Where have all the leaders gone? Their statues are in warehouses.
There’s a quote from a Confederate general that I think applies. He said, in essence, that if it was discovered than blacks made good soldiers that the entire theory of race would be drawn into question.
This is a quote from someone who opposed black soldiers in the Confederate army and I reckon his opposition, based on this quote, was that he didn’t WANT to have evidence that he felt, were it forthcoming, he would in fact act upon accordingly.
The man was without a doubt a racist, but he was also fair and he seems to have believed that if the two REALLY came into conflict he knew which would and should give way.
Now compare him to some Union commanders who actually had evidence that black soldiers could make good soldiers (I’m not referring to that incident involving the sappers under Confederate defenses because the whole charge after the advance was poorly led and the failures of the officer in command undermined the apparent effectiveness of black troops sent belatedly into a killing zone, a big hole in the ground, where no soldier, black or white, should have been sent) and yet clung to their racism, insisting that black troops support rather than lead charges.