Sorry/not sorry to double post, but now that I am more awake (I was still in the process of waking up when I replied in the last post) I can go a bit more fully in detail on my answer.
The number as
@Carronade suggests is based off the idea that the Cleburne Proposal which is known in my story as
Amendment 1 of the Confederate Constitution, better known as the
Cleburne Amendment was specifically aimed at raising among the slave men of the south. To get more technical in how I came up with 190,000, this is how I arrived at the number.
A: The USCT numbers would dramatically drop if there were Colored Regiments fighting for the South. So we aren't talking about 180,000 Northern black troops vs 190,000 Southern black troops. We're probably looking more at maybe 100,000 Northern vs the 190,000 Southern blacks.
B. I read a few years back that the Freedman's Bureau did a survey shortly after the war where they asked many of the newly freed slaves how they felt about their new freedom. Supposedly, the majority of them said they wish they were still slaves. I don't know if this is real, but I don't doubt that since the majority of them grew up in slavery, they didn't understand what freedom could possibly mean for them and slavery was simply what their reality had been.
C. Now, for this exact number, the way I worked it out is that the Confederate Congress authorized as many brigades for the States depending on their individual number on the order of state secessions. So in South Carolina, there was only one brigade authorized because it was the first state to secede. While Georgia, where the prologue takes place, has five, because it was the fifth state to secede. So you get down to Tennessee, and they were authorized for eleven brigades since they were the last official state to go out.
D. I may have to amend how this Amendment would work, seeing as by the time this fictional Amendment was enacted, several states like Tennessee were overrun by Federals so there's no way they would have been able to raise several full brigades of Black Troops. Huh, good thing I've just barely started this book and it can easily be amended in rewrites, unlike
The Last Jedi.
To be sure, even in my fictional scenario, the addition of thousands of men pulled from the line would have in no way helped with the food shortages the Confederates were experiencing, only exasperating them. In truth, the only way a massive arming of the black populace would have not been a burden on the Confederacy was if France or England decided to join in the war and broken the Blockade, allowing for food shipments to be sent to the South.