, all to the snap of salutes from the grandsons of fellow Confederates, volleys of gunfire and cannons shot toward the distant hillsides of his final resting place.
Official U.S. government grave markers are available to all Confederate veterans. For additional information, contact Barbara Parsons, 484-5501.
And in all your examples that service was, without exception, declined by the government. Government sanction of free blacks in the military was not granted until 1862 (for musicians only) or 1864 (for service positions only) or March 1865 (when blacks were accepted for combat positions.) Unofficially blacks, free and slave, were brought along with the army as cooks, servants, laborers, and the like from the very first.
Dr. Sowell is, in fact, a competent economist, which is where his degrees are. His books are on economics and politics and not history. If he did, in fact, claim that 90,000 free blacks fought for the South then he needs to reexamine his sources.
Aside from the example I quoted who had more help than he could use, would you please cite documentation that says their offers to help build fortifications, etc., were refused.
While we're on this topic, here were a couple of other examples I found in the old newspapers.
COLORED TROOOPS IN THE SOUTH -- Fifteen hundred free colored men in New Orleans, at a meeting last Monday night, enrolled themselves for military duty in defense of the Confederate States. [Philadephia Public Ledger, May 1, 1861]
Baltimorians complain greatly at the want of telegraph and mail facilities. Three or four hundred negroes offered services to Southern Regiments. [Kennebec(Maine) Weekly Journal, April 26, 1861]
Also IIRC, free blacks made up some of the fire crews that put out fires in Charleston, SC, caused by Yankee shelling of civilians.
Since I am unaware of any evidence supporting the fact that their service was accepted it would be pretty much a given that it wasnt.
COLORED TROOOPS IN THE SOUTH -- Fifteen hundred free colored men in New Orleans, at a meeting last Monday night, enrolled themselves for military duty in defense of the Confederate States. [Philadephia Public Ledger, May 1, 1861]
Sure. The Louisiana Native Guard, comprised of free black men of New Orleans, organized itself May 2, 1865 with black officers and offered itself for service in the confederate cause. The Davis government told them to take a hike, and they were later reorganized as a Union regiment.
Baltimorians complain greatly at the want of telegraph and mail facilities. Three or four hundred negroes offered services to Southern Regiments. [Kennebec(Maine) Weekly Journal, April 26, 1861]
And any evidence that their service was accepted?
Also IIRC, free blacks made up some of the fire crews that put out fires in Charleston, SC, caused by Yankee shelling of civilians.
Possibly. Slave labor was conscripted by the Davis government for many purposes, usually without compensation to the slave owners.
Your date is wrong. The government ignored or later disbanded them but then called them up to help in the defense of New Orleans, such as it was. My understanding is that very few free blacks of the original native guard troop became part of the later Union regiment. I also remember that there was a mass resignation during the war of many of the blacks in that Union regiment. Didn't like their Northern masters, I guess.
And any evidence that their [Maryland black volunteers] service was accepted?
I don't know. Some may well have gone with Maryland units that fought for the South. [Maryland CSA Units] Many may well have been cooks, mule skinners, musicians, etc.
Slave labor was conscripted by the Davis government for many purposes, usually without compensation to the slave owners.
In this case they were free blacks.
The first fire company to reach the scene was one composed of free Negroes, who all through the war did valiant service fighting fires started by shells, All the time they were fighting the fire, they kept muttering, "cussed bobolitionists." (abolitionists) [Source: The Siege of Charleston, 1861-1865 by E. Milby Burton, director of the Charleston Museum]
No, the date is right as is the fact that the Davis government refused to accept their service. They lingered as an organization until early in 1862 when the governor ordered them disbanded. They were later admitted as a Union regiment in September of the same year, though I don't know how many of the original ones remained. The long and short is that there was a regiment of upwards of 1500 free black men of Louisiana, equipped and officered at their own expense and of their own race, and the Confederate government would rather lose than accept their service.
I don't know.
I don't know either. They could just as well have stayed home.
[rb] Your date is wrong.
[non-seq] No, the date is right
Got some kind of new fangled Yankee calendar there, non? Or did the free blacks wait until after the war to enlist?
Half right. May 2, 1862.
Dixieping
Wrong again.
Somebody on the other side please come collect non-sequitur -- he's been wounded on the field of battle. Either that or he's been drinking again.
Formed in May 1861, the First Native Guards was a Confederate militia regiment made up of 440 free blacks, most of them residents of New Orleans.
Statewide by early 1862 more than 3,000 free African Americans had formed military organizations — called Native Guards — and offered their services to the Confederacy. These units included one cavalry and one infantry company in Natchitoches, an infantry company in Plaquemines Parish, a unit of thirty free black men in Baton Rouge,and a regiment in New Orleans. Their primary duties were similar to those of homeguards, to protect their areas of residence from internal and external threat.
[Source: Native Guards]
the WBTS was ONLY a "crusade against slavery" AFTER the war was won by the north & a MILLION PEOPLE had NEEDLESSLY died for NO GOOD PURPOSE.
THEN & only then did the SELF-righteous DAMNyankee elites start prattling on & on, ad nauseum about slavery.
face it, you have been LIED TO & made a FOOL of, by the northeastern, SOCIALIST, SELF-righteous, LEFTIST financial/social/academic/intellectual elites.
our 100,000+ Black Confederate volunteers fought for LIBERTY, just as my AmerIndian ancestor did. they owned NO SLAVES. (neither did my ancestor.)
free dixie,sw
Hmm...a servant.
If you POST documented proof that a Black regiment was formed, his next statement will be along the lines of 'was their offer accepted?' Next he'll demand proof of service, names, ages, size of their underwear etc. Noni is the prototypical neo-con, according to him the entire Union army was comprised 100% of fighters (no cooks, teamsters, quartermasters etc).
NS:Possibly. Slave labor was conscripted by the Davis government for many purposes, usually without compensation to the slave owners.
ROTFLMC*O!!!! That's the pot calling the kettle black! The Lincoln REGIME confiscated blacks by the thousands to server as slaves/conscripts. In the BIGOTED Northern armies, blacks served in segregated units at lower pay than whites. Face the facts, yankees were BIGOTS, and can't accept the fact that thousands of blacks served against the dictator Lincoln.
by mid -1862 ALL large CSA units were DESEGREGATED down to company level.
the CS Marine Corps & CS Navy were FORMED as desegregated units.
in the CSA forces EVERYONE was paid based on RANK alone.
otoh, in the US forces, Blacks served in SEGREGATED units, under WHITE officers, at 1/2 pay of white soldiers/sailors/marines (btw, the USMC finally accepted the first Black marines in 1944.).
MOST Black US veterans (through no fault of their own!) NEVER saw combat. they were used for "fatigue duty", i.e. COMMON unskilled LABOR, as they were NOT trusted by the US High Command.
where Blacks were ALLOWED to be "real soldiers", for example in the 54th MASS INF, they did just as well as their white compatriots-in-arms.
these are SOME of the FACTS that the LEFTIST,sanctimonious, "OH, so PC", northeastern elites don't want anyone to know.
free dixie,sw
I took part in the annual Potomac River Crossing at White's Ford Saturday. There were about 30 to 40 of us. We had two black gentlemen walking with us, one carrying a Confederate Battle Flag. They were just as much a part of the celebration as any of us.
free dixie,sw
Right On my friend 65,000 Free Blacks! fought and died for the Confederate Army
i guess they where slaves right forced to fight huh?
sent to Mr. Edgerton
Thanks !
I think of it more as a crusade for the institution.
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