Tonka_truck,
As I told you earlier that I would provide more links, here’s a link to Americans who take a dim view of thier black Confederate SOLDIER ancestor’s service being dismissed by other Americans. Make sure you read the newspaper article and who he was marching for.
http://www.phalange.com/blakneo2.htm
There are other links I’ll post tomorrow. This is just one of the milder stated ones.
I’ll get you the other link, for who was considered a soldier tomorrow also.
And, if you read enough of the slave narrative’s, which I’ve already provided a link for, you’ll find some of their stories corroborate their own heroic service for the Confederacy. So, as I stated earlier, you can contact their ancestors themselves to let them know their loved one’s weren’t really soldiers after all. HA! I suspect they will know you’ve been reading revisionist history or that you are simply a rude person.
State archives are excellent reasearch tools if you ever want to get off your “grits” and review them. It takes a little time but you can produce your own evidence of black Confederate soldiers......if you truly wish to find them instead of just denigrate their service.
Good morning, tonka_truck,
Another link for black confederate records.
http://calebstriumph.com/black_confederates/black_confederates.html
Now, you’re going to have to do some of your own research. I don’t have time to look up everything for you. Also, just in case you don’t read the complete site, here is a quote re: Who was considered a soldier. Later on, I’ll post another link about buglers and drummers actually being.......yep, you guessed it, soldiers.
“According to General August Kautz’s, USA,”Customs of Service, for Non-Commissioned Officers and Soldiers” (1864), page. 11: “In the fullest sense, any man in the military service who receives pay, whether sworn in or not, is a soldier because he is subject to military law. Under this general head, laborers, teamsters, sutlers and chaplains, are soldiers.”
By this definition from a Union (Northern) source, the Free men of color and slaves who were paid by the Confederate government were soldiers. If a rule applies to one side of the conflict, it is true for both.