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"...The Confederate Congress had enacted that negro troops, captured, should be restored to their owners. We had several hundreds of such, taken by Forrest in Tennessee, whose owners could not be reached; and they were put to work on the fortifications at Mobile, rather for the purpose of giving them healthy employment than for the value of the work. I made it a point to visit their camps and inspect the quantity and quality of their food, always found to be satisfactory. On one occasion, while so engaged, a fine-looking negro, who seemed to be leader among his comrades, approached me and said: 'Thank you, Massa General, they give us plenty of good victuals; but how you like our work?' I replied that they had worked very well. 'If you will give us guns we will fight for these works, too. We would rather fight for our own white folks than for strangers.' "
Richard Taylor, Destruction and Reconstruction..., p.210
*
"Morning report of the Forrest captured negroes, February 4, 1865.
Aggregate February 3, 1865.................................... 806 Aggregate February 4, 1865.................................... 806
----
["Absent without leave".....shouldn't it read: escaped prisoner-]
Absent without leave............................................. 18 Sick in quarters.......................................... ........... 28 Sick in hospital.......................................... ............ 96
[Are there not any guards with these detachments?-]
Detached with Major Myers, chief of ordnance.............. 5 Detached with Doctor Sherard, Verona Hospital............. 9 Detached with Doctor Thompson, assistant surgeon....... 1 Detached with Doctor Newson, assistant surgeon.......... 1 Detached with Lt-Col Winder in charge picket-boats..... 47 Detached with torpedo-boat...................................... 1 Detached with steamer Piney Woods.......................... 20 Detached in commissary department.......................... 25 Detached in quartermaster's department..................... 58 Detached on steamer Le Baron, quartermaster's dept.... 12 Detached in Hospital Nott, general hospital................... 4 Detached in Hospital Ross, general hospital................. 10 Detached in Hospital Moore, general hospital............... 18 Detached in general hospital...................................... 6 Detached with Doctor Heard..................................... 12 Detached with Doctor Paine...................................... 15 Detached with Doctor Kelly......................................... 1 Detached with Captain Williams, fifer for company........... 1 Detached with Navy Department................................ 50
Total detached in other departments, sick, absent,&c....438
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Detached at Battery Huger...................................... 59 Detached with Leroy, Supt. at McIntosh and Gladden... 71 Detached at engineer workshops.............................. 11 Detached in wagon yard, taking care of stock.............. 2 Detached with P. McDonald, cart drivers.................... 11 Detached with Jas. Wilkins, engineer store-keeper......... 5 Detached with B. Wilson, carpenters on batteries......... 18 Detached as cooks and washers for negroes................ 41 Detached in office, commissary and yard boys............... 6 Detached with engineer tool keeper............................. 1 Present for duty on city intrenchments...................... 143
---- Total on engineer duty..................................... 368
"Report of the Forrest (captured) negroes at present employed at Mobile, Ala.
Absent without leave.................................29 Sick in quarters.......................................... 20 Sick in hospital.......................................... 85 ...quartermaster, commissary, ordnance, and medical departments.........................400 Employed on regular engineer duty...........291 Total............................................. ...........825
"Your New-York bankers and merchants are shrewd people, but I never gave them credit for so much sagacity as when they took the Government Loan. It was not merely patriotism, it was a high stroke of policy. It has saved the Government, and what they will regard as equally important, saved them from a great financial disaster."
The USCT(United States Colored Troops)...How many were Volunteers?
Re: post #61, revisionists can be hilarious sometimes. Gen. Taylor was probably less gullible than many present day Revisionists about giving guns to captured Union Soldiers, who also happend to be ex-slaves.
The North had few qualms about giving guns to ex-slaves, unfortunately, for the south, to do so would be a great risk.
Re: post #61, revisionists can be hilarious sometimes. Gen. Taylor was probably less gullible than many present day Revisionists about giving guns to captured Union Soldiers, who also happend to be ex-slaves.
The North had few qualms about giving guns to ex-slaves, unfortunately, for the south, to do so would be a great risk.
Not too long after this February 1865 snippet Battalion is trying to use, the Union assaulted and carried the fortifications at Mobile. The USCT troops in that assault are accused of torturing and murdering captured white Confederate troops. Personally, if I'd been General Taylor (a man who seems to have ben nobody's fool), I'd have thought those USCT POWs were kidding him.
Tim
__________________ "Let us, then, consider all attempts to weaken this Union, by maintaining that each state is separately and individually independent, as a species of political heresy, which can never benefit us, but may bring on us the most serious distresses."
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina, 1740-1824, Revolutionary War soldier, one of the authors of the US Constitution in 1787, speaking at the South Carolina Ratifying Convention in 1788.
The North had few qualms about giving guns to ex-slaves, unfortunately, for the south, to do so would be a great risk.
Really, then why were roughly 1/8th of Jackson's infantry at Chancellorsville negro troops? Why do so many CS nominal rolls have the word "colored" after a lot of the names?
It certainly seems that a good portion (maybe 10%) of the CS Army consisted of colored troops, either slaves or freemen (either way, it was the soldier in question, not a master that collected the 14 dollars a month). However, they're less visible as unlike the Federal Army, the colored troops were not collected into segregated regiments (at least until the very end)
Not too long after this February 1865 snippet Battalion is trying to use, the Union assaulted and carried the fortifications at Mobile. The USCT troops in that assault are accused of torturing and murdering captured white Confederate troops. Personally, if I'd been General Taylor (a man who seems to have ben nobody's fool), I'd have thought those USCT POWs were kidding him.
Tim
...but the additional info presented appears to back up what he says.
Otherwise shouldn't the "Forrest captured negroes" be in stockades under heavy guard?
__________________ POWER & MONEY
"Your New-York bankers and merchants are shrewd people, but I never gave them credit for so much sagacity as when they took the Government Loan. It was not merely patriotism, it was a high stroke of policy. It has saved the Government, and what they will regard as equally important, saved them from a great financial disaster."
The subject of Confederate soldiers has threads of its own and technically doesn't belong on this one. However, since it's related and might jog the original thread back into life, let's take a look at it.
Quote:
Really, then why were roughly 1/8th of Jackson's infantry at Chancellorsville negro troops?
If you can say there were, then you read the information in a reliable source. If you'll oblige me with a source, I'd like to read it as well.
Quote:
Why do so many CS nominal rolls have the word "colored" after a lot of the names?
Why do so many of those labelled "colored" have the occupation listed as cook, teamster, musician or pioneer? This is not to claim that there were no colored Confederates -- obviously, there were some, and maybe even quite a few. It remains that Confederate law forbade enlisting men of color. As laws are largely ignored unless enforced, it logical to assume that unit commanders did whatever they pleased. The problem I have with the claim of thousands of colored Confederates is the lack of letters, diaries, Federal reports and memoires mentioning coloreds in the opposition.
Quote:
It certainly seems that a good portion (maybe 10%) of the CS Army consisted of colored troops, either slaves or freemen (either way, it was the soldier in question, not a master that collected the 14 dollars a month). However, they're less visible as unlike the Federal Army, the colored troops were not collected into segregated regiments (at least until the very end).
The test of the statement would be in the pay records which are unfortunately somewhat rare. Most certainly there were coloreds travelling with both armies in the roles of servants, cooks, teamsters and laborers -- probably with a larger proportion in the Confederate service. Although an enlisted man could be a teamster or musician, I generally figure that if he were issued a weapon or a uniform, he was a soldier.
Again, visit early and often. Join the fun.
ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
The USCT(United States Colored Troops)...How many were Volunteers?
Please 67th Tigers, the question of Colored troops in the Confederate Armed Forces (and their numbers) has already been discussed fairly thoroughly, in other threads. It would be better if you would read through them before citing erroneous or false sources of information, especially if you are assuming your above, statements are meant to be new information, not discussed before on this board.
Do you really believe, Jackson's Corps was more than 12% black, slave or otherwise? Do you really believe that Lee's army had over 5,000 blacks in the ranks of the ANV?
...but the additional info presented appears to back up what he says.
Otherwise shouldn't the "Forrest captured negroes" be in stockades under heavy guard?
1) you have no idea what conditions they were held under.
2) many Confederates simply appear to have used them as recaptured slaves, with all the ability to punish implied
Tim
__________________ "Let us, then, consider all attempts to weaken this Union, by maintaining that each state is separately and individually independent, as a species of political heresy, which can never benefit us, but may bring on us the most serious distresses."
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina, 1740-1824, Revolutionary War soldier, one of the authors of the US Constitution in 1787, speaking at the South Carolina Ratifying Convention in 1788.
Do you really believe, Jackson's Corps was more than 12% black, slave or otherwise? Do you really believe that Lee's army had over 5,000 blacks in the ranks of the ANV?
First hand accounts speak of 3,000 armed negros in Jackson's raid of May 1862, and the article in the New York Times notes that all the negros in the areas of the Shenandoah he passed through were enlisted into the CS Army.
Anyway, yes, I do believe that, since the accounts of the time plainly state it, black ANV veterans are recorded as attending reunions and drawing pensions for their CS service.
you have no idea what conditions they were held under.
Tim
You mean we're not going to believe Richard Taylor?...and what the records show?
__________________ POWER & MONEY
"Your New-York bankers and merchants are shrewd people, but I never gave them credit for so much sagacity as when they took the Government Loan. It was not merely patriotism, it was a high stroke of policy. It has saved the Government, and what they will regard as equally important, saved them from a great financial disaster."
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