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."

I try not to judge too harshly when I am reminded that I did not live in that time and many people are simply a product of their time...

And I can not believe that all slaveowners were bad.... Otherwise, there would have been a much more extensive migration from the south and it's plantations after 1865....

In modern times, I can tell you that the system of public assistance is set up to discourage participation... I guess I look at such things the same way I do eating squid or octopus.... I would need to be pretty desperate to indulge... And I would want to go back to steak and potatoes at the earliest opportunity...

I just don't have the stomach to deal with the BS that I have heard comes with Public assistance and therefore, I do whatever I have to do to stay away from such circumstances.... And I am thankful everyday that I am not in such circumstances...

Prior to 1860 the main use of cotton was in fact sails, this is one of the things that had the British so worried and had them leaning toward the South. However when the British found they could grow cotton in Egypt that was very good for sails, they no longer felt their commercial fleets were threatened by the outcome of the war.

The large planters had succesfully used slaves for their trade for generations and controled most of the money in the South. No way were they willing to change. There was hardly any middle class in the South. This was going to change with the decline of cotton after the war, one of its major uses was the use of making sails. The South would have ended up with a very small portion of the population owning most of the land with a stagnent economy. It would have failed.

Think of slaves as machinery now, if the plant is not working you can put the machinery in lay away. With the slaves, they would not be able to. They would have had a real mess on their hands.

I had heard that there were laws in many states requiring a free person to leave or they were subject re-enslavement.... Also, I can promise you that civil rights and other basic rights were not a high priority.... However, I would be the first to agree that the institution was evil but many of the participants were simply a product of the times....

Pardon me if I don't wish for those times to return but I think I can easily say that there are most likely horror stories of the atrocities as well as wonderful stories about the discreet but close relationships that existed....

I think about a guy I went to school with in Muleshoe(God Rest his soul)... He was very protective and a staunch defender of the black woman who was his nanny....

And the civil war may have been avoidable but we are talking about more a clash of societies than anything else ....

Excellent point about how one could judge and perceive depending on when someone is born and the time period being discussed....

I have heard of those laws also but the contradict the fact that there are records of so many successful small business men who were black living in the South. I wonder which is the truth.

In my family, we had a black woman who came to work and live on the farm when she was 14 and stayed until she was 80. At the black church during her funeral I was asked to say something on her behalf. After I got finished, I don't think there was a dry eye in the church and I got a standing ovation.

The 6th Armored was in the Battle of the Bulge. They were the first to break through the German lines with the 4th Armored following through their successes and getting all the credit and glory for it. Yes this is when the incidents I mentioned took place.

I've always had a special place in my heart for the 4th AD.

"Meanwhile, the three lead tanks kept going and at 1650 First Lieutenant Charles P. Boggess, commanding officer of Company C, 37th Tank Battalion , drove the first vehicle from the 4th Armored Division to within the lines of the 326th Airborne Engineer Battalion, 101st Division, of the Bastogne forces."

See this link:

http://www.army.mil/CMH-pg/books/wwii/Bastogne/bast-21.htm

Walt

I think that a transition program for getting off public assistance is essential... It's that "give someone a fish" versus "teach someone to fish" thing...

And I applied only once when I felt I had no choice... I got so mad about the way they were treating me, I withdrew my app and walked away...One of the best and worst days of my adult life... I do not recommend the experience for anyone...

The 6th got there first but did not break through to the 101st. Check out the history of the 6th Armored Division. You have to look several places on the web.

By the way, I have a picture of me about 6 years old sitting in the lap of Col. Abrams in Hersfield, Germany in about 1951 or so. COl Lovelady of Aachan fame, COl Abrams, COL Orth, Ltc LaGrew and others were all close friends of my father and my family. I still remember touring the Battle of the Bulge area at that time and the way my father was treated by the local civilians when they say his 6th Armored patch on his right shoulder.

COl Lovelady's wife and my mother were together in Louisana during the manuvers down there about the time of Pearl Harbor. They also went out to Palm Springs, CA for their desert traing together. I conversed with Mrs Lovelady about seven years ago about my mother and father at the time of my mothers death.

The 6th is going to have another get together later on this year in Louisville, KY and I plan to attend. My father was XO of the 15th Tank Bn, 6th Armored Div, GEN Grow was the CG.

Also these people were cared for all of their lives and given the best medical care.

I don't want to sound calous when I say this, but they were considered like your best race horse or like an expensive piece of property.

On board the ships, slaves were handcuffed and their legs were shackled. They were chained together in groups of about fifty, crammed close together, forced to lie on their sides and often in their own waste. For meals, they were given a stew that contained horsebeans, boiled yams, and scraps of meat. Each group of ten ate from a single bucket. Sometimes slaves tried to starve themselves to death to escape the horrors, or were too sick to eat. -From Slavery: Voyage in Chains

They also received excellent medical care you don't let an investment like that just die off.

According to Alexander Falconbridge, a surgeon aboard slave ships, the punishment was severe if a slave refused to eat, for a dead or severely malnourished slave brought no profit. "Upon the Negroes refusing to take sustenance, I have seen coals of fire, glowing hot, put on a shovel and placed so near their lips as to scorch and burn them." -From Slavery: Voyage in Chains

Yep, it sounds like they took real good of em.

I don't think anybody wants those times back. It was a bad system for everybody - worst obviously for the enslaved, but bad for the masters, for the hard-pressed middle class and artisans, and bad for the region as a whole.

One of my other gg grandfathers was an Englishman who moved here in the 1830s to Newark NJ and eventually migrated south, married one South Carolina girl and a second one when she died, and wound up in Alabama. We have a letter he wrote to his brother in New York City around 1850 or so, talking about business. He told his brother he had sold his farm and slaves because he foresaw the impossibility of continuing to make money farming with slaves. I don't have the letter in front of me, but basically you have a working class guy (he was a genuine London Cockney and originally a carriage maker) who could see in 1850 that the system was doomed. Admittedly, he was a very savvy man from a business standpoint -- went into banking and finance and was worth quite a tidy sum when he died in 1864 (unfortunately somehow none of that money ever came our way . . . :-D )

By the way, I've read his will, and it's fair to say that he was an "eccentric Englishman" - in other words a kook! He begins his will with a sort of Freethinker's creed: "As to the Disposal of my body, I feel no particular Interest - If I possess an immortal principle, the Disposition of It is beyond my control, nor do I hesitate in person to leave it to the direction of the great first cause and supporter of my existence whose leading Attributes I suppose to be benevolence wisdom and prudence." He creates a trust for virtuous unmarried women in Cherokee County AL, and disinherits various relations with glee. It's a funny will, as wills go.

I agree with you on that, looks like one of those Yankee slave ships from Nantucket. These are the ones that brought the slaves in, not flying the Stars and Bars. Once they got down to the plantations, if they lived they were much better treated. Of course as bad as the conditions were on the slave ships themselves, these people were much better off than there relatives they had left in Africa who were being enslaved and murdered in mass by the neighboring tribes. As horrible as their conditions were on the slave ships at least they were alive.

I appreciate your input. Always remember to check your history close and don't be forced to talk with your emotions instead of your knowledge.

Those were the Yankees, mac, not Southerners. The "Triangle Trade" was carried on almost exclusively by New Englanders. They were buying for basically nothing and dealing at wholesale.

Obviously there were idiots, evil people, sadists, etc. in the south. But many decent honest people did care for their slaves. I have the contemporary farm accounts and correspondence from Grandpa Long's farm, and he engaged a physician for any of his slaves who were having their first child or had difficulties in labor - he did have "Mrs. Munn" (I presume the midwife) in for later births. The letters are full of instructions like "make the men rest for two hours in the heat of the day" and so forth. When my great aunt asked Grandpa Long about this, he said it was (1) the right thing to do and (2) "it behooved a man to care for his estate".

I get the impression that he may have been somewhat unusual, he also performed marriages, had a school for the slave children, and refused to separate families. But he was college educated (University of Georgia, civil engineering, 1843) and by all accounts a kind and somewhat shy man. Eugene Genovese (who was a Commie but a good historian) noted that you can collate the census records and pinpoint "good" and "bad" masters. Where most of the emancipated slaves stayed put, and many in the census have the same last name as local white families, relationships were relatively good. Where you don't see any familiar names, all the cruelly treated freedmen made tracks for the big city as soon as they had running room.

I see we were thinking along the same lines.

I still wouldn't want to be working on the rice plantations on the coast. Grandpa Long had several instructions in his letters about hiring out extra hands, he told his wife, "be sure to put in the contract that they are not to be taken out of the county. Otherwise they may be sent to the coast or some sickly place to work."

Our family has a three-generation relationship with two families that used to work for us. And they are a great success story - the grandmothers were our nannies and one of the granddaddys was a handyman/driver for my dad, they grew up in the country as sharecroppers' children, their children all went to college and became professionals - nurses and dentists and teachers - and THEIR children are going to the best prep schools in town.

Interesting that you mention that. one of the major books about this phase of history mentions the fact that slaves were contracted out to other plantations. This created a problem of the human type because men would meet women from other plantations and want to marry. Sometimes this was allowed and sometimes it wasn't. Sometimes they were allowed to marry but had to live on seperate plantations although they were allowed to visit each other. Even more rare and strange was when the man was allowed to buy the woman but he was still a slave but inturn owned a slave. This system could not have existed much longer.

I hope not to insult any one with this statement but this is a thing myself and some friends (some of these black by the way) came up with an alternate history where the South had won the Civil War and slavery had never been abolished. What was televised on the Wide World of Sports was the Smith Plantation playing the Jones Plantation in the Super Bowl.

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