Notes on the myth of Black Confederates in the Civil War

Notes on the Myth of Black Confederates:

(Personal reference material and opinions on the Civil War)

MODERATED CHAT ON BLACK CONFEDERATES: to be held at http://www.us-civilwar.com

OUTLINE NOTES:

Blacks recognized the true nature of the struggle long before many Northerners did and overwhelmingly supported the Union cause. – John W. M. Flaherty

Key points to remember – one argument used by neo-confeds to refute official government positions is the FREE black vs Slave argument – Assuming they are right, how many FREE blacks were even available for service?

QUESTION: Were blacks enlisted in the Confederate Army?

The issue is how many, how did they serve, and was service voluntary?

I. Black Perspective

       A. Official C.S.A. Government Documentation

1.       House and Senate Bills

a)   CSA House of Rep. - On Feb. 10, 1863 - The Confederate House of Representatives resolves that "the enlistment of Negroes as soldiers" is against the constitution of the Confederate States. http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/BlkConfedCongRec.htm

b)   CSA Senate - April 30, 1863 - passed a resolution that white officers of American black troops, or any white person involved at all in preparing them to be soldiers, should be put to death if captured. They also resolved that black troops captured should be sold into slavery, regardless whether they had been free or formerly slaves. On May 1, 1863 the Confederate House of Representatives passed the same resolution. http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/BlkConfedCongRec.htm

c)   CSA House of Rep. - May 1, 1863 - "to employ negroes in war against the Confederate States" as "inconsistent with the spirit of those usages which in modern warfare prevail among civilized nations,"

d)   Committee on Military affairs - Feb. 12, 1864 - "to the consideration of the bill (H.R. 107) to increase the efficiency of the army by the employment of free negroes and slaves in certain capacities." The vote is 7 yeas to 7 nays for a tie.

e)   CSA House of Rep. - Nov 8, 1864 – “Until our white population shall prove insufficient for the armies we require and can afford to keep in the field, to employ as a soldier the negro, who has merely been trained to labor, and as a laborer the white man accustomed from his youth to firearms' would neither be wise nor advantageous.”

f)     CSA House of Rep. - Jan 25, 1865 - A joint resolution “condemning the use of negroes as soldiers in the Confederate Army” referred to the Committee on Military Affairs.

g)   CSA Senate - Jan. 27, 1865 – Resolution offered “to provide for the employment of free negroes and slaves to work on fortifications and perform other labor connected with the defenses of the country”

h)   CSA Senate - Feb. 1, 1865 – Resolution offered “Resolved, further…and since General Lee has been made 'General in Chief,' by assigning under him our best and most acceptable generals to the command of our respective armies, and by ceasing to agitate the policy of employing negro troops, a measure which has already divided public sentiment and produced much despondency.' – NOT ACTED UPON - debated until Feb 6, 1865

2.       Executive/Judicial Branch

a)   Dec. 8, 1863, Jefferson Davis to the CSA Senate. - On the need for more Confederate troops, "The sources of supply are to be found by restoring to the Army all who are improperly absent, putting an end to substitution, modifying the exemption law, restricting details, and placing in the ranks such of the able-bodied men now employed as wagoners, nurses, cooks, and other employees as are doing services for which the negroes may be found competent."

3.       Articles/Speeches

a)   Confederate Veteran, June 1915 - "If there were any such troops [black Confederates] enlisted, there is no official record of same”

            4.   War Records

a)   Black Confederates (all believed to have been slaves) paroled at Appomattox on April 9 thru 11, 1865. SOURCE- Appomattox Courthouse National Historic Site, Appomattox, Virginia.

Quartermaster Department of 3rd Corps Ordinance Train - Sixteen (16) slaves (names unknown) (out of how many thousands of Lee’s forces and none listed as soldiers).

18th Georgia Battalion

Joe Parkman - Musician Company A

George Waddell - Musician Company A

Henry Williams – Musician Company B

Louis Gardeen - Musician Company A

James Polk - Cook Company B

Scipio Africanus – Cook Company B\

William Read - Cook Company C

John Lery – Cook Company A

Gary's Cavalry Brigade

James Barabaha – Guard

Thomas Bowen – Teamster

Burress Bowen – Teamster

John Bowen – Teamster

Jack Caldwell – Teamster

Donaldsonville Artillery, Company B

Henry Blum – Cook

L. Leport – Servant

John Mamply – Servant

John Semple – Servant

§ Others

Bob – Teamster, Slave of David Bridges
Jim – Unknown, Slave of T. M. Dittrick
Solomon Wright - Blacksmith

       B. Anecdotal Evidence

             1. Blacks

             2. Union

             3. CSA

            4. Modern Historians

a)       “The whole Black Confederate soldier thing is bogus” - Ludwell Johnson of the Museum of the Confederacy

b)       "It's B.S., wishful thinking." - Edwin Bearss, historian emeritus, NPS

c)       “They were never mustered into the Confederate Army," – James Hollandsworth, Associate Provost at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.

d)       "It's mostly moonshine They've taken a core of true information and ballooned it all out of proportion.” - James McPherson, Princeton professor emeritus and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Civil War history Battle Cry of Freedom. - http://37thtexas.org/html/Wshcitypaper.html

e)      "If I were rewriting Battle Cry of Freedom, I would mention that [the participation of black Rebel soldiers] happened on an unofficial and limited basis, but it was not a regular, sizable component of the Confederate army." - James McPherson

f)        "There were a few black Confederate [combatants] nobody knows how many. There may have even been several hundred, but it was entirely unofficial, unsanctioned, irregular, and sporadic" - James McPherson

g)       "Of course If I documented 12 [black Confederates out of 150,000 CSA soldiers researched] someone would start adding zeros," - Robert Krick, author of 10 books on the Confederacy

h)       Ervin Jordan Jr. - a black archivist and assistant professor from the University of Virginia. In Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia, were he proved there were black confederates, he admits that he hasn't uncovered tens of thousands of black Confederates in wartime Virginia - in fact, he's found barely a fraction of that.

i)         "There was no black Confederate unit in Mobile, it was a Creole unit. It would be a long, long stretch to say that it was a black unit. There was no counterpart to the black divisions that fought on the Union side." - Sheila Flanagan, assistant director of the Museum of Mobile. - Mobile Register, August 23, 1998

j)         “Many thousands of Jews did slave labor in military production factories in Nazi Germany - but that certainly didn't make them "thousands of Jewish soldiers fighting for Germany.”” Truman R. Clark, professor of history, Tomball College. - The Houston Chronicle, Aug 29, 1999

       C. Cultural

k)   Howell Cobb, GA State Legislator - "you cannot make soldiers of slaves . . . . The day you make soldiers of them is the beginning of the end of the revolution. If slaves will make good soldiers, our whole theory of slavery is wrong." - Cobb to James A. Seddon, 8 Jan. 1865, in O.R., ser. 4, 3: 1009-

l)    Early County News, 5 Apr, 1865. - Early County News editor E.H. Grouby called for the lynching of anyone who dared to "preach abolitionism.".

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