On this day in 1865

[Bull Snipe]

The Confederate Congress authorized the enlistment of slaves into the Confederate Army.

[Bull Snipe]

I have never heard that remarked credited to Lincoln.

[BroJoeK]

LS: "He thinks Ervin Jordan (Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees) and his estimate of 100,000 throughout the entire war is probably too high-—maybe 60,000, none under arms except the rogue “onsies and twosies” that were in some frontier cavalry troops."

Here's what people need to understand:

1. Of the South's four million slaves in 1860 it is certain tens of thousands and likely hundreds of thousands served the Confederacy, in one capacity or another.
   Allen Guelzo estimates as many as 30,000 slaves accompanied Lee's army to Gettysburg, serving in every workman role imaginable except as soldiers.
   Multiply Lee's 30,000 slaves times every Confederate army, plus tens of thousands more working on fortifications, bridges, munitions factories, railroads, logistics, etc., etc.

   But Confederate slaves were not "drafted" and certainly not paid.
   They were rented out and their "owners" paid for their services.

2. Doubtless some slaves did carry arms and helped fight -- for their masters as body servants carrying spare guns & ammunition, etc.
   If Master was wounded in battle, his body servant might pick up a weapon to help defend him.
   How many such were there -- hundreds? dozens? a handful? Nobody knows.

3. Americans had won the Revolutionary War because George Washington enlisted more Africans as fighting soldiers than the Brits did.
   Everybody, especially Washington, understood that black enlistment meant the promise of emancipation at war's end.
   A German officer in the surrendering British Army at Yorktown in 1781 estimated one in four of Washington's soldiers there was black.
   During the Civil War Confederate leaders also fully understood that enlisting slaves meant emancipation -- and for precisely that reason they totally refused to even consider it until the war was all but lost.

4. The only Confederate black unit was mentioned above in posts #37 and #40 -- the 1861 First Louisiana National Guard which was quickly outlawed by the Confederate Louisiana legislature.
   Many of it's members later volunteered to join the Union Army.

Of course our Lost Causers wish us to forget the absolute centrality of slavery to Civil War Confederates, after all it doesn't help advance the mythology of heroic "freedom fighters" against Big Bad Washington Gub'mint.
But the real facts are glaringly obvious to anybody who makes any effort to find them.

[DoodleDawg]

Let's look at the complete quote, in context:

"It is now pretty well established, that there are at the present moment many colored men in the Confederate army doing duty not only as cooks, servants and laborers, but as real soldiers, having muskets on their shoulders, and bullets in their pockets, ready to shoot down loyal troops, and do all that soldiers may to destroy the Federal Government and build up that of the traitors and rebels. There were such soldiers at Manassas, and they are probably there still. There is a Negro in the army as well as in the fence, and our Government is likely to find it out before the war comes to an end. That the Negroes are numerous in the rebel army, and do for that army its heaviest work, is beyond question. They have been the chief laborers upon those temporary defences in which the rebels have been able to mow down our men. Negroes helped to build the batteries at Charleston. They relieve their gentlemanly and military masters from the stiffening drudgery of the camp, and devote them to the nimble and dexterous use of arms. Rising above vulgar prejudice, the slaveholding rebel accepts the aid of the black man as readily as that of any other. If a bad cause can do this, why should a good cause be less wisely conducted?"

Douglass is not speaking from personal knowledge, just claiming "established fact". Established by whom? The rest of the quote is repeating what is already known; the Confederates used blacks as laborers and in support. The were there in those roles, some though choice but many or most because they were told to be there. The fact of the matter is that there are no reports from the Confederate side of black combat soldiers to be found anywhere in the OR. There are anecdotal claims from Union sources but no solid evidence in the form of prisoners or documentation.

[LS]

Yes, as I pointed out, a Confed. Colonel in 1863 suggested arming slaves, giving them freedom in return for fighting. His letter and ALL copies (they thought) were destroyed by Jeff Davis out of fear it would get out to the regular forces.

[Bull Snipe]

Thanks

[BroJoeK]

ls POST #36: "Divisional commander submitted a letter to Jeff Davis and the CSA government recommending blacks be brought into the Army of Northern Virginia on condition of them being freed when their service time was up."

central_va post #5: "Gen. Clebourne wanted this passed in 1863 right after Lincolns EP."

Confederate division commander, Major General Patrick Cleburne, "the Western Stonewall".

"Cleburne sided with the Southern states.
His choice was not due to any love of slavery, which he claimed not to care about, but out of affection for the Southern people who had adopted him as one of their own.
As the crisis mounted, Cleburne joined the local militia company (the Yell Rifles) [Arkansas] as a private soldier.
He was soon elected captain....

"In 1864, he dramatically called together the leadership of the Army of Tennessee and put forth the proposal to emancipate slaves and enlist them in the Confederate Army..."

Cleburn's letter:

"...Satisfy the negro that if he faithfully adheres to our standard during the war he shall receive his freedom and that of his race ... and we change the race from a dreaded weakness to a position of strength.

Will the slaves fight?
The helots of Sparta stood their masters good stead in battle.
In the great sea fight of Lepanto where the Christians checked forever the spread of Mohammedanism over Europe, the galley slaves of portions of the fleet were promised freedom, and called on to fight at a critical moment of the battle.
They fought well, and civilization owes much to those brave galley slaves ...
the experience of this war has been so far that half-trained negroes have fought as bravely as many other half-trained Yankees."

Cleburne was killed in John Bell Hood's ill conceived assault on Union General Schofield's fortified outpost at Franklin, Tennessee.

"William J. Hardee, Cleburne's former corps commander, had this to say when he learned of his loss: 'Where this division defended, no odds broke its line; where it attacked, no numbers resisted its onslaught, save only once; and there is the grave of Cleburne.' "[18]"

[Bull Snipe]

General Clebourne was an excellent officer and a fighter first class. To bad his talent was wasted by John Hood.

[BroJoeK]

Bull Snipe: "General Clebourne was an excellent officer and a fighter first class."

Sometimes ranked #5 among best Confederate generals.

"The most unsung hero of all Confederates" -- number 5 behind Lee, Jackson, Forrest & who? Longstreet? Stuart? Albert Sidney Johnston who like Cleburne died leading his men into battle?

Cleburne's statue at Ringgold Gap, Georgia by sculptor Ron Tunison

[LS]

That’s him.

[LS]

BTW, my co-author of “Patriot’s History of the Modern World” wrote a really good company diary of the 5th Ohio Cavalry, dispels a lot of the stuff about Wade Hampton’s greatness.

See Dave Dougherty, “making Georgia Howl.”

https://www.amazon.com/Making-Georgia-Howl-Volunteer-Kipatricks/dp/1945430109/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1489588173&sr=1-7&keywords=Dave+Dougherty

[BroJoeK]

LS: “Patriot’s History of the Modern World”

I have the 2012 edition on Kindle, and just signed up for Kindle Unlimited.
Will look for others of your books there. ;-)

Thanks for your great work!
As a history buff, not scholar, I greatly depend on people like yourself for my facts & opinions.

God bless.

[LS]

I think the 2-vol set of “Modern World” is, next to “PHUSA” the very best thing I’ve ever written. Hasn’t sold well to date, but you never know.

PHUSA did ok, was profitable, til Beck caught it, then #1.

So perhaps the same thing, only different, can happen here.

[x]

The Louisiana Native Guards weren't allowed to fight in the Confederate Army because they weren't White. They were forced to disband. Also, I'm not sure if they were "Black" as understood at the time or were mostly mixed-race.

I thought this was interesting on the group's Wikipedia page:

Jamaican-born Lieutenant Morris W. Morris, who served as an officer in the Confederate Louisiana militia regiment and subsequently served for six weeks in the Union Native Guard regiment, was unique in that he was of Jewish ancestry, making him both the only black Jewish Confederate officer and the only black Jewish Union officer. He later became a famous actor as Lewis Morrison and his granddaughters, Joan, Constance and Barbara Bennett, were actresses whose black ancestry was never revealed.

Morton Downey, Jr. was Barbara Bennett's son.

Morton Downey, Jr. African-American?

[Bull Snipe]

The Native Guards contained many creole members. Many members were well to do free blacks in the parishes around New Orleans. Many were free black tradesmen, artificers, and craftsmen.