Black Confederates

[ole]

There was no stipulation on freedom for slaves, who served the Confederate army. Why would a slave, in any numbers, fight for the Confederacy.

But there were some. Johan Steele maintains about 1400. Why were they on the line with a gun? Who knows? But it is significant that there were dang few.

So give the cornfeds their coup that there were some. An individual might have been fighting alongside Massa Johnnie, or he might have genuinely believed that he was protecting his turf. How much does it really matter?

ole

[gary]

Why would a slave fight without promise of freedom? Prof. Erwin Jordan explains it in his book, Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia. Patriotism and love for one's native land. Some were loyal to their masters too and wanted adventure. Prof. Jordan's book is an excellent read (and I wish he had the time and resources to give all the other states the same treatment).

[larry_cockerham]

Ole asked the question: How much does it really matter?

The answer to that varies in respect to the respondent. To me, personally, it really didn't matter all that much. Many nationalities and ethnic groups fought in the civil war. The Germans and the Italians, Melungeons, my redneck ancestors, southern and northern blacks; all were part of this horrendous struggle.

Compatriot H. K. Edgerton, he of black ancestry, takes considerable pride that his ancestor fought in the Confederate Army and that he was born in the South. I can understand the Southern part; I've met a few yankees from New York, my cousins are good examples, who are just that; yankees. Bad attitudes, living in town, too much prosperity for good sense and having to struggle in communities with other folks in the same predicament.

Thank God I was born in the southern Appalachians. Not so much strife and a considerable amount of kindness and respect all around, including our few black neighbors who were a positive part of our small community, equal if not superior. Their heritage is important to them. They were part of the struggle for our nation to survive and they certainly did their part.

My ancestors who fought in the Army of the Tennessee, Union, were trying to protect their version of the nation they loved and which their ancestors had wrestled from the British and the Cherokee. Many black southerners had families who had been around since 1619 and were Virginians pretty much the same as my folks who were there as well. Lots of conflicts, as we all know, and lots of links in a more positive sense. Civil war was hell. This one certainly was.

Southern free blacks fought both for the nation they hoped to love as well as their current one. Their level of emotional and political involvement perhaps varied a bit in proportion to their ability to understand and communicate their position, a fact that was just as true for white Confederates.

Blacks in the Confederacy were indeed a small percentage, but an equally important one.

[gary]

I was looking for something else when I came across this. I recall seeing something in Harper's Illustrated about blacks serving as cannoneers. However, they were unwilling and doing it a gunpoint. Berdan's Sharp Shooters shot them down anyhow. Concerning this particular article, I won't comment on it other than I'd like to see substantiation from other accounts.

NASHVILLE DAILY UNION, May 7, 1862, p. 3, c. 4
Let the Rebels of Tennessee who have been telling the people that the United States would arm the slaves read this and blush if a blush can crimson their brazen faces:

Negroes Uniformed and in Arms.

Two miles and a quarter below Yorktown are three rebel forts, on the west side of the Warwick river—in front of one of them Lieutenant Wagoner, of Philadelphia, was killed. Our artillery have shelled them out a number of times, and an encampment in the rear has been so riddled that their barracks have been deserted. They have in these three forts six guns—two in the left one, three in the centre, and one on the right. The dam of the Warwick river runs in front, preventing them from coming over or our pickets from reaching them. The artillery, however, make it so hot that they cannot stay in the forts. In the centre one can be seen, every day, from two to three hundred negroes, with red coats, gray pants and slouch hats, strengthen the work with sand bags, digging ditches, etc. Whenever they dare to come out to fire their artillery, which is simply field artillery, these negroes ram home the [scratch in film] with which white men then fire at the hearts of our soldiers. Any one who doubts that the rebels are fighting side by side with their slaves, can be convinced at any hour of the day by going up to the edge of the woods, about twelve hundred yards in front of their works. With the aid of any ordinary glass, the matter can be put beyond room for a doubt.

NASHVILLE DAILY UNION, February 19, 1863, p. 4, c. 1
Negroes Fighting in the Ranks of
the Rebels.
The following letter containing facts of much interest to the public, is printed by the author's permission in the Washington Republican of yesterday:
"Washington, D. C. Feb. 2, 1863.
"Hon. William Whiting, Solicitor of the War Department"
"Dear Sir: While at Yorktown, soon after its evacuation by the rebels, I was informed that during the siege the guns in those fortifications were manned and served by negroes, who were recognized as soldiers in the rebel army.
"A few days subsequently at West Point, the day after the fight at that place, I was informed by some of our officers and men engaged n that fight that during the engagement our forces encountered a full company of negroes, armed and equipped, serving in the rebel army; that said negro soldiers drove a portion of our forces into a swamp and deliberately cut the throats of our officers and men, and that our troops caught one of these negroes with a commission in his pocket for a lieutenancy in the rebel army signed by Jeff. Davis."At Mechanicsville a full regiment of blacks was seen under drill, in full view of our lines, for several days.
"The above facts are well known and often spoken of. All this, if true, shows conclusively that there does not seem to be any nice question with Davis as to the equality of blacks, such at least as is now raised in Congress by his friends on the same question.
"Yours truly,
"Thos. W. Beardslee."
We have evidence also that negroes are enlisted in the rebel army, and paid as white soldiers are, and the man who gives this evidence is a captain in the rebel army. Read the following advertisement from the Georgia Constitutionalist:
$30 Reward.
Deserted from Company A, 29th Georgia Regiment, stationed at Dawton Battery, on Savannah River, John Rose, 22 years of age, about 5 feet 7 inches in height, complexion a brown black. He is a free negro and an excellent drummer. Was enlisted October 16th, 1861, and deserted November 13th, 1862. He is at present concealed in Savannah.
W. H. Billapp,
Captain Commanding Dawton Battery.

[larry_cockerham]

Some of us alive now and many of our ancestors haven't exactly treated black folks with the best of intentions in the past. Perhaps that's why they aren't all happy today?

[ole]

In the centre one can be seen, every day, from two to three hundred negroes, with red coats, gray pants and slouch hats, strengthen the work with sand bags, digging ditches, etc.

Clearly laborers.

Whenever they dare to come out to fire their artillery, which is simply field artillery, these negroes ram home the [scratch in film] with which white men then fire at the hearts of our soldiers. [emphasis, mine]

At first it wasn't clear to whom "they" and "there" referred, as the previous sentence referred to the laborers. But now it appears that the Rebs were having their laborers expose themselves by doing the swabbing, loading and ramming.

Any one who doubts that the rebels are fighting side by side with their slaves, can be convinced at any hour of the day by going up to the edge of the woods, about twelve hundred yards in front of their works. With the aid of any ordinary glass, the matter can be put beyond room for a doubt.

I wonder what can be seen from 1200 yards that might prove that rebels were were fighiting side by side with their slaves? Unless the fighting was still going on when this dispatch was received.

ole

[Dred]

I don't see anythign in that article that suggests "They were unwilling and doing it at gunpoint". The fire they were being subjected to in that paragraph is coming from the opposing army that is merely taking out the canoneers. I see no evidence that the Rebs were forcing them at gunpoint.

[gary]

Dred - the gunpoint was an article I read in Harper's Illustrated Weekly. The observor watched through a scope and reported that Berdan's Sharp Shooters killed both. It is somewhat by one of the sharpshooter accounts where the Berdan men saw blacks loading a gun and shooting them down anyway.

Ole - thanks for your comments on the article.

[matthew mckeon]

Guys,
A little skepticism is in order. A newspaper from Nashville, hundreds of miles from Virginia, publishes a account of things seen distantly through a telescope.

[samgrant]

I'll venture a contrary idea here.

I don't think that it is necessarily so that all slaves hated their masters, nor do I think that all masters mistreated their slaves (other than that fact of holding them in that state of ownership).

I profoundly do not prescribe to the idea that slavery was an ideal benevolent condition for the Negro, as is claimed.

I imagine (and we are all imagining these things going back on bits and pieces of contrary evidence) that even within one slaveholders 'family', some slaves were more loyal and more favored by the master than others, and perhaps some of these would have fought along side their masters somehow as a matter of defending their 'family' (that is inclusive of the master's family).

I don't expect this was common, but I would not expect that all participation of the Negros, on behalf of the Southerners, however uncommon, was because they were under duress.

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