More from the book, Dixie Betrayed, by David J. Eicher, Chapter 17, Slaves as Soldiers, pg. 249-251:
"In Richmond, meanwhile, the second session of the Second Congress of the Confederate States of America began on November 7 (1864). On the opening day Jefferson Davis sent a long message to Congress covering many urgent points that needed to be faced. In many ways it was a last attempt for a turnaround and cooperation on a variety of issues that, the president felt, would sink the Confederacy if left unresolved.
"The exemption form military duty now accorded by law to all persons engaged in certain specified pursuits is shown by experience to be unwise, nor is it believed to be defensible in theory." he lectured. "A general militia law is needful in the interest of the public defense," he added. "The employment of slaves for service with the Army as teamsters or cooks, or in the way of work upon the fortifications, or in the Government workshops, or in hospitals or other similar duties, was authorized by the act of 17th of February last, and provision was made for their impressment to a number not exceeding 20,000, if it should be found impracticable to obtain them by contract with the owners."
Continued the president, "Viewed merely as property, and therefore as the subject of impressment, the service or labor of the slave has been frequently claimed for short periods in the construction of defensive works. The slave, however, bears another relation to the State--that of a person."
This last thought must have struck some of the lawmakers like a clap of thunder. The president then wondered aloud if emancipation should be offered to slaves for faithful military service, and he guessed that, if given, they would not leave their local areas after the war. "A double motive for a zealous discharge of duty would thus be offered to those employed by the Government--their freedom and the gratification of the local attachment which is so marked a characteristic of the negro, and forms so powerful an incentive in his action," the president proposed. This was a conclusion so blindfolded and naive as to be idiotic--morally and politically. Although the president stopped short of suggesting slaves be armed, emancipation for military service--aiding the soldiers in the field and use for manual labor, etc.--was now on the table, confusing many and infuriating others. And yet the whole debate was cloaked in such a supreme air of desperation that many politicians knew something drastic had to be done or the war would be lost.
In the House the topic dominated the day. Members of Congress reported on a conference of governors that had taken place in mid-October in which the chief executives of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi had concluded "under proper regulation, to appropriate such part of [the slaves] to the public service as may be required," not prohibiting their use as soldiers. They speculated, however, that "no exigency now exists nor is likely to occur in the military affairs of the Confederacy...which demands that negroes shall be used as soldiers." The following day Henry S. Foote resolved that arming slaves would be inexpedient, but that they should be used as laborers.
In the House, resolutions were introduced to give the president the opportunity to clarify his opposition to the emancipation of slaves under any conditions. If the public and the European powers got the impression that the government had the power to emancipate slaves, after all, it would be in no better a position than Abraham Lincoln and the United States government.
On November 10 (1864) the argument shifted and became murkier. Impressment of up to forty thousand slaves into the army, with prospective emancipation for faithful service, would require consent of the states, Congress concluded. Said a congressman,
"Some have claimed that our army is decreasing by death, disease, and desertion, but our president says it has not suffered half as much as has the Yankee army. President Davis, in his Macon Speech, said that two-thirds of the army is absent, and that this problem should be addressed by Congress, rather than in making plans to recruit negroes as soldiers. Do the gentlemen of the South propose to fight alongside negroes? Should the slaves be commingled with our brave white troops? The negro race has been ordained to slavery by the Almighty."
More to follow,
Unionblue
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"The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery." Frederick Douglass
"Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes." George Santayana
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