Elennsar
Colonel
- Joined
- May 14, 2008
- Location
- California
The Practicality of Cleburne's Proposal
This is put in the "what if" realm because the proposal was never accepted, so my speculation cannot be tested other than by analysis in the same way we speculate on how well/badly any other course not taken would have gone.
It is my considered judgment that had - somehow - Cleburne's proposal been accepted - and blacks volunteered in numbers large enough to make a difference - that the Confederacy would not have meaningfulyl benefited from it, for two reasons.
1) The Confederacy did not have the resources to sufficiently supply the troops it had. An additional 50,000 - let alone enough to make for numerical equality would be quite impossible.
2) As demonstrated by (among other regiments) the 20th South Carolina Infantry, raw regiments - however well trained - would be butchered for their inexperience and ignorance, particularly in the Virginia theater.
One could, I suppose, imagine integrating blacks and whites into the existing regiments, but that's a what if more far fetched than Guns of the South.
3) Where would the leaders (colonels on down, as well as brigadier generals and major generals) be found to lead these regiments? Even assuming - also far fetched, I believe - that there would be no object to leading a "colored" regiment, the Confederacy's reserves of trained officers have been almost exhausted by this point. And transfers from one regiment - say the 10th Texas (picked as one of Cleburne's regiments) - would weaken that regiment, so it would be of dubious usefulness.
In brief, I believe that even if there had been a will, there was no way.
Request: Could the moderators delete this? Transfering the post over to Trice's thread.
This is put in the "what if" realm because the proposal was never accepted, so my speculation cannot be tested other than by analysis in the same way we speculate on how well/badly any other course not taken would have gone.
It is my considered judgment that had - somehow - Cleburne's proposal been accepted - and blacks volunteered in numbers large enough to make a difference - that the Confederacy would not have meaningfulyl benefited from it, for two reasons.
1) The Confederacy did not have the resources to sufficiently supply the troops it had. An additional 50,000 - let alone enough to make for numerical equality would be quite impossible.
2) As demonstrated by (among other regiments) the 20th South Carolina Infantry, raw regiments - however well trained - would be butchered for their inexperience and ignorance, particularly in the Virginia theater.
One could, I suppose, imagine integrating blacks and whites into the existing regiments, but that's a what if more far fetched than Guns of the South.
3) Where would the leaders (colonels on down, as well as brigadier generals and major generals) be found to lead these regiments? Even assuming - also far fetched, I believe - that there would be no object to leading a "colored" regiment, the Confederacy's reserves of trained officers have been almost exhausted by this point. And transfers from one regiment - say the 10th Texas (picked as one of Cleburne's regiments) - would weaken that regiment, so it would be of dubious usefulness.
In brief, I believe that even if there had been a will, there was no way.
Request: Could the moderators delete this? Transfering the post over to Trice's thread.
Bringing the