The Black Confederate

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By now most people know something about the black troops who fought in the Union Army. But have you heard of the Black/Afro-Americans who fought for the Confederacy?

One hundred thirty-three years after the War, an African-American Scholar observed: "When you eliminate the black Confederate soldier, you've eliminated the history of the South…we share a common heritage with white Southerners who recall that era.

The story of a Black Confederate re-enactor
The Free Lance-Star
Date published: 6/30/2002
ROCKVILLE--In the Hanover County woods where men in blue and men in gray are shooting at each other, it's all noise and smoke and stink. Across a field there's cannon fire so loud it resets your heartbeat for you. Horses whicker, and men shout. Fog-thick gunpowder smoke gives off a rotten-egg reek. For Confederate Pvt. Casey of the 6th North Carolina State Troop, a Civil War re-enactment unit, the conflict is all external.
In real life, the Rebel private is Maj. Willie Levi Casey Jr. of the U.S. Army--a tasty bit of irony if you're looking for it. But Casey sees no irony at all in re-enacting as a 19th-century soldier in gray and being a 21st-century African-American. Casey, a 40-year-old resident of Spotsylvania County's Chancellor area, is a Southerner by birth and proud of it by choice.
He's been re-enacting since 1997 and was welcomed as a full member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans Matthew Fontaine Maury Camp No. 1722 two years ago. It all makes sense, he said, if you view the Civil War not as a textbook struggle between good and evil, but as the nuanced conflict it truly was. "Look at the mentality of a black person in the South" at the time of the Civil War, Casey said. That person's ancestors might have been living in the South for 150 years before the war. In such a case, he said, "You may be a Southerner by force, but you are a Southerner."
Historians have long held that black Southerners, free or slave, did not serve the Confederacy as soldiers, but worked instead as teamsters, laborers, cooks and personal servants. If those black men took up weapons in battle, this official version of history goes, it was because of circumstances and self-defense, not because they believed in the Southern cause. But recent scholarly works--many by African-American academics--have alleged a historical understatement and even a cover-up of blacks' real participation.
Casey, who earned a degree in history from Presbyterian College in South Carolina, said his reading over the past few years leads him to believe that tens of thousands of blacks, slave and free, fought for the Confederacy. Their motivation, he believes, was not to support slavery but to support what they saw as their country--the South--and to improve their own lot in life. "You would fight to gain status. Because you know that even if you lose, you're still one of the brothers in arms," Casey said. "You're fighting to make your life better." Casey's persona as a re-enactor is a free black cabinetmaker from eastern Tennessee, able to read and write, with a wife and a child at home. But he has a real-life link to the Confederacy as well--one he always vaguely knew about but pinned down only in recent years.
Casey grew up in Cross Anchor, S.C., in the 1960s and '70s. It was an area full of Caseys, black and white. He and his siblings knew they had a white great-grandfather, a man who had never married their American Indian/African-American great-grandmother even though they had six children together. A family photo of the couple's son Barney Casey shows a bulky man in overalls with lank gray hair and white skin. He's Willie Casey's grandfather.
Willie Casey was well into adulthood when he decided to research the white side of his family. In the course of his genealogical effort he came across the Civil War record of one Pvt. Martin Luther Casey, a South Carolina soldier killed in 1862. That man was the older brother of Casey's great-grandfather. Being a collateral relative of a Civil War soldier qualified Casey for membership in the SCV. He's twice been elected aide-de-camp of the local group. His acceptance into the organization doesn't surprise him. "Most people will welcome you according to how you treat them," he said. The SCV denounces racism and has vehemently fought the usurpation of the Confederate battle flag by the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups. "These are guys who are trying to remember their ancestors in a positive manner," he said. And that's what he wants to do, too. Still, Casey is often asked to explain himself--not to his fellow re-enactors or SCV members, but to people who just can't understand where he's coming from. "People say to me, 'Do you support slavery?'" he said. "I say, 'No. I support preserving Southern history and telling it the way it is.'"


General Lee's opinion on arming the slaves
In 1865, three months before the end of the Civil War, Hon. Andrew Hunter wrote a letter to General Robert E. Lee. Andrew Hunter, of Charlestown, had previously been Governor Wise's special prosecutor in the trial of John Brown for his raid on Harpers Ferry and was familiar with Lee's role in Brown's capture. From the context of Lee's reply, we can only surmise the questions asked by Hunter.

Head Quarters A. N. Va
11th Jany 1865
Hon Andrew Hunter
Richmond, Va

Dear Sir: I have received your letter of the 7th inst; and without confining myself to the order of your interrogatories, will endeavour to answer them by a statement of my views on the subject. I should be most happy, if I can contribute to the solution of a question in which I feel an interest commensurate with my desire for the welfare and happiness of our people. Considering the relation of master and slave, controlled by human laws, and influenced by Christianity and enlightened public sentiment, as the best that can exist between the white & black races, which intermingled as at present in this country, I would deprecate any sudden disturbance of that relation unless it be necessary to avert a greater calamity to both. I should therefore prefer to rely upon our white population to preserve the ratio between our forces and those of the enemy, which experience has shown to be safe. But in view of the preparations of our enemy, it is our duty to provide for continued war, and not for a battle, or a campaign, & I fear we cannot accomplish this without overtaxing the capacity of our white population. Should the war continue under existing circumstances, the enemy may in course of time penetrate our country, and get access to a large part of our negro population. It is his avowed policy to convert the able bodied men among them into soldiers, and emancipate all. The success of the Federal arms in the South was followed by a Proclamation of President Lincoln for 280,000 men, the effect of which will be to stimulate the Northern States to procure substitutes for their own people from the negroes thus brought within their reach. Many have already been obtained in Virginia, and should the future of war expose more of her territory, the enemy will gain a large accession to his strength. His people will thus add to his numbers, and at the same time destroy slavery in a manner most pernicious to the welfare of our people. These negroes will be used to hold them in subjection, leaving the remaining forces of the enemy free to extend his conquest.
Whatever may be the effect of our employing negro troops, it cannot be as mischevious as this.
If it end in subverting slavery, it will be accomplished by ourselves, and we can devise the means of alleviating the evil consequences to both races. I think therefore we must decide whether slavery shall be extinguished by our enemies and the slaves used against us, or to use them ourselves at the risk of the effects which may be produced upon our social institutions.
My own opinion is that we should employ them without delay. I believe that with proper regulations, they can be made efficient soldiers. They possess the physical qualifications in an eminent degree,--long habits of obedience and subordination coupled with that moral influence, which in our country the white man possesses over the black, furnish the best foundation for that discipline which is the surest guarranty of military efficiency. There have been formidable armies composed of men having no interest in the cause for which they fought, beyond their pay or the hope of plunder. But it is certain that the best foundation upon which the fidelity of any army can rest, especially in a service which imposes peculiar hardships and privations, is the personal interest of the soldier in the issue of the contest. Such an interest we can give our negroes, by granting immediate freedom to all who enlist, and freedom at the end of the war to the families of those who discharge their duties faithfully (whether they survive or not) together with the privilege of residing at the South. To this might be added a bounty for faithful service. We should not expect the slaves to fight for prospective freedom, when they can secure it at once by going to the enemy in whose service they would incur no greater risk than in ours. The reasons that induce me to recommend the employment of negro troops at all render the effect on slaves of the measure. I have suggested immaterial, & in my opinion, the best means of securing the efficiency and fidelity of the auxilliary force would be to accompany the measure with a well digested plan of gradual and general emancipation. As that will be the result of the continuance of the war, & will certainly occur if the enemy succeed. It seems to me most desirable to adopt it at once, and thereby obtain all the benefits that will accrue to our cause.
The employment of negro troops under regulations similar in principal to those above indicated would in my opinion greatly increase our military strength, and enable us to relieve our white population to some extent. I think we could dispense with the reserve forces, except in cases of emergency. It would disappoint the hopes which our enemies have upon our exhaustion, deprive them in great measure of the aid they now derive from black troops, and thus throw the burden of the war upon their own people. In addition to the great political advantages which would result to our cause from the adoption of a system of emancipation, it would exercise a salutary influence upon our negro population, by rendering more secure the fidelity of those who become soldiers, and diminish the inducements to the rest to abscond. I can only say in conclusion, that whatever measures are to be adopted should be adopted at once. Every day's delay increases the difficulty; much time will be required to organize & discipline the men & action may be deferred until it is too late.
Very Respc'y
Your Obt servt
(signed) R E Lee
 
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