Black Confederates

Black Confederates Why haven't we heard more about them? National Park Service historian, Ed Bearrs, stated, "I don't want to call it a conspiracy to ignore the role of Blacks both above and below the Mason-Dixon line, but it was definitely a tendency that began around 1910" Historian, Erwin L. Jordan, Jr., calls it a "cover-up" which started back in 1865. He writes, "During my research, I came across instances where Black men stated they were soldiers, but you can plainly see where 'soldier' is crossed out and 'body servant' inserted, or 'teamster' on pension applications." Another black historian, Roland Young, says he is not surprised that blacks fought. He explains that "some, if not most, Black southerners would support their country" and that by doing so they were "demonstrating it's possible to hate the system of slavery and love one's country." This is the very same reaction that most African Americans showed during the American Revolution, where they fought for the colonies, even though the British offered them freedom if they fought for them.

It has been estimated that over 65,000 Southern blacks were in the Confederate ranks. Over 13,000 of these, "saw the elephant" also known as meeting the enemy in combat. These Black Confederates included both slave and free. The Confederate Congress did not approve blacks to be officially enlisted as soldiers (except as musicians), until late in the war. But in the ranks it was a different story. Many Confederate officers did not obey the mandates of politicians, they frequently enlisted blacks with the simple criteria, "Will you fight?" Historian Ervin Jordan, explains that "biracial units" were frequently organized "by local Confederate and State militia Commanders in response to immediate threats in the form of Union raids". Dr. Leonard Haynes, an African-American professor at Southern University, stated, "When you eliminate the black Confederate soldier, you've eliminated the history of the South."

As the war came to an end, the Confederacy took progressive measures to build back up its army. The creation of the Confederate States Colored Troops, copied after the segregated northern colored troops, came too late to be successful. Had the Confederacy been successful, it would have created the world's largest armies (at the time) consisting of black soldiers,even larger than that of the North. This would have given the future of the Confederacy a vastly different appearance than what modern day racist or anti-Confederate liberals conjecture. Not only did Jefferson Davis envision black Confederate veterans receiving bounty lands for their service, there would have been no future for slavery after the goal of 300,000 armed black CSA veterans came home after the war.

1. The "Richmond Howitzers" were partially manned by black militiamen. They saw action at 1st Manassas (or 1st Battle of Bull Run) where they operated battery no. 2. In addition two black "regiments", one free and one slave, participated in the battle on behalf of the South. "Many colored people were killed in the action", recorded John Parker, a former slave.

2. At least one Black Confederate was a non-commissioned officer. James Washington, Co. D 35th Texas Cavalry, Confederate States Army, became it's 3rd Sergeant. Higher ranking black commissioned officers served in militia units, but this was on the State militia level (Louisiana)and not in the regular C.S. Army.

3. Free black musicians, cooks, soldiers and teamsters earned the same pay as white confederate privates. This was not the case in the Union army where blacks did not receive equal pay. At the Confederate Buffalo Forge in Rockbridge County, Virginia, skilled black workers "earned on average three times the wages of white Confederate soldiers and more than most Confederate army officers ($350- $600 a year).

4. Dr. Lewis Steiner, Chief Inspector of the United States Sanitary Commission while observing Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson's occupation of Frederick, Maryland, in 1862: "Over 3,000 Negroes must be included in this number [Confederate troops]. These were clad in all kinds of uniforms, not only in cast-off or captured United States uniforms, but in coats with Southern buttons, State buttons, etc. These were shabby, but not shabbier or seedier than those worn by white men in the rebel ranks. Most of the Negroes had arms, rifles, muskets, sabers, bowie-knives, dirks, etc.....and were manifestly an integral portion of the Southern Confederate Army."

5. Frederick Douglas reported, "There are at the present moment many Colored men in the Confederate Army doing duty not only as cooks, servants and laborers, but real soldiers, having musket on their shoulders, and bullets in their pockets, ready to shoot down any loyal troops and do all that soldiers may do to destroy the Federal government and build up that of the rebels."

6. Black and white militiamen returned heavy fire on Union troops at the Battle of Griswoldsville (near Macon, GA). Approximately 600 boys and elderly men were killed in this skirmish.

7. In 1864, President Jefferson Davis approved a plan that proposed the emancipation of slaves, in return for the official recognition of the Confederacy by Britain and France. France showed interest but Britain refused.

8. The Jackson Battalion included two companies of black soldiers. They saw combat at Petersburg under Col. Shipp. "My men acted with utmost promptness and goodwill...Allow me to state sir that they behaved in an extraordinary acceptable manner."

9. Recently the National Park Service, with a recent discovery, recognized that blacks were asked to help defend the city of Petersburg, Virginia and were offered their freedom if they did so. Regardless of their official classification, black Americans performed support functions that in today's army many would be classified as official military service. The successes of white Confederate troops in battle, could only have been achieved with the support these loyal black Southerners.

10. Confederate General John B. Gordon (Army of Northern Virginia) reported that all of his troops were in favor of Colored troops and that it's adoption would have "greatly encouraged the army". Gen. Lee was anxious to receive regiments of black soldiers. The Richmond Sentinel reported on 24 Mar 1864, "None will deny that our servants are more worthy of respect than the motley hordes which come against us." "Bad faith [to black Confederates] must be avoided as an indelible dishonor."

11. In March 1865, Judah P. Benjamin, Confederate Secretary Of State, promised freedom for blacks who served from the State of Virginia. Authority for this was finally received from the State of Virginia and on April 1st 1865, $100 bounties were offered to black soldiers. Benjamin exclaimed, "Let us say to every Negro who wants to go into the ranks, go and fight, and you are free Fight for your masters and you shall have your freedom." Confederate Officers were ordered to treat them humanely and protect them from "injustice and oppression".

12. A quota was set for 300,000 black soldiers for the Confederate States Colored Troops. 83% of Richmond's male slave population volunteered for duty. A special ball was held in Richmond to raise money for uniforms for these men. Before Richmond fell, black Confederates in gray uniforms drilled in the streets. Due to the war ending, it is believed only companies or squads of these troops ever saw any action. Many more black soldiers fought for the North, but that difference was simply a difference because the North instituted this progressive policy more sooner than the more conservative South. Black soldiers from both sides received discrimination from whites who opposed the concept .

13. Union General U.S. Grant in Feb 1865, ordered the capture of "all the Negro men before the enemy can put them in their ranks." Frederick Douglass warned Lincoln that unless slaves were guaranteed freedom (those in Union controlled areas were still slaves) and land bounties, "they would take up arms for the rebels".

14. On April 4, 1865 (Amelia County, VA), a Confederate supply train was exclusively manned and guarded by black Infantry. When attacked by Federal Cavalry, they stood their ground and fought off the charge, but on the second charge they were overwhelmed. These soldiers are believed to be from "Major Turner's" Confederate command.

15. A Black Confederate, George _____, when captured by Federals was bribed to desert to the other side. He defiantly spoke, "Sir, you want me to desert, and I ain't no deserter. Down South, deserters disgrace their families and I am never going to do that."

16. Former slave, Horace King, accumulated great wealth as a contractor to the Confederate Navy. He was also an expert engineer and became known as the "Bridge builder of the Confederacy." One of his bridges was burned in a Yankee raid. His home was pillaged by Union troops, as his wife pleaded for mercy.

17. As of Feb. 1865 1,150 black seamen served in the Confederate Navy. One of these was among the last Confederates to surrender, aboard the CSS Shenandoah, six months after the war ended. This surrender took place in England.

18. Nearly 180,000 Black Southerners, from Virginia alone, provided logistical support for the Confederate military. Many were highly skilled workers. These included a wide range of jobs: nurses, military engineers, teamsters, ordnance department workers, brakemen, firemen, harness makers, blacksmiths, wagonmakers, boatmen, mechanics, wheelwrights, etc. In the 1920'S Confederate pensions were finally allowed to some of those workers that were still living. Many thousands more served in other Confederate States.

19. During the early 1900's, many members of the United Confederate Veterans (UCV) advocated awarding former slaves rural acreage and a home. There was hope that justice could be given those slaves that were once promised "forty acres and a mule" but never received any. In the 1913 Confederate Veteran magazine published by the UCV, it was printed that this plan "If not Democratic, it is [the] Confederate" thing to do. There was much gratitude toward former slaves, which "thousands were loyal, to the last degree", now living with total poverty of the big cities. Unfortunately, their proposal fell on deaf ears on Capitol Hill.

20. During the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1913, arrangements were made for a joint reunion of Union and Confederate veterans. The commission in charge of the event made sure they had enough accommodations for the black Union veterans, but were completely surprised when unexpected black Confederates arrived. The white Confederates immediately welcomed their old comrades, gave them one of their tents, and "saw to their every need". Nearly every Confederate reunion including those blacks that served with them, wearing the gray.

21. The first military monument in the US Capitol that honors an African-American soldier is the Confederate monument at Arlington National cemetery. The monument was designed 1914 by Moses Ezekiel, a Jewish Confederate. Who wanted to correctly portray the "racial makeup" in the Confederate Army. A black Confederate soldier is depicted marching in step with white Confederate soldiers. Also shown is one "white soldier giving his child to a black woman for protection".- source: Edward Smith, African American professor at the American University, Washington DC.

22. Black Confederate heritage is beginning to receive the attention it deserves. For instance, Terri Williams, a black journalist for the Suffolk "Virginia Pilot" newspaper, writes: "I've had to re-examine my feelings toward the [Confederate] flag started when I read a newspaper article about an elderly black man whose ancestor worked with the Confederate forces. The man spoke with pride about his family member's contribution to the cause, was photographed with the [Confederate] flag draped over his lap that's why I now have no definite stand on just what the flag symbolizes, because it no longer is their history, or my history, but our history."

The war was in great part about slavery. But anyone who says it was ALL about slavery is a victim of liberal education, or a liar.

I don't think anyone has said or believes that every soldier who fought in the Civil War did so because they were fighting for or against slavery. For the most part, soldiers fight for home, family, friends, and native land. They fight because it becomes a question of "them against us." Many soldiers on both sides fought for ideas of freedom, as well.

But these reasons apply to every war, so they don't explain why wars are fought. To figure that out we need to look at the speeches of statesmen, newspapers, books, laws and debates. There were other issues. Events and passions had their own momentum, and people were drawn into war for the union or their section by emotion and reaction to provocations and changing circumstances. But if we want or need to find a root cause, slavery is a good one. Slavery and the conflicts over its defense and expansion were the chief reason for the first secessions, and secession sparked the war.

So, I don't think anyone's said that slavery was the only reason for the war, save perhaps in this sense: the US wouldn't have become a country so divided that intersectional war was possible if it hadn't been for an issue as divisive as slavery. It's hard to realistically think of another issue that could have destroyed the political system to the point where the country would split into two hostile nations facing off against each other. Though even here, one could argue that it wasn't slavery alone that did this and that something like the territorial question and the way it was botched were necessary to bring things to the point of war.

Some say "it wasn't all about slavery" as a prelude to simply brushing slavery aside as an issue, and making the war about something else. A lot of these people aren't so much interested in what happened and why, as in ideas of guilt and innocence, sin and purity, moral equivalence and moral superiority. Such issues can hardly be avoided, but it helps to know if people are arguing about different things while thinking that they are debating each other. So often the real argument isn't about what caused the Civil War, but about "my ancestors were better (or no worse) than your ancestors."

I know I can read the caption on the image.

One of the worst things the slave ships used to do was keep the entire human cargo attached to one chain. They would run this to one of the ships anchors and have a cut out in the hull. If they were being chased by a ship intent on enforcing the anti slave laws they would drop the anchor pulling the entire cargo out with it into the ocean. Nice folks.

Bulley Hayes was one of the most notorious of the American slave traders. The entire system from the time they were captured until they finally made it was brutal and inhuman beyond belief.

Everyone has and opinion on this. From my research, I have concluded that the War was basically about States Rights but one of the major parts on the States Rights was based on if the state would be a Slave State or a Free State. The fact of the state being a free or slave state would determine the economy of the state and therefore support the idea the war was about slavery.

I think the major problem we are talking about is trying to determine on how the slaves were treated. When you discuss morality, you have to discuss the morality of the time then and not now. Most of the individuals who owned slaves regardless of the race of the individual seemed to see no problem with it which is another confusing issue for everyone. By the LOCAL standards of yesteryear, these people were not villians but they were to others during that time and to us over 100 years later that don't really know how life was then. It was basically difficult for everybody.

Goes both ways, since it was implied these people were treated the same way on the slave ships as they were on the plantations, with the original statement being that medical care was available on the plantations.

The questions from you was if the medical care on the slave ship was a representation on how well the slaves were treated on the plantations.

Would you be willing to give me $10.00 for every ship that did operate out of Nantucket that did carry slaves? Have you ever been to the Whaling Museum on Nantucket? I was there when I sailed my 24' sailboat, "Georgia Peach I" up there off shore from Annapolis, MD in 1971. We flew the Confederate Battle Flag on her as we went into the harbor but were not carrying any contraband human cargo during in the trip in case you are suspecting I might do so.

He didn't say it was; he said it looked like.

If you're going to call somebody a liar, make sure you're accurate.

His point, I think, still stands - most of the Triangle Trade was conducted by New Englanders. Certainly there were Englishmen (early on) and Southerners (later on) involved, but if you look at the bulk of the slave trade in the most active years it was slaves-sugar-rum and New England was one corner of the triangle and running most of (not all) the ships. And remember until 1776 the Americans were trading under the British flag . . .

NEWPORT, R.I. & TRIANGLE TRADE: THE ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS OF THE RHODE ISLAND SLAVE TRADE *An estimated 59,070 slaves were taken by Newport Slavers prior to the American Revolution. An estimated 15 million were taken to the West in total. Between 1709 and 1807, Rhode Island merchants sponsored at least 934 slaving voyages to the coast of Africa. Their ships carried an estimated 106,544 Africans from their homeland to the New World (Coughtry). Of the 421 Rhode Island slavers tabulated for the period of 1784 to 1807, 402 or 95% can be identified today by port of ownership. Three hundred and ninety-seven (98.8%) of the vessels were registered in one of the following Rhode Island towns: Bristol, Newport, Providence, and Warren. The remaining vessels were owned by merchants in Little Compton, or North Kingstown. Together, Newport and Bristol accounted for 318 African voyages, or 79.2% of post war trade which they shared equally (Coughtry). Each financed 159 ventures or 39.6% of the joint total. Providence made 55 trips, 13.74% of the total, and tiny Warren, R.I. made 24 trips with 6% of the share (Coughtry). All together, 204 different Rhode Island citizens owned a share or more in a slave voyage at one time or another. It is evident that the involvement of R.I. citizens in the slave trade was widespread and abundant. For Rhode Islanders, slavery had provided a major new profit sector and an engine for trade in the West Indies.

Read all about it here. From Providence College in Rhode Island. Not exactly a bastion of "southern bias."

No way, because they were used a lot along with much worse devices.

The point of the original thread was if Blacks fought for the South. I don't think there is any doubt that a number did, but not as many that were willing to fight for the North. I am sure that the vast majority of the slaves living in Georgia were a lot happier to see Sherman's Army coming than ones living in Pennsylvania were to see Lee's Army coming.

You seem to want to imply that everyone who owned slaves or saw a black in the South wanted to torture the poor guy or tie him to the whipping post. Also this was the only part of the country giving the blacks a raw deal during that time frame.

It was going on everywhere in the world for the black man at that time with the worse probably being in Africa itself. That is basically just the way thing were.

Like it or not, based on the circumstances, the living conditions for slaves in sections of the South was better than industrial workers in the North. The difference was that the slaves did not have freedom of choice and were treated as property instead of free men.

Even the so called free blacks were not treated equally in the South or any other place in the United States. Being black was not good where ever you lived.

He didn't say it was; he said it looked like.

And when I corrected him the first time, he also said 'I know I read the caption'.

If you're going to call somebody a liar, make sure you're accurate.

If I show you an image of a slave deck and you say "that looks like a Yankee ship from Nantucket" when you know its actually a slave deck from an English ship, then you are either showing your southern bias by fabricating or doing your best Bill Clinton impression. Take your pick.

While your factoids regarding Rhode Island are interesting, the last time I checked, Nantucket was a part of Massachusetts, not RI.

It was going on everywhere in the world for the black man at that time with the worse probably being in Africa itself.

Vermont amended its constitution to ban slavery in 1777. Other Northern states emancipated their slaves and banned the institution: Pennsylvania, 1780; Massachusetts and New Hampshire, 1783; Connecticut and Rhode Island, 1784; New York, 1799.

While some of the state laws stipulated gradual emancipation, ear notching and iron collars were not used.

I am well aware that neither you or I had anything personally to do with slavery, but you'd be well advised to transcend the myth regarding the benevolence of that peculiar institution.

In my youth I recall blacks and whites not only "getting along", but working together and posessing mutual respect. That was the early 1960's.

Then liberal anti-white racism started in, and there has been Hell to pay ever since.

Funny, we were 'integrated' in school for seven years when the Yankees in Boston were burning busses so their children didn't have to go to school with black kids.

Seems they can't stomach the idea that Southern whites and blacks got along with a few execptions, when in the North, the converse seemed to be the case.

I had the same experince growing up, or maybe I dreamed it. The first civil rights demonstrations in Lincolnton, Georgia came to an abrupt end when all the local whites and blacks got together and threw the outsiders out. This made national news about 1967.

When I moved to New Jersey in 1967, I caught hell all the time from blacks because I had a Georgia tag on my car. I could stop and try to get gas but when the attendent happened to see my tag, I would not get service.

On the other hand when I broke down on I 295 a car stops after hundreds had passed me, which happened to be some black guy from Georgia who saw my tag. He said he just had to help out someone from home. My being from Georgia is the only reason he stopped.

The guy who I hung with at Picatinny Arsenal, NJ was a black LT from New Orleans. We seemed to have the most in common.

During my first trip to Baltimore, God knows how many down and out blacks I saw on the street I stopped and bought a meal for. I had never witnessed anything like that in my home town with people in need not getting help.

I guess it has something to do with the values you are raised with.

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