Black Confederates at the Siege of Spanish Fort (Mobile Campaign 1865)

[Battalion]

Official Records, Series One, Volume 49, Part 2

p.1174
MARCH 29, 1865.
General LIDDELL, Blakely:
I have 2,688 total present; aggregate present, 2,888; number of guns, 2,325; 24 public and 10 private negroes. Our casualties up to this evening are 30 killed, 119 wounded, and 1 missing.
R. L. GIBSON,
Brigadier-General.
http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-b...F&pagenum=1174

*

p.1194
HEADQUARTERS,
Spanish Fort, April 3, 1865.
General MAURY:
We have been mortar-shelled all night, and there is some musketry at different points this morning. I never saw such digging as the enemy does. He is fast converting his advanced skirmish line into his main line. He is also erecting a heavy battery upon his extreme left and upon his extreme right flank. Can you spare me some picks?
I would like to have 200 good negroes with tools to work. Every man of this force has been up all night. Be certain to send our supply of wooden embrasures, iron screens, and the heavy gun.
R. L. GIBSON,
Brigadier-General.
(Same to General Liddell.)


HEADQUARTERS,
Spanish Fort, April 3, 1865-9 a. m.
General MAURY:
Is there no chance to get the gun-boat?
Can I get 100 negroes with 50 axes and 50 picks?
R. L. GIBSON,
Brigadier-General.

*

p.1200
HEADQUARTERS,
Spanish Fort, April 4, 1865-11 a. m.
General MAURY:
The 20-pounder Parrott arrived late last night, and negroes.
Other things yet to come. Glad to get mortars. Nothing of interest. All well.
R. L. GIBSON,
Brigadier-General.

*

p.1204-1205
HEADQUARTERS,
Spanish Fort, April 5, 1865-1.30 p. m.
General MAURY:
Can't you take a look at my lines to-morrow? I sincerely hope you will do so. I have not a single man to use on launches. I can't spare one from the main lines. My men are wider apart then they ever were and the enemy in large force, more active, and closer. Can you send me two light howitzers?

To defend the place you must let me have the axes and negroes.
Have you any negro troops? I would be glad to get some.

All's well. The gun-boat don't come. It would be of immense service in Apalachee River.
R. L. GIBSON,
Brigadier-General.
http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-b...F&pagenum=1204

*

p.1205
HEADQUARTERS,
Spanish Fort, April 5, 1865-3 p. m.
General Maury:
If I can't get howitzer I will take mountain howitzers.

I will make good soldiers of all the negroes you send me, provided I have axes and spades.

I am economizing all ammunition and secure all the enemy gives. All's well. Hope to see you to-morrow.
R. L. GIBSON,
Brigadier-General.
http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-b...F&pagenum=1205

*

p.1217
HEADQUARTERS,
Spanish Fort, April 8, 1865-12.25 a. m.
Major-General MAURY:
Enemy very active on his parallels all day in front of Battery 4, and is drawing quite close. He is beginning some zigzags on other points. His artillery is so much more powerful than ours, and his lines so well protected, that we cannot use ours to arrest his progress.
Hand-grenades, howitzers, and negroes arrived.
Will send off all surplus articles.
R. L. GIBSON,
Brigadier-General.

*

"According to the Confederate commander, most of the officers' servants actively participated in the defense."
(Report of Gen. Randall Lee Gibson, April 16, 1865, Randall Lee Gibson Papers, Mss. 2402, 2412, 2423, Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections, Louisiana State University Libraries, Baton Rouge.)

"One Union soldier wrote that 'nearly half the cannoners were negroes,'
(Jas. K. Newton to "Mother," April 2, 1865, Abel D. Newton Papers, Wis Mss FW, SHSW.)

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articl..._n8957026/pg_3


Gibson's report of the evacuation of the fort-

"...The guns were ordered to be spiked, and time was allowed for this purpose; the few remaining stores were issued; the sick and wounded were carefully removed; the infirmary corps and several hundred negroes who arrived that evening to be employed in the defense, and, finally, in good order, the whole garrison was withdrawn....

The losses reported up to the evacuation were 73 killed, 350 wounded, and about half a dozen missing. I have not been able to get the exact number of casualties on the evening of the evacuation. I estimate our loss to have been about 20 killed and 45 wounded, and 250 captured, making a total loss of 93 killed, 395 wounded, and 250 missing, out of a force of less than 2,000 men, contending for two weeks against two corps d'armee and a large fleet, with over seventy-five cannon on land and nearly as many on water...."
http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-b...IF&pagenum=317

They were evacuated to Fort Blakely and then ordered to Mobile.

Outnumbered 10-to-1 (no exaggeration) they held out for 13 days (27 March-8April).

*****


Fort Blakely

...at a fight going on at the same time at Fort Blakely (only a few miles north of Spanish Fort) a report of prisoners captured shows over 10% were black-

Official Records, Series One, Volume 49, Part 2
p.299
HDQRS. FIRST DIVISION, THIRTEENTH ARMY CORPS,
Before Blakely, Ala., April 9, 1865.

Captain F. W. EMERY,
Assistant Adjutant-General, Thirteenth Army Corps:
CAPTAIN: The prisoners captured by my command that have been thus far reported number 255 white and 34 colored, 19 of whom are commissioned officers, ranking as follows: One colonel, 2 lieutenant-colonels, 1 regimental adjutant, 1 adjutant-general (General Cockrell's staff), 1 inspector-general, 1 ordnance officer, 12 captains and subalterns.

I am, captain, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
JAMES C. VEATCH,
Brigadier-General, Commanding
http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-b...IF&pagenum=299

[unionblue]

Battalion,

Interesting post. But by April 1865, one would have to consider the Confederate military situation quite desperate in the needs of manpower, hence the reaching out at such a late date for the military services of black slaves.

Do you have anything earlier of blacks serving the Confederate cause from the Offical Records?

Unionblue

[whitworth]

Pick and axe slaves were not considered Confederate soldiers. The Confederacy impressed slaves early in the war to work on fortifications. These were never considered soldiers. The numbers of negroes in the Union army, far outnumbered the impressed slaves, used for work on Confederate fortifications.

There is much information in the OR's concerning the negative attitude of Confederate leaders on the use of slaves for Confederate soldiers.

Why would even an uneducated slave come to believe that the Confederate States of America, which guaranteed the right of its citizens to own slaves, come to the conclusion that the CSA was in the best interest of negroes living in the South?

[Battalion]

Originally Posted by whitworth

Pick and axe slaves were not considered Confederate soldiers. The Confederacy impressed slaves early in the war to work on fortifications. These were never considered soldiers. The numbers of negroes in the Union army, far outnumbered the impressed slaves, used for work on Confederate fortifications.

There is much information in the OR's concerning the negative attitude of Confederate leaders on the use of slaves for Confederate soldiers.

General Maury (commanding Confederate Department of the Gulf) had no such objections.

Earlier in the war he had tried to raise a company (or companies) of mullatoes to use as artillerists.
The Confederate War Dept. denied his request.

But the situation changed.

The Confederate Congress authorized negro troops on 13 March 1865.

*


Please explain these two communications-

p.1204-1205
HEADQUARTERS,
Spanish Fort, April 5, 1865-1.30 p. m.
General MAURY:
Can't you take a look at my lines to-morrow? I sincerely hope you will do so. I have not a single man to use on launches. I can't spare one from the main lines. My men are wider apart then they ever were and the enemy in large force, more active, and closer. Can you send me two light howitzers?

To defend the place you must let me have the axes and negroes.
Have you any negro troops? I would be glad to get some.

All's well. The gun-boat don't come. It would be of immense service in Apalachee River.
R. L. GIBSON,
Brigadier-General.
http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-b...F&pagenum=1204

*

p.1205
HEADQUARTERS,
Spanish Fort, April 5, 1865-3 p. m.
General Maury:
If I can't get howitzer I will take mountain howitzers.

I will make good soldiers of all the negroes you send me, provided I have axes and spades *.

I am economizing all ammunition and secure all the enemy gives. All's well. Hope to see you to-morrow.
R. L. GIBSON,
Brigadier-General.
http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-b...F&pagenum=1205


* During the siege Gibson (commander of the fort) stressed the idea that everyone- white as well as black -should have tools to dig with.

[unionblue]

Battalion,

No one argues by 1865 in the messages you indicate in your posts that the Confederate military had become so desperate as to reverse it's long standing policy NOT to use slaves or free blacks as SOLDIERS (not for labor, teamsters, servants, cooks, etc.).

I am at present reading a book entitled Confederate Emancipation; Southern Plans To Free And Arm Slaves During The Civil War, by Bruce Levine.

From what I have read so far, this is not going to turn out to anything that will support the issue that the Confederacy acted solely in desperation during the last part of the war to enlist slaves as gun-carrying soldiers.

I'll let you know as soon as I am finished with the book.

Sincerely,
Unionblue

[larry_cockerham]

Neil, I have a couple of photos that show black confederate veterans in both Union and Confederate units. We know about Forrest's drivers and several other isolated (that could be the key word before this is over) accounts of black confederates in one role or another. I think I'll take your challenge to see if I can get a resonable inventory of Confederate black soldiers. I'm interested, it just may take a while.

[unionblue]

Larry,

No problem, take your time as I am curious about this part of civil war history also.

Sincerely,
Unionblue

[johan_steele]

Larry, as a jumpstart to your self appointed task there was a website that listed all of the Black Men who had applied for State Pensions... IIRC there was something like 400 names on the list. I believe Thea might have linked to the site in one of our earlier conversations on Black Confederates.

www.37thtexas.org might have something as well.

Good Luck

[larry_cockerham]

I don't think you're going to find as many black "soldiers" in South Carolina as many of the other states because of the fact more South Carolina blacks were slaves because of the large rice plantations. I'm thinking Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas and Kentucky, maybe Virginia would have had more freedmen and better attitudes than the South Carolina regiments?

[Buffalo-Guard]

Some War Department officials were considerably surprised a few days ago while compiling the list of soldiers who served during the civil war, to discover that a regiment of negroes had been mustered into the Confederate service from New Orleans, says a New Orleans correspondent of the New York [Times?].
This discovery has been described as bringing to light a forgotten incident of civil war history.
There has been especial comment on the fact that the Confederate States should have enlisted negro soldiers first, and nearly a year ahead of the United States.
It is, of course, well known that the Confederate Cabinet during the last years of the war, seriously discussed the advisability of arming the negro slaves and enlisting them to drive back the Northern invaders, the slaves to be rewarded with freedom for their services. Mr. Davis is said to have favored the plan, which was proposed only when the outlook for the Confederacy was desperate, and to have abandoned it, not because he distrusted the negroes, but because it was pointed out that to take them from the farms would be to deprive the South of its food supply.
But although the war department has dug up this interesting and forgotten fact of the organization of a negro Confederate regiment, it has succeeded in collecting very little information on the subject. It has found, for instance[,] the roll of but a single company, commanded by Louis Lainez, and it has been unable to get any definite information even as to that company.
It is not possible to give all the story of this regiment, for much of it has been lost in time, but as far as it goes it is interesting, and especially interesting just now in view of the attention being given throughout the country to the relations of the whites and the negroes. It will throw some light on these relations during the period of slavery. . .
There is little reason to doubt that the colored men who organized a regiment intended to fight for the Confederate cause. Had they done so, had they been allowed to do so, it would not only have been a curious incident, but it might have had important effects. Thus Jefferson Davis might have conceived the idea of arming the negroes at the beginning of the Civil War instead of near the end of the struggle, when it was too late.
The Native Guards, however, were treated with a scant courtesy that killed any enthusiasm they might have felt for the Confederate cause. They were sworn in and mustered out of the service and called back again only in the last few desperate days before the capture of the City by Farragut's fleet.
Four months after his occupation of the City, Butler took up the work where the Confederates had dropped it. He saw the possibility of utilizing the free men of color who had some military education and discipline and on August 2, 1862 [sic] he issued an order calling on all members of the Native Guards to enlist in the service of the United States.
None of the men who had taken prominent part in the organization of this regiment in the Confederate service re-enlisted on the other side, but some of the rank and file did. The First Louisiana Native Guards was organized with Lieutenant Colonel Bassett in command and with all other officers colored. The regiment fought with courage and distinction at Port Hudson, where one of the captains, Andre Caillioux [sic], lost his life, and became a hero of the negro troops.
Nor did the colored men who took part in the organization of the negro regiment for the Confederate service have any share in the organization of the Republican party in Louisiana, and in the period of Reconstruction, and it is unfortunate for the negroes that they did not. They were men of property, many of them of education, and they might have led their people in a much better cause than the negro gamblers, bootblacks, barbers and stable boys who joined the Carper- baggers to install the horrors of Reconstruction.
The freemen of color would never have permitted the excesses which followed for they were generally friendly to the whites. Only one of the organizers and officers of the Confederate Native Guards, Arnold Bertonneau, took part in post-bellum politics. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of April 1868, which gave Louisiana its first Reconstruction Constitution.
The military spirit of the negroes died out with the Civil War. Even during Republican days no success was met with in organizing a negro militia. Under Democratic regime several negro militia companies were organized, the last survival being a company named in honor of General Beauregard's son-in-law. A few years ago the Militia Act passed by the Louisiana Legislature suppressed the independent companies and got rid of the negro militia. Thus it is that while Louisiana had militia companies during all the days of slavery, when one of its negro regiments fought bravely during the war of 1812 and another offered its services in the Southern cause in the Civil War, today with all the negroes free, there is no negro military organization of any kind