Nearly all of what you posted has to do with the creation of completely segregated colored regiments by the Confederacy, a different matter altogether. The black Confederates in question, the ones mentioned by Frederick Douglas in 1861, and Horace Greeley a couple years later, were the blacks that were already with the white regiments. A completely different matter, but you knew that, and are only trying to confuse the issue. No one is trying to say they all sat around as equals and drank out of the same cup. That would have been just as unlikely in the North as well. I'm not surprised you think Frederick Douglass was a liar. I know you hate him because he exposed Lincoln's bigotry and dislike of blacks, but whether you like it or not, he told the truth about black Confederates. They were there, whether revisionist "historians" like it or not. The northern soldiers said so, the northern newspapers said so. They were there and knew. I wonder if revisionist historians have excuses and vaccuous proclamations prepared to rule their words false. After all, they were only actual participants there at the time, what did they know. Have you torn out all the pages in your books with Frederick Douglass on them yet? Or Horace Greeley? Or will do like revisionist "historians" and just continue to pick and choose to read only the words that fit your beliefs. The convenient words, as it were. Most black Confederates were support personnel, that is true, but many fought and killed Union troops. The union troops said so. They fought and killed union troops just like they fought and killed British troops in the American Revolution. If they had joined the British in that war, they could have secured their freedom. They chose instead to be loyal to the Colonies, to their homes, and the people they knew. Just like black Confederates did.
Douglass ardently wanted to see black Union soldiers. There were -no- blacks in the ranks of the rebel armies. Even Dr. Steiner's text doesn't say that there were.
I think Douglass a very great man, and I use his quotes often.
Frederick Douglass on Lincoln:
"Recognizing me, even before I reached him, he exclaimed, so that all around could hear him, "Here comes my friend Douglass." Taking me by the hand, he said, "I am glad to see you. I saw you in the crowd to-day, listening to my inaugural address; how did you like it?" I said, "Mr. Lincoln, I must not detain you with my poor opinion, when there are thousands waiting to shake hands with you." "No, no," he said, "you must stop a little, Douglass; there is no man in the country whose opinion I value more than yours. I want to know what you think of it?" I replied, "Mr. Lincoln, that was a sacred effort."
"I am glad you liked it!" he said; and I passed on, feeling that any man, however distinguished, might well regard himself honored by such expressions, from such a man."
More Douglass:
"Viewed from the genuine abolition ground, Mr. Lincoln seemed tardy, cold, dull and indifferent; but measuring him by the sentiment of his country, a sentiment he was bound as a statesman to consult, he was swift, zealous, radical and determined."
Walt
No.
"Viewing the man from the genuine abolishionist ground, Mr. Lincoln seemed cold, tardy, weak and unequal to the task. But, viewing him from the sentiments of his people, which as a statesman he was bound to respect, then his actions were swift, bold, radical and decisive. Taking the man in the whole, balancing the tremendous magnitude of the situation, and the necessary means to ends, Infinite Wisdom has rarely sent a man into the world more perfectly suited to his mission than Abraham Lincoln."
-- Frederick Douglass.
Walt