There is no question that American Civil War remains to this day a highly charged historical subject. And I’m not really interested in setting everyone’s hair on fire yet again. My comment related strictly to the simple care, handling and acceptance of truth and facts. It is a fact that a certain number of negroes/blacks (both freemen and slaves) volunteered or willingly served with the Confederate army during the “Great Rebellion”. Whether one likes it or not, the historical record is irrefutable on the point.
Mr Williams presented his article with one specific purpose, i.e. - to refute the arguments that textbook claims of negroes/blacks serving in the Confederate army were unfounded. He confined his remarks to that topic and that purpose. He was under no intellectual or moral obligation to expand beyond that point.
With respect to the comment - “...Williams wants us to believe that the service to the confederate cause by any black person was respected by the white populace.” - exactly where in his article did Williams say that?
Williams had, I submit, a dual purpose - that blacks served widely and willingly in the rebel army and that their service was valued and respected by white Southerners of the period. The first half has an element of truth in it. The second is plain ridiculous.
“It is a fact that a certain number of negroes/blacks (both freemen and slaves) volunteered or willingly served with the Confederate army during the “Great Rebellion”
yep...and for a variety of reasons:
1.a sense of adventure
2.to defend their own homes and families
3.to earn their freedom
4.to escape the drudgery of servitude
5.to ingratiate themselves in case the South won
6.the young like to travel
7.and finally,some genuinely got along with their masters and wanted to go with them...Sweeney, Jeb Stuart’s black banjo player accompanied him on all his campaigns