George Washington Williams (1849-1891), the first major American historian of African descent, and a Union veteran, said: "From the earliest dawn of the war the rebel authorities did not frown upon the action of local authorities in placing arms into the hands of free Negroes." (George Washington Williams, "History Of The Negro Race In America From 1619 To 1880, New York: GP Putnam's Sons, 1882, p.278)
A letter by Frank Bailey, 34th New York Volunteer Infantry, dated May 12, 1862, housed in the manuscript collections of Navarro College in Corsicana, Texas, states: "There is no mistake but the rebels have black soldiers for I have seen them brought in as prisoners of war. I saw one who had the stripes of a orderly sergeant on his coat."
In the reference work "North Carolina Troops", Volume I, the following Blacks are recorded by Union forces and identified (as Negroes) among the Confederates captured at Fort Fisher, NC , January 15, 1865:
Charles Dempsey, Private, Co. F, 36th NC Regiment (2nd NC Artillery)
Henry Dempsey, Private, " " " " " " "
J. Doyle, Private, Co. E, 40th NC Regiment, (3rd NC Artillery)
November 1, 1862 Evansville, Indiana Daily Journal: "Now the news comes to us that seven regiments of negroes have been drilled by the rebel authorities to man their fortifications in North and South Carolina...seven regiments (7000)of negroes, armed and equipped, had arrived at Wilmington,NC to occupy the various rebel fortresses..."
May 1, 1863 Winchester, Indiana Journal, in a letter by James G. Bates to his father: "I can assure you (Father)of a certainty, that the rebels have negro soldiers in their army. One of their best sharpshooters, and the boldest of them all here is a negro. He dug himself a rifle pit last night (April 16, 1863)just across the river and has been annoying our pickets opposite him very much today. You can see him plain enough with the naked eye, occasionally, to make sure that he is a 'wooly-head', and with a spy glass there is no mistaking him."
Official Records, Ser. I, Vol. XVI, part 1, page 805, Lt.Col. Parkhurst's report (Ninth Michigan Infantry), on Forrest's attack at Murfreesboro, TN, July 13, 1862: "There were also quite a number of negroes attached to the Texas and Georgia troops, who were armed and equipped, and took part in the several engagements with my forces during the day."
Official Records, Ser. I, Vol. 15, part 1, pp. 137-138, report of the Union commander: "Pickets were thrown out that night, and Captain Hennessy, Company E, of the Ninth Connecticut, having been sent out with his company, captured a colored rebel scout, well mounted, who had been sent out to watch our movements."
Official Records, Ser. I, Vol. XLIX, part II, pg. 253, April 6, 1865: "The rebels (Forrest) are recruiting negro troops at Enterprise, Miss.,and the negroes are all enrolled in the state."
Official Records, Ser. I, Vol. XIV, pg. 24, second paragraph, Colonel B.C. Christ, 50th Pennsylvania Infantry, report of May 30, 1862, regarding
CSA forces opposing him at Pocotaligo, SC: "It is also difficult to state the force of the enemy, but it could not have been less than from 600 to 800. There were six companies of mounted riflemen, besides infantry, among which were a considerable number of colored men."
Official Records, Ser. II, Vol. VI, part 1, pp.17-18: "before one single negro or mulatto was mustered into the U.S. service you had them organized in arms in Louisiana. You had Indians and half-breed negroes and Indians organized in arms under Albert Pike, in Arkansas. Subsequently, negroes were captured on the battle field at Antietam and delivered as prisoners of war at Aiken's Landing to the Confederate authorities, and receipted for and counted in exchange."
Official Records, Vol. XIII, Chapter XXV, pg. 688: "We are not likely to use one negro where the rebels have used a thousand. When I left Arkansas they were still enrolling negroes to fortify the rebellion." (Sept. 1862)
Official Records, Correspondence, Etc., Vol. XIX, Chapter XXXI, pg. 617, Record of the Harper's Ferry Military Commission (US Army):
Q: Do you know of any individual of the enemy having been killed or wounded during the siege of Harper's Ferry?
A: I have strong reasons to believe that there was a negro killed, who had wounded 2 or 3 of my men. I know that an officer took deliberate aim at him, and he fell over. He was one of the skirmishers of the enemy, and wounded 3 of my men. I know there must have been some of the enemy killed.
Q: How do you know the negro was killed?
A: The officer saw him fall.
Official Records, Ser. I, Vol. IV, p. 569, Report of Colonel John W. Phelps, First Vermont Infantry, Camp Butler, Newport News, Va., August 11, 1861: "They had twenty pieces of artillery, among which was the Richmond Howeitzer Battery, manned by negroes ...Their numbers are probably overrated; but with regard to their artillery,and its being manned in part by negroes, I think the report is probably correct."
Official Records, Ser. 1, Vol. 35, pt. 1, pp. 442-443, Report of Brig. Gen. Asboth (USA): "We pursued them closely for 7 miles, and captured 4 privates of Goldsby's (Alabama cavalry) company and 3 colored men, mounted and armed, with 7 horses and 5 mules with equipments, and 20 Austrian rifles."
Official Records, Ser. I, Vol. XVII, Chapter XXIX, Report of Brig. Gen.
D. Stuart,(USA), December 28, 1863; pp. 635-637: "It had to be prosecuted under the fire of the enemy's sharpshooters, protected as well as the men might be by our skirmishers on the bank, who were ordered to keep up so vigorous a fire that the enemy should notdare to lift their heads above their rifle pits; but the enemy, and especially their armed negroes, did dare to rise and fire, and did serious execution upon our men."
Official Records, Ser. I, Vol. III, Correspondence, etc., pp. 767-768; Cambridge, September 4, 1863. To his Excellency, A. Lincoln, President of the United States:
"...excitement here growing out of the recruiting of colored troops, and as some of the recruiting officers are acting rather indiscreetly, I fear, by taking slaves in their recruits, and the slaves of loyal as well as disloyal persons, to enlist slaves as well as free people is creating a great deal of anxiety among the people...we ought to use the colored people, after the rebels commenced to use them against us."
"Civil War Curiosities", by Webb Garrison (1994, Rutledge Hill Press, p. 107): "Like some of their counterparts in the North, a few Southern officers made unofficial and irregular use of Black soldiers. From start to finish, an estimated four hundred of them served in the Eighteenth Virginia and other units raised in the state."
"Into The Fight - Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg", by John Michael Priest, White Mane Books (1998), pp. 128,130-131: "Color Corporal George B. Powell (14th Tennessee) went down during the advance. The colors of the 14th Tennessee got within fifty feet of the east wall before Boney Smith (Black) hit the dirt, wounded. Jabbing the flagstaff in the ground, he momentarily urged the regiment forward until the intense pressure forced the men to lie down to save their lives."
July 24, 1863 "New York Herald": "Among the rebel prisoners who were marched through Gettysburg there were observed seven negroes in uniform and fully accoutred as soldiers."
In the 1889 book "The Pictoial Book of Anecdotes and Incidents of the Rebellion", p.319, by Frazier Kirkland, a collection of Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), is a lengthy story of a Negro rifleman (Confederate)brought down at Yorktown.
March 12, 1863 "Indianapolis Daily Evening Gazette", in reference to a March 5, 1863 fight around Thompson's Station, Tennessee, the correspondent from the 85th Indiana Vol. Infantry reported "It has been stated, repeatedly, for two weeks past, that a large number, perhaps one-fourth, of Van Dorn's force were negro soldiers..."
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