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."

Wasn't it an interesting perk of history that the "Alabama" sunk his old ship. His opinion of the Confederate Navy was lower than Walt's.

As far as Dana leaving a comfortable life on his own to do something like that, I think everybody should try something interesting at least once. Maybe nothing like in the movie, "The Edge", but like riding a bicycle from Maine to Florida or something. Something were you really get primative. It changes your outlook on life.

What I meant by not like the movie, he did this of his own free will and was more than willing to live under those conditions. I was a bit surprised the way he was treated when he had the tooth ache. I thought they would make him stand watch anyway.

I never saw the movie, but Hollywood messing with stuff is no surprise. I was very reluctant to go watch LOTR, until my daughter (a rabid Tolkien fan) told me it was o.k. (she was annoyed that they left out Tom Bombadil though, among other things.)

Fox hunting and white water kayaking is just about as wild as I get, though I do hike stretches of the AT from time to time.

Hey Rusty:

Here's another image for your collection. Its a scene froom Montgomery Alabama in July 1861. Looks like a recruitment station for black confederates.

"The crowd was small. Three or four idle men in rough, homespun, makeshift uniforms leaned against the iron rails inclosing a small pond of foul, green-looking water, surrounded by brick-work, which decorates the space in front of the Exchange Hotel. The speaker stood on an empty deal packing-case. A man in a cart was listening with a lack luster eye to the address. Some three or four others, in a sort of vehicle which might either be a hearse or a piano-van, had also drawn up for the benefit of the address. Five or six other men, in long black coats and high hats, some whittling sticks and chewing tobacco, and discharging streams of discolored saliva, completed the group. "N-i-n-e h-hun-nerd and fifty dollars! Only nine h-hun-nerd and fifty dollars offered for him!" exclaimed the man, in the tone of injured dignity, remonstrance, and surprise, which can be insinuated by all true auctioneers into the dryest numerical statements." -Harpers Weekly

Both I and AnAmericanMother believe slavery existed in the South because we are willing to study history and believe the facts, not what we want to believe.

Did you really have to study history before you believed slavery actually existed in the south? Thats amazing.

If you don't believe that the New England shipping business was the biggest player in bringing basically 90% of their cargo to Cuba and surrounding areas and 10% of their cargo to be sold in the South which had a flourishing slave trade...

The federal Slave Trade Act of 1794, prohibited ships destined to transport slaves to any foreign country from outfitting in American ports. If Rhode Islanders were dropping off their human cargos in Cuba, then they were doing so in violation of US law.

In 1790, the first census showed there were 757,000 blacks in the United States, about 20% of the population. Between 1709 and 1807 records show Rhode Island slavers brought back 107,000 african slaves. Even without substracting the 17 years of slave trade between 1790 and 1807, its quite clear that Rhode Island's contribution a by proxy New England's, did not consitute anything approaching even a majority of the American slave trade.

Ah, the "tolerant" North, where bands of rampaging whites set upon blacks and killed them DURING THE CIVIL WAR! Yeah, the Civil War was fought to free the slaves, alright .

Ah, the South, where bands of rampaging whites set upon blacks and killed them when they tried to assert their rights as citizens FOR ANOTHER HUNDRED YEARS AFTER THE CIVIL WAR! (See also: The New Orleans Massacre, Klan, Lynching, etc.) Yeah, Seccession had nothing at all to do with preserving slaveholders' wealth and privileges, alright.

Hey, pal, I never said the South was without stain when it came to attacking blacks, because it sure has that history and that legacy. My point is that the North and the Yankees, then and now, ONLY mention the Southern incidents, and they never seem to acknowledge their own sins in this regard. In fact, the South is far more integrated than the North is, and the people of the South (blacks and whites alike) are far more apt to get along with each other and live together as a community than almost anywhere in the North, where a de facto segregation is still recognized and practiced.

True enough. I used to live in Chicago, and I remember that Martin Luther King said that racism was more entrenched there than it was in the South. No argument there. It just takes a different form, more economic and social rather than Jim Crow and Klan, and the South has certainly come further than the North has in the last 50 years. I think a lot of the racist mindset in the North has to do with the nature of work forces in big industrial cities and perceived competition. Northern cities have always been more balkanized with their variety of white ethnic groups--Irish, Poles,Italians, etc.--that the South, in general, never had.

Ultimately, like most Civil Wars, there's plenty of blame to go around on both sides. I just object to the Lost Causers who refuse to accept any blame for the war on their side, or to admit that slavery might have had anything to do with it.

I do a lot of research on old newspapers on microfilm. I copied a drawing from the Spanish American war. There are two civil war veterans, one Union the other Confederate flanking a young soldier. The caption is ''united at last''
I also found the obit of a Confederate soldier who died in April of 1948. He was a black soldier and the DAC would often visit him at the nursing home he spent his last years. According to the newspaper article he was with the 16th Virginia Infantry.

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."

This was a common practice of the yankee revisionists. At the very end of the war when the CSA congress passed a law allowing the enlistment of blacks into federal units (they were previously enlisted into state units depending on whether state laws allowed them), at least two all-black units were raised in Richmond out of supply workers and cooks in the military hospitals. They were armed and attached to Lee's army as it retreated west toward Appomattox.

On the day before the battle of Saylor's Creek a union cavalry unit attacked one of the newly formed black units near Amelia Courthouse. After the battle several hundred of them were captured and taken prisoner. Even though the record clearly shows they were a unit of soldiers, the yankee prisoner reports describe all their captives as "teamsters."

This was a common practice of the yankee revisionists.

But you repeat yourself.

It is my tender hope that, 200 years from now, seminar-level history courses will expand at length on the managerial and propagandistic uses of Yankee lying in historiography, and the salutary methods by which student researchers may overcome it to reveal better information about the American past.

And long before then, I hope my dimming eyes will still be good enough to make out the colors and shapes of Southerners passing in a military parade, in divisional mass, sweeping up Pennsylvania Avenue behind their ancient regimental battle flags to the Capitol for the President's review, bouncing along to "The Bonny Blue Flag". Wearing grey, of course -- with their hats turned up in front, Texas style, with that single star showing conspicuously for everyone to see. It will be a better country then.

I think a lot of the racist mindset in the North has to do with the nature of work forces in big industrial cities and perceived competition.

Not just in the North. Southern freehold farmers faced the same competition from the planters, and their wrath fixed itself on the slaves. Too, where community labor was called for and the freeholders turned out, they found it annoying to discover themselves working side by side with bondmen contributed by the grandees as their contribution -- which insulted the smallholders by confounding them with unfree men from another culture, which was, in a way, a double denial of their own membership in society and a threat to their self-worth. Texas historian T. R. Fehrenbach wrote about this tension in his survey of antebellum Texas society, and about how poorer whites insisted blacks (slaves) come around to the side door when visiting -- while the planter admitted black visitors through the front door, as a display of his own social rank ("planter liberalism" as showing off), which perhaps not so incidentally slighted his white neighbors.

Robert DeNiro's speech in Men of Honor captured this frustration and antipathy just about perfectly.

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