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To: Non-Sequitur; stainlessbanner
... there were no black combat regimentss and almost no black combat soldiers. And I base that on several reasons. One, the confederate government didn't authorize black combat units until March 1865. Two, as anyone who has read the OR will discover, the confederate military was well documented and almost all those documents survived the war.

Just because the Feds segregated blacks into separate units in the Federal army doesn't mean they fought that way in various state troops on the Confederate side. From an 1862 report in the Official Records by Lt. Col. J. G. Parkhurst, Ninth Regiment Michigan Infantry about the battle of July 13, 1862 at Murfreeborough, Tennessee:

The forces attacking my camp were the First Regiment Texas Rangers, Colonel Wharton, and a battalion of the First Georgia Rangers, Colonel Morrison, and a large number of citizens of Rutherford County, many of whom had recently taken the oath of allegiance to the United States Government. There were also quite a number of negroes attached to the Texas and Georgia troops, who were armed and equipped, and took part in the several engagements with my forces during the day.

I don't know if the blacks were officially counted as soldiers or not. You might ask the Federal troops they helped whip at Murfreeborough. From the Confederate report of the battle:

Attacked Murfreesborough 5 a. m. last Sunday morning; captured two brigadier-generals, staff and field officers, and 1,200 men; burnt $200,000 worth of stores; captured sufficient stores with those burned to amount to $500,000 and brigade of 60 wagons; 300 mules, 150 or 200 horses, and field battery of four pieces; destroyed the railroad and depot at Murfreesborough. Had to retreat to McMinnville, owing to large number of prisoners to be guarded. Our loss 16 or 18 killed; 25 or 30 wounded. Enemy's loss 200 or 300.

199 posted on 07/12/2007 9:32:20 PM PDT by rustbucket
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To: rustbucket
Just because the Feds segregated blacks into separate units in the Federal army doesn't mean they fought that way in various state troops on the Confederate side.

Of course. We all know that the 1860 South was filled with the spirit of integrated, interracial brotherhood. </sarcasm>

From an 1862 report in the Official Records by Lt. Col. J. G. Parkhurst, Ninth Regiment Michigan Infantry about the battle of July 13, 1862 at Murfreeborough, Tennessee...

Better yet, how about an account from the OR from a Southern leader talking about his black troops? Or Southern documentation talking about black regiments? Any letter or report from Lee or Johnston or Cleburn or Hood or any other Southern general talking about their black troops? Something like that?

202 posted on 07/13/2007 2:30:50 AM PDT by Non-Sequitur (Save Fredericksburg. Support CVBT.)
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