Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I want to know if the stories about African-Americans fighting with the Confederacy were myths or actual events. Beforehand, I have been reading that the Confederate states wanted to enlisted African-Americans in their armies few months before the Civil War ended, but recently there has been stories about African-American soldiers in the Confederate Army on-line.
Also, I wondered why because many of the Confederates were racist and pro-slavery.
You will probably find racist on both sides of the war. There are books written on Black Confederates. Undoubtedly many body servants went along with their masters. Northerners may not of had plantations but still would have used servants or hired out slaves. Some of the Northern factories used Slaves. Slaves most likely saw this as a white mans war to some extent. I do remember reading a historical note that stated "Black confederate musicians will be paid at the same rate as their white counter parts"
Probably depends how broadly you define "soldier". I shouldn't be surprised if some of the cooks etc were black.
As I understand it there were no black combat soldiers recruited until the final weeks of the war, and I don't think any of them saw action. However, it is not inconceivable that a cook or body servant might have picked up a gun and taken part in the fight if the camp came under attack.
Trouble this whole subject is so tetchy with a lot of people that it's difficult to find genuinely impartial accounts. Debates on the smatter have a strong tendency to degenerate into name calling.
I think their was a very informative post on this subject a few months back.
There are a bunch of internet information with antecdotes, and a few books, claiming a number of african american confederate combat soldiers. But, really, there were none -
There were indeed many many african americans in the confederate army, but not as soldiers, but as laborers - cooks, teamsters, fortification builders, personal servants to an officer, etc. Now, from time to time they got close to the action, picked up a nearby musket, and participated, hence the internet and book anticdotes. But that was an exception. I have yet to see proof that any companies, brigades, division of black confederate combat soldiers existed.
In the last month's of the war, in desperation, the confederacy agreed to train a Richmond division of african american soldiers. But they never saw action.
Very late during the rebellion the Confederate congress debated enlisting Black soldiers but the measure didn't pass. However very late during the war Virginia did enlist a small number of Blacks as state troops. Whether or not they saw any action is a confusing subject; some say they saw none but I've read accounts that Federal troops encountered some once and scattered them without resistance.
In any event if I recall correctly it was illegal for Blacks to belong to the Confederate Army. Evidently what Virginia did with state troops wasn't the Confederate government's business.
BTW: The Confederate States Army was very, very small. Most "Confederate troops" were actually state troops.
State troops but in Confederate government service; "Federal" service so to speak. The Confederate government had a small regular army and the much larger "provisional" army. Both armies together made up the Confederate States Army which was of course quite large.
State militias and state troops which never entered Confederate service were another issue. Georgia was noted for it's large number of state troops who never entered Confederate service and as such were almost useless to the Confederate war effort.
Given how many people were in the war and how many black slaves and freemen there were in the CSA it seems likely that surely one or two tried and managed to fight for the CSA for one reason or another.
One might expect the best place to look for black men fighting for the Confederacy would be the CSA Navy given that the Confederate raiders recruited most of their crewmen in the Caribbean, and that black sailors had already been allowed in the US Navy prior to the war whereas they were not allowed in the US Army until the war. Thus the officer corps of the CSA Navy would be less opposed to it than the officer corps of the CSA Army.
Now aside from the aforementioned Virginia home guards and possible sailors it depends on how you define being black. If you go by the old one drop rule then I would suggest Louisiana probably sent a very large number of black soldiers to fight for the Confederacy given that people of mixed black and white ancestry were very common and accepted in and around New Orleans as free men, but the records almost certainly would not record them as black because they did not consider themselves to be so and were not usually percieved as such by the white population in the area.
There was a Slave named Robert Smalls who stole a loaded Confederate ship by piloting it pass enemy lines and delivering it to the Union. It is a well documented Story. Although a slave, Robert Smalls was the Pilot of The Planter. When the crew went ashore he simply took the controls a slipped away with his family aboard. It must have been a well thought out plan.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
