[Harmless Teddy Bear]

What if you were white and cooked for the Confederate army?

Still not a soldier?

The way to tell who was considered a soldier and who was not is to look at the pension files. If they awarded a pension to your or your family, you were a soldier.

[Bull Snipe]

Not necessarily. A soldiers pension records would contain the date of enlistment and date of discharge. The Virginia pension record for someone like General Jackson’s, body servant (a slave) shows dates of service, but no specific enlistment date or discharge date.

[DoodleDawg]

What if you were white and cooked for the Confederate army?
Still not a soldier?

Was he enlisted as a soldier? Then he was a soldier. Was he not enlisted as a solider? Then he wasn't.

The way to tell who was considered a soldier and who was not is to look at the pension files. If they awarded a pension to your or your family, you were a soldier.

That would be incorrect. Some of those who served as cooks, servants, and the like were awarded pensions.