In spite of the Confederacy’s desire to preserve slavery, a number of African Americans actually supported the Confederates during the U.S. Civil War. Here, Jeb Smith looks at a wide range of ways that African Americans supported the Confederacy from financial support to the military.
A picture of Marlboro Jones. He was an African-American servant to a white Confederate soldier.
"These African Americans were real fighting men whose combat performances should not be silenced out of respect for these brave men and their sacrifices, despite the vigorous organized effort of today's politically driven historians and other black confederate deniers."
-Phillip Thomas Tucker Blacks in Grey Uniforms A New Look at the South's Most Forgotten Combat Troops 1861-1865, America Through Time 2019
"I myself have collected over 1,400 newspaper articles on this subject published between 1861 and 1865. That's a lot of ink spilled over something that some today call a "myth." You will find that these activist historians are not telling you the entire story."
-Shane Anderson Black Southern Support for Secession and War the Abbeville Institute July 22, 2019
The existence of black confederates is a debated and controversial subject. A search of the internet will show no shortage of articles, blogs, and videos of radical pro-North author's claiming black confederates are a "myth." They ask why a Southern African American would defend the Confederacy when blacks were treated horribly; rather they desired to run into the arms of the first white Yankee savior they saw. After all, the war was over slavery- the North fighting to liberate the slaves and the South to preserve the institution so southern blacks would jump at the chance to help the North and overthrow their racist masters.
If anything, I am attempting to show that the winner wrote the history. If the South did not fight to preserve slavery, if the North did not fight to free the slaves, and if slaves were generally well treated and content, blacks supporting the Southern cause and their homeland, friends, and family should not surprise us. Some, for political purposes, seek to deny that blacks willingly sided with the South. Why should we allow these modern whites to tell us who blacks were allowed to support?
Pro-north authors such as Eric Foner and Kevin Levin will argue that it is a myth that hundreds of thousands of blacks served in the confederate army as armed soldiers. These authors have set up a straw man to knockdown since it is easy to show hundreds of thousands of blacks were not soldiers. They can then ridicule "lost cause" authors and the sons of confederate veterans for claims of hundreds of thousands of black confederates. All in the hopes of disqualifying any other documentation of black confederates. Yet, I have noticed that even those who claim black confederates are a myth will simultaneously admit blacks served in the southern armies. In the live stream conversation Fighting for Freedom the Civil War and its Legacies, Eric Foner said, "There is no question that some small number of African Americans did volunteer and serve in confederate armies."
Further, having searched the internet, including the hated Sons of Confederate Veterans, and having read many "lost cause" books on the subject, I can say no one claims hundreds of thousands of blacks fought as soldiers for the Confederacy. The Sons of Confederate Veterans website, in the article The Role of Black Soldiers in the Confederate Army, reads, "There was between 50,000 to 100,000 blacks that served in the Confederate Army as cooks, blacksmiths, and yes, even soldiers. "The majority is in the noncombatant form. On every estimate I have read, they always classify noncombatant services as cooks, musicians, etc., as those counted in the estimates.
As modern statists, Foner and Levin count only federally recognized soldiers and then feel free to dismiss the claims of large numbers of southern black soldiers. If cooks, musicians, and those forced into service do not count as actual soldiers, then the southern and northern servicemen drafted (white and black) are not actual soldiers. And since the vast majority of soldiers, North and South, were state volunteers, they were not actual soldiers either, according to these authors. They must fight only for the master, the federal government, to be "true" soldiers.
One argument presented to deny black confederates is to tell us the many observations of thousands of blacks in service in the southern armies were of noncombatant form. This, of course, is often true. However, a great many observed soldiers as well. The logic they use to counter this is that these observers must be incorrect since the Confederacy (federal) did not approve blacks until late in the war. Once more, only federally recognized soldiers are "true" soldiers in their minds. So when we do see these armed black confederates, these are not "real soldiers" since the Confederacy does not recognize them.
These historians are coming from our modern nationalistic views and looking back to antebellum America. The federal government education had raised them, so it was hard for them to understand the time when the states had authority or where federal law did not control them. Thus only federal soldiers count in their minds, and any documents that say otherwise must be declared false. States or individuals could not have equipped slaves since the federal did not. Thus in Levin's mind, the fact that Confederate General Cleburne and other confederates pushed to arm slaves as Confederate [federal] recognized soldiers in 1864 proves that there were no black soldiers in the Confederacy before this time!!! Otherwise, why push for federally recognized soldiers in 1864?
One argument used by Levin is to point out Southerners' resistance to arming large numbers of slaves and the fear of them running away to northern lines. At most, it only proves that many masters feared losing their property and the loyalty of slaves. Believing not all slaves were or would be loyal to the South. Northern whites had the same fears of arming blacks. And these fears did play a role in why the federal arming of slaves in the Confederacy took so long. However, this does not show that owners and local authorities did not arm southern blacks.
Levin also points out that Black Confederate soldiers were little known before the internet and that the Sons of Confederate Veterans initiated the recent popularity of the subject in response to the famous movie Roots in the 1970s. Even if this is true, that does not refute that black confederates were a historical reality. If a popular movie that influences public perception is released on any subject, there is usually a backlash from the other side wishing to give a fuller , more accurate portrayal. Because Roots portrayed blacks as heavily mistreated, it is not surprising that in response, the SCV would look through history and use examples to counter. To remove it from a Civil War context, transubstantiation was declared Catholic dogma at Trent in 1551. But this does not prove it was a 16th-century invention; it was the majority opinion down through Christian history, and had been official doctrine since the Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215. It was declared dogma in response to the early Reformation denial of the teaching. Likewise, the increase in awareness and books on black confederates is in response to the internet and, as Levin said, Roots.
Very few of these arguments are about historical data. If you want to see the role of presuppositions and imaginative ways in which we are to "properly" understand newspaper photos and various other examples of black confederates, watch Kevin Levin's speech Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War's Most Persistent Myth at the US National Archives. One will find politics, philosophy, and worldview are far more important than historical data. If these authors wish only to prove that hundreds of thousands of blacks did not willingly serve the federal government of the Confederacy, then I think they will find no one will object.
However, I define a soldier as one who willingly took up arms for the Confederacy or fought under a Confederate general regardless of federal recognition. In other words, state militia and individuals are actual soldiers. The Confederacy left it up to the states to decide if slaves were to fight as soldiers. If the South objected to the federal government's involvement with slave property in the old Union, why would they allow the confederate government to do the same in the South? So slaves' involvement was up to the state and, more importantly, the slave and master. Free blacks were also left to local control.
"Even before the opening of the conflict, Southerners began to enroll free blacks for service with the state militias, sometimes by state law or by purely local action. The use of free blacks in the military was varied, as they saw service as laborers, support staff or in rare instances as soldiers."
-Frank Edward Deserino University College London A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment to the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of London Department of History University College London July 2001
This is not intended to show a vast treasure of previously unknown material but as a summary of some of the findings of historians on the subject of black confederates that the general public does not encounter. Firstly, we will look at some examples of how southern blacks supported the Confederacy.
Southern Patriots
"About sixty free negroes volunteered and went down to Fort Macon to do battle for their country, while another gave twenty-five dollars cash to help support the war; and still another, who is a poor man, having just arrived at our wharf with a load of wood for sale, delivered it up to the town auctioneer, with a request to sell it and appropriate it in the same way."
– Richmond Daily Dispatch, April 19, 1861
Just as John Brown was mistaken when he believed slaves would join him in revolt against the South, the abolitionists also predicted massive slave revolts during the war. Instead, it could be argued that Southern blacks sided with their own country. In Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees, Ervin Jordan wrote that "Black confederate loyalty was more widespread than American historians has acknowledged." And while blacks who volunteered for the Union often had to be protected from whites, Southern blacks needed no such protection. Southerners were excited to have blacks volunteer.
"The free negroes of New Orleans, La., held a public meeting and began the organization of a battalion, with officers of their own race, with the approval of the State government, which commissioned their negro officers. When the Louisiana militia was reviewed, the Native Guards (negro) made up, in part, the first division of the State troops. Elated at the success of being first to place negroes in the field together with white troops, the commanding general sent the news over the wires to the jubilant confederacy: "New Orlean, November 23,1861. "Over 28,000 troops were reviewed today by Governor Moore, Major-General Lovell and Brigadier-General Ruggles. The line was over seven miles long; one regiment comprised 1,400 free colored men."
-Joseph T Wilson The Black Phalanx African American Soldiers in the War of Independence, the War of 1812, and the Civil War Da Capo Press New York 1994
Tens of thousands of Southern blacks, both slave and free, supported the confederate cause. Many southern blacks wanted to defend their country from the Yankee invaders. Many enslaved blacks had deep loyalty and family ties with their masters and followed them off to war. While it might be hard for some to believe today, many African American slaves and slave owners wanted slavery to continue and fought to protect the institution. In The Negro in the South, Booker T Washington writes, "A few colored men, it is said, were actually enrolled and enlisted as soldiers in the confederate army, fighting for their own continued enslavement."
"One may get the idea, from what I have said, that there was bitter feeling toward the white people on the part of my race, because of the fact that most of the white population was away fighting in a war which would result in keeping the Negro in slavery if the South was successful. In the case of the slaves on our place this was not true, and it was not true of any large portion of the slave population in the South where the Negro was treated with anything like decency."
-Booker T Washington Up From Slavery Value Classics Reprint 1901
As slave owners, many blacks defended slavery as an institution vital to their financial well-being. One Union soldier described a free black church as "Half-crazed black secessionists." Wealthy colored plantation owners such as South Carolina's William Ellison donated large sums of money to the Confederacy and bought confederate bonds and treasury notes in support. Ellison stopped growing cotton and instead grew food to help feed the confederate armies. Ellison's grandson John Buckner volunteered and fought for the 1st South Carolina artillery and helped defend Ft Wagner from the famous assault made by the 54th Massachusetts colored regiment.
In the summer of 1861, The Winston Salem NC newspaper, People’s Press, reported that "fifteen free men of color volunteered for state service" and that they were in fine spirits and wore a "We will die for the South emblem." In New Bern, "fifteen to twenty free Negros came forward to volunteer their service to defend the city." A newspaper in Lynchburg, Virginia, reported on the 70 free blacks who enlisted to defend Virginia "Three cheers for the patriotic Negros of Lynchburg."
Historian Phillip Tucker quotes a statement by the free mulatto population of South Carolina "Our allegiance is due to SO Ca. and in her defense, we are willing to offer up our lives, and all that is dear to us." And on March 21, 1863, the Nashville Daily Union Tennessee reported, "Negro rebel Cavalry pickets on the south bank of the Rappahannock below Fredericksburg shows that negroes are ready enough to serve masters on the field, and that the rebels are ready enough to make use of them serve as common soldiers...these negroes are well in the service, as in their sympathy, of the south."
Abolitionist Horace Greeley published The American Conflict in 1866, and he quotes the following wartime newspapers reporting on black patriotism in the South. "A Washington dispatch to The Evening Post (New York), about this time, set forth that—"A gentleman from Charleston says that everything there betokens active preparations for fight…negroes busy in building batteries, so far from inclining to insurrection, were grinning from ear to ear at tile prospect of shooting the Yankees." The Charleston Mercury of January 3 said: "We learn that 150 able-bodied free colored men of Charleston, yesterday offered their services gratuitously to the Governor, to hasten forward the important work of throwing up redoubts wherever needed along our coast." The Memphis Avalanche joyously proclaimed that - a procession of several hundred stout negro men, members of the "domestic institution," marched through our streets yesterday in military order, under the command of Confederate officers. They were all armed and equipped with shovels, axes, blankets, etc. A merrier set was never seen. They were brimful of patriotism, shouting for Jeff Davis and singing war songs."
"About fifty free negroes in Amelia county have offered themselves to the Government for any service. In our neighboring city of Petersburg, two hundred free negroes offered for any work that might be assigned to them, either to fight under white officers, dig ditches, or anything that could show their desire to serve Old Virginia. In the same city, a negro hackman came to his master, and insisted, with tears in his eyes, that he should accept all his savings, $100, to help equip the volunteers. – The free negroes of Chesterfield have made a similar proposition. Such is the spirit, among bond and free, through the whole of the State."
– The Daily Dispatch, April 25, 1861, Quoted in Shane Anderson Black Southern Support for Secession and War Abbeville Institute July 22, 2019
Financial Support
Many blacks supported the Confederacy in a non-military capacity, and "enthusiasm with which many blacks endorsed secession" was widespread. Large-scale demonstrations of blacks were held in Petersburg and New Orleans. In Petersburg, blacks offered to construct fortifications for the Confederacy, telling the mayor of Petersburg:
"We are willing to aid Virginians cause to the utmost extent of our ability….there is not an unwilling heart among us." Charles Tinsley, Spokesman for Petersburg free blacks 1861. When handed a confederate flag he said "I could feel no greater pride."
- Mrs J Blakeslee Frost The Rebellion in the United States or the war of 1861 Hartford, CT: Published by the Author, 1862
Blacks in Vicksburg, Mississippi, donated $1,000 to the war effort. In General Stand Watie's Confederate Indians, Frank Cunningham tells how it became custom for slaves to hold balls and concerts to give money to the war effort in Arkansas. Free and slave negroes gave a ball at 50 cents ahead for support for the Confederacy and General Hindman of Arkansas, who stated the local blacks "Have displayed much loyalty and patriotism in their donations to the confederate cause." Cunningham also tells of General Albert Pike's slave Brutus, who kept $63,000 safe from the federals during the battle at Pea Ridge. He returned to his master, who gave him his freedom in payment, but Brutus did not accept it and served General Pike instead. James Muschett, a free black store owner in Virginia, donated food, clothes, and blacksmith services to the confederate government. Later he was imprisoned by the Union for being a spy and a confederate sympathizer.
J K Obatala writes about a slave named Henry Jones who donated $465 in gold to the Confederate government, and the Union Milledgeville, Georgia, on August 26, 1863, reported on the balls all over the South where blacks were donating large sums of money to the cause. In The Unlikely Story of Blacks Who Were Loyal to Dixie. Obatala writes, "Many slaves made financial and material contributions to the Confederacy. In Alabama, William Yancy's slaves brought $60 worth of watermelons to Montgomery for the soldiers." Historian E Merton Coulter wrote, "It became custom for slaves to hold balls and concerts and give the money...to aid soldiers." These were not isolated incidents but common actions throughout the South.
The "Confederate Ethiopian Serenaders" singers used all their funds to finance gunboats and munitions for the Confederacy. Horace King of Alabama gave clothes to soldiers. Just two months before Appomattox, blacks gave dinner to confederate soldiers in Louisburg, Virginia. A Fairfax County free black sold 28 acres of land and donated the money to the defense of Virginia. During the war, blacks gave to help build a monument for Stonewall Jackson. Former North Carolina slave David Blunt said, "Yes mam, de days on de plantation wuz de happy days..he hated de yankees for killing Massa Tom. In fact, we all hated de Yankees." It seems not to have been uncommon for blacks to side with the South.
"All de slaves hate de Yankees an when de southern soldiers came late in de night all de ******* got out of de bed an holdin torches high dey march behin de soldiers, all of dem singin We'll hang Abe Lincoln on de Sour Apple Tree. yes mam, dey wuz sorry dat dey wuz free an' dey ain't got no reason to be glad, case dey wuz happier den dan now."
- Alice Baugh North Carolina Slave Narratives, reminiscing about her enslaved mother’s Stories
"The consequential manner of the negro, and the supreme contempt with which he spoke to his prisoner, were most amusing. This little episode of a Southern slave leading a white Yankee soldier through a Northern village, alone and of his own accord, would not have been gratifying to an abolitionist. Nor would the sympathizers both in England and in the North feel encouraged if they could hear the language of detestation and contempt with which the numerous negroes with the Southern armies speak of their liberators."
-Lt.-Colonel Arthur J. Fremantle, Three Months in the Southern States 1864
Information From Black Civilians
Southern blacks helped spread vital information to confederates or acted as spies. Former Arkansas Slave James Gill, a young boy at the time, said of his family "Us was Confedrits all de while...but de Yankees, dey didn’ know dat we was Confedrits." Slave Martin Robinson was hanged for falsely leading the federal troops the wrong way during the Kilpatrick- Dahlgren raid in 64. Slaves acting as spies for the South was so common that Union General Halleck gave his "General order number three" that disallowed any blacks into the federal lines because blacks were acting as runaway slaves but, in reality, were southern spies who gave vital information back to the Confederates. On November 20, 1861, Major-General Halleck wrote, "It has been represented that important information respecting the numbers and condition of our forces is conveyed to the enemy by means of fugitive slaves who are admitted within our lines. In order to remedy this evil it is directed that no such person be hereafter permitted to enter the lines of any camp or of any forces on the march and that any now within such lines be immediately excluded therefrom."
Slave Burrel Hemphill refused to give information on his master's hidden money and silverware, so Sherman’s men tied a rope to his ankle and dragged him back and forth by a horse until he died, still never saying a word. Federal soldiers after Bull Run were too trusting of southern blacks when they asked slaves for food; instead, the slaves brought them to confederate lines, and they were taken prisoner. In Thomas Jordan and J.P Pryors The Campaigns of General Nathan Bedford Forrest, the authors tell of a local negro who helped Forrest capture federal cavalry with information helpful to confederates. Another local black helped General Forrest by leading the federals into a confederate trap. In 1864 a free black named Goler misled union soldiers of his loyalty by providing food and shelter, only then to notify the confederates who captured the federal soldiers in the night.
Georgia's governor Joseph E Brown is recorded in The Confederate Records of the State of Georgia Volume 2 stating "The country and the army are mainly dependent upon slave labor for support… it is impossible for the women and children to support themselves." With their masters away, slaves worked the plantations. Slaves' work kept the families from starving and allowed whites to fight the war. Federal General M.C Meigs wrote, "The labor of the colored man supports the rebel soldier, enables him to leave his plantation to meet our armies, builds his fortifications, cooks his food, and sometimes aids him on the picket by rare skill with the rifle." Slave Henry Warfield of Warren County, Mississippi, said, "Negroes were used by the Confederates long before they were used by the Union forces...and a large number of these fought by the side of their masters or made it possible for the master to fight." And as US Grant said, slaves "worked in the fields and took care of the families while white able bodied men were at the front fighting."
Confederate General Richard Taylor [son of President Taylor] said: "Wives and little ones remained safe at home, surrounded by thousands of faithful slaves." With the men gone, slaves could have left for the North or refused to work, yet the overwhelming majority worked so the master could leave to fight. Often masters put a trusted slave in charge of the family while gone. In many ways, this trusted slave took over the master's role.
"In order to defend and protect the women and children who were left on the plantations when the white males went to war, the slaves would have laid down their lives. The slave who was selected to sleep in the" big house" during the absence of the males was considered to have the place of honour. Any one attempting to harm "young Mistress" or "old Mistress" during the night would have had to cross the dead body of the slave to do so...As a rule, not only did the members of my race entertain no feelings of bitterness against the whites before and during the war, but there are many instances of Negroes tenderly caring for their former masters and mistresses who for some reason have become poor and dependent since the war. I know of instances where the former masters of slaves have for years been supplied with money by their former slaves to keep them from suffering."
-Booker T Washington Up from Slavery Value Classics Reprint 1901
After the South officially allowed federal black soldiers in the armies, Abraham Lincoln took the positives away from the action. He said, "There is one thing about negros fighting for the rebels... they cannot at the same time fight in their army, and stay home and make bread for them."
Another way southern blacks supported the cause was in what today is considered an unpardonable sin, moral support by waving the confederate flag. The Central Georgian, April 24, 1861, reported, "Secession flags dot the country along the route from Wilmington, and even the negroes waved the Confederate banner at the cars as they passed."
Service in the Confederate Military
"The credit of having first conquered their prejudices against the employment of Blacks, even as soldiers, is fairly due to the Rebels."
-Horace Greeley, The American Conflict: A History of the Great Rebellion in the United States of America, 1860-65: Volume II Hartford. Published by O. D. Chase and Company. 1866
"Thousands of black southerners voluntarily supported the Confederate cause, ignoring an offer of federal freedom and, when allowed, to do so, took up arms to defend Dixie."
-Charles Barrow, J.H Segars and R.B. Rosenburg, Black Confederates Pelican Publishing Company GretnaLouisiana 2004
Blacks, both free and slave, offered their service in the Confederate military. An estimated 58,000 blacks served in Confederate armies in a noncombatant role as cooks, musicians, chaplains, medics, scouts, or manual labor. Unlike the Federal army, Confederate armies gave equal pay to black service members (and soldiers) from the start of the war. The North did not do so until late in the war. Likewise, the southern blacks were in integrated units while the Federal troops segregated black union soldiers.
In Tenting Tonight, celebrated historian James Robertson writes, "Some slaves felt great loyalty to their masters and asked to be allowed to take up arms to defend what was, after all, their homeland too." Slave-owning Southern soldiers often brought along a slave with whom they had a close personal relationship. They had played together, ate together, worked together, and now wanted to defend their family and homeland together. Historian Phillip Tucker quotes from black confederate Tom Phelps who wrote home in June of 1861 "I will leave…today for a scout about the woods for yankees give my love to mistress and master…. Ps goodbye to the white folks until I killed a yankee." Azariah Bostwick of the 31st Georgia Infantry wrote home, "He [southern blacks] is no better to fight for his country than I am, my home is his." Even slaves not loyal to the South showed loyalty to their masters. A slave at Antietam risked his life to pull his master to safety before then running across the battlefield to the federal soldiers and freedom.
"A good many white confederates, who mostly hailed from the yeomentry, or small farmer class, actually considered these black confederates to be best friends and faithful companions and vice versa, because they knew each other so well, after having grown up together since childhood…A general familiar-like sentiment towards blacks was often demonstrated by white confederate soldiers, from lowly private to high ranking officers, and this has been fully revealed in their personal letters that were written from 1861-1865. After all blacks and whites shared a common southern culture and heritage, and especially in regard to love for their homeland that was now under threat."
-Phillip Thomas Tucker Blacks in Grey Uniforms: A New Look at the South's Most Forgotten Combat Troops 1861-1865 America Through Time 2019
When interviewed decades later, many servants often were proud of their master's ability to fight Yankees "Why mass can whale a dozen of em fore coffee is hot, fair fight." Often the personal slaves would serve as cooks or general servants, but sometimes, they would be armed and join in a fight in various circumstances, or be armed as soldiers by their masters. Isaac Stier of Mississippi said, "When de big war broke out I sho' stuck to my Marster an' I fit de Yankees same as he did. I went in de battles' long side of him an' us both fit under Marse Robert E. Lee." Herndon Bogan of North Carolina told his master, "Ide rather go wid you ter de war, please sur, massa, let me go wid you ter fight dem yanks... old massa got shot one night an pap grabs de gun fore hit de earth an lets de yanks have it."
Ervin Jordan wrote in Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees, "Body servants fought for the south if given the chance and occasionally replaced fainthearted white rebel soldiers." He gives an example where during the Seven Days Battles, Westley, a body servant, took the weapons from a frightened white confederate and killed a Yankee with almost every shot and was "An inspiration to the white soldiers." A servant named Jem was described as "A black fire eater," a strong supporter of secession, and fought at First Manassas. Other servants were thrown in as artillerymen at First Manassas. Historian Phillip Tucker quotes the Evansville Daily Journal of Indiana who mistakenly reported a regiment of confederate negro cavalry at Bull Run when in reality it was 30-40 armed servants who joined in the pursuit of retreating Federals.
Slave Primus Kelly volunteered for the 8th Texas Cavalry and fought in the battles. Likewise, 12th Virginia Cavalry captain George Baylor's two slaves Tom and Overton "picked up arms" and "Joined in the company charges." Former Mississippi slave Henry Warfield observed "Negroes were used by the Confederates long before they were used by the Union forces...and a large number of these fought by the side of their masters."
On rare occasions, masters would send a slave to serve in their place. Former slave Geroge Kye said, "When the war came along I was a grown man, and I went to serve because the old master was too old to go, but he had to send somebody anyways, I served as Geroge Stover."
While not official in the ranks of the units, some of these body servants would serve as sharpshooters. Ervin Jordan documents Federal soldier George Hapman of the 89th NY reported killing a "Rebel sharpshooter negro" in June of 1863. Herman Clarke of the 117th NY wrote home that he was ambushed by a "****** sharpshoter." Tucker gives many examples of this class of southern soldiers.
One southern black sharpshooter around Yorktown earned a reputation for his aim among union soldiers who wrote of, "A rebel negro riflemen, who through his skill as a markeman, had done more injury to our men than any dozen of his white compeers." This sharpshooter was so good he eventually had to be taken out by the Federals' famous sharpshooter "California Joe," as reported in the NY Herald under "Sniper duels with black confederates." In June of 1862, George Hapman of the 89th NY wrote home that he had a ring made out of the tree that "Joe shot the rebel sharpshooter ****** out of."
Servant snipers became so common that on January the 10th, 1863, Harper's Weekly did a front-page illustration of two black confederate snipers titled "Rebel negro pickets as seen through a fiberglass." Tucker again quotes the Daily Sun of Columbus, Georgia, reporting on a servant soldier at Belmont. "In the recent battle at Belmont, Lieutenant Shelton [13th Arkansas]…had his servant Jack in the fight. Both Jack and his master were wounded, but not till they had made the most heroic efforts to drive back the insolent invaders. Finally, after Jack had fired at the enemy 27 times, he fell seriously wounded in the arm. Jack's son was on the field and loaded the rifle for his father, who shot at the enemy three times after he was upon the ground." Tucker quotes James G Bates of the 13th Indiana vol infantry writing home, "The rebels have negro soldiers in their army. One of their best sharp shooters, and the boldest of them all here is a negro." Thomas Knox, a journalist for the NY Herald, reported on the battle of Chickasaw Bayou "On our right a negro sharpshooter has been observed whose exploits are deserving of notice. He mounts a breastwork regardless of all danger, and getting sight of a federal soldier, draws up his musket at arm's length and fires, never failing of hitting his mark."
Black Confederate Soldiers
"As a matter of fact, it was in the Confederate armies that the first negro soldiers were enlisted. During the latter part of April, 1861, a Negro company at Nashville, Tennessee made up of "free people of color" offered its services to the Confederate Government. Shortly after, a recruiting office was opened for free Negroes at Memphis Tennessee."
-Booker T Washington, The Story of the Negro; the Rise of the Race from Slavery New York, Doubleday 1909
"It is now pretty well established, that there are at the present moment many colored men in the Confederate army doing duty not only as cooks, servants and laborers, but as real soldiers, having muskets on their shoulders, and bullets in their pockets, ready to shoot down loyal troops, and do all that soldiers may to destroy the Federal Government and build up that of the traitors and rebels. There were such soldiers at Manassas, and they are probably there still."
-Frederick Douglass Douglass' Monthly, September 1861
Thousands of Southern blacks loyal to Dixie fought as soldiers in Confederate armies. Southern states and local militia allowed blacks into service from the outset of the war, while the North initially rejected the idea. Virginia and Tennessee, in particular, set up recruitment stations for all able-bodied blacks. The colored Tennessee militia was described as "Brimful of patriotism, shouting for Jeff Davis and singing war songs." In Memphis, Tennessee. Two black regiments were raised in September, becoming the first state to authorize black soldiers.
"The legislature of Tennessee...enacted in June, 1861, a law authorizing the governor—"To receive into the military service of the State all male free persons of color, between the age of 15 and 50, who should receive $8 per month, clothing and rations."
-Joseph T Wilson The Black Phalanx African American Soldiers in the War of Independence, the War of 1812, and the Civil War Da Capo Press New York 1994
The "Native Guards, Louisiana" consisted of 1,500 free colored volunteers from Louisiana who supplied themselves. They stated they were fighting because "The free colored population of Louisiana …own slaves and they are dearly attached to their native land … and they are ready to shed their blood for her defense. They have no sympathy for abolitionism; no love for the North, but they have plenty for Louisiana …They will fight for her in 1861 as they fought in 1814-1815." Swearing to the Louisianan Governor to defend the Confederacy, they became the first civil war unit to appoint black officers. On May 12, after the capture of New Orleans, Bailey Frank of the 34th NY volunteers wrote: "There is no mistake, but the rebels have black soldiers for I have seen them brought in as prisoners of war, I saw one who had the stripes of an ordinary Sargent on his coat."
The very first land battle of the war in Hampton, Virginia, on June 10, 1861, involved a black confederate. Tucker reports that Sam, a servant soldier of Captain Richard Ashe, was the hero of the battle. Sam shot Union major Theodore Winthrop, stopping the advance of the federals. Winthrop was the first Union officer killed in battle. (Note: three different white soldiers also claimed to have killed Winthrop.) Tucker also reports on the battle of New Market, Virginia, where local black militia helped win the day. The NY Herald, on December 28, 1861, reported, "The rebels have an entire company of infantry composed of negroes." And "The skirmishers of the 20th NY vol regiment discovered the enemy, consisting of three companies of infantry. Among them one company of negroes, who appeared in the front, and made the attack." The local militia fought so well defending their home state, the Milwaukee Daily News headlined in January, "white soldiers outdone by blacks." One federal officer they quoted from the battle said, "Fifty armed negroes flanked the whites formed the center, and they fought better than their white fellows." And "Negro infantry opened fire on our men...the wounded men testify positively they were shot by negroes, and that not less than 700 were present, armed with muskets." On December 23, 1861, NY Tribune wrote of the "Attack on our soldiers by armed negroes." In all, six patriotic southern blacks were killed defending their homeland in the battle. After the battle, Ervin Jordan quotes a NY soldier who wrote, "If they fight us with negroes, why should we not fight them with negroes too?.... let us fight the devil with fire."
Likewise, Jordan reports the 1st Ohio Volunteer were was attacked on June 17, 1861, by the 1st South Carolina, accompanied by "A body of 150 armed negroes." Black members of the 1st Regiment Virginia Cavalry company H killed a Union soldier on July 2, 1861, at Falling Waters. Phillip Powers wrote to his wife that an armed black in his company shot and killed an escaping federal. General D.Stuart was quoted in the Army and Navy Gazette reporting, "The enemy, and especially their armed negroes, did dare to rise and fire, and did serious execution upon our men. The casualties in the brigade were 11 killed, 40 wounded, and 4 missing; aggregate, 55."
Black fought with units at Petersburg. Bull Run, Vicksburg, Seven Days, Brandy Station, and Antietam. Frank Cunningham tells of armed negroes with no uniforms who fought for the Confederacy in Arkansas under a McIntosh regiment in March 1862. Both free and enslaved blacks fought under general Forrest, who after the war said: "Better Confederates did not live." In his book The Appomattox Campaign, Chris Calkins reports a skirmish on April 5, 1865, when black and white Confederate soldiers defended a confederate wagon train but were eventually captured by the 1st Pennsylvania and 24th NY cavalry. The federals reported that among the captured black prisoners some were termed "teamsters." After Gettysburg, the NY Herald, July 11, 1863, "Reported among the rebel prisoners were seven blacks in Confederate uniforms fully armed as soldiers."
Thomas Tobi, a black man, served with the Army of Northern Virginia as a volunteer from May 12, 1861, to April 16, 1865,. A free man of color, Charles Lutz of the 8th LA volunteer infantry, was a two-time POW during the war. He fought at major engagements in Virginia and was first captured at Chancellorsville. Six blacks joined the Goochland light artillery and fought at Chaffin's Bluff. In August 1861, near Hampton, Virginia, Union army Colonel John W. Phelps of the 1st Vermont Infantry reported artillery manned by Negroes.
"The most liberal calculation could not give them more than 64,000 men. Over 3,000 Negroes must be included in this number. These were clad in all kinds of uniforms, not only in cast-off or captured United States uniforms, but in coats with Southern buttons, State buttons, etc. These were shabby, but not shabbier or seedier than those worn by white men in the rebel ranks. Most of the Negroes had arms, rifles, muskets, sabers, bowie-knives, dirks, etc. They were supplied with knapsacks, haversacks, canteens, etc and they were an integral portion of the Southern Confederate army. They were seen riding on horses and mules, driving wagons, riding on caissons, in ambulances, with the staff of generals and promiscuously mixing it up with all the Rebel horde."
-Union Sanitation Commission Inspector Dr. Louis Steiner, Sept. 1862
"William Colen Revels was twenty years old when he volunteered for Confederate service, and was one of the first men of any color in Surry County, North Carolina, to march off to war. He spent the greater part of the war in the 21 North Carolina Infantry, and is listed on the rolls as a "Negro." He was wounded in the leg at Winchester, and caught a bullet in the right thigh at Gettysburg, probably on East Cemetery Hill on July 2 1863."
-Frank Edward Deserino University College London A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment to the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of London Department of History University College London July, 2001
How Many Black Confederates Fought?
"We were defeated, routed and driven from the field. ... It was not alone the white man's victory, for it was won by slaves. Yes, the Confederates had three regiments of blacks in the field, and they maneuvered like veterans, and beat the Union men back."
-William Henry Johnson, 8th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry at Manassas Quoted in Kari A Kornell African Americans in the Civil War Abdo Publishing 2016
"At least nine documented blacks….served in the ranks of the 6th Louisiana Calvary...another company of enthusiastic blacks Louisianan troopers hailed from a vibrant free black community of Catholic mulattoes whitch was known as Isle Brevels these hard riding black cavalrymen...slashing with sabers at a target dummy with the appropriate name of "abe lincoln."
-Phillip Thomas Tucker, Blacks in Grey Uniforms; A New Look at the South's Most Forgotten Combat Troops 1861-1865 America Through Time 2019
After researching the question, Harvard professor John Stauffer concluded, "Thousands of Southern slaves and freedmen fought willingly and loyally on the side of the Confederacy." There is no question blacks willingly fought for the South; Historian Phillip Tucker writes, "To deny the fact that these courageous black rebels, free and slave, risked their lives in fighting on the battlefield has been a great injustice rooted in personal agendas that have little to do with history."
However, it is impossible to tell how many blacks fought for the South as not all the records survived the war, nor were they all recorded. Estimates range from a few thousand to 10,000. Historians Stauffer and Tucker both estimate between three and ten thousand in total. Historian John Winters estimates that 3,000 black and mulattoes came from Louisiana alone, the state that provided more colored troops to the Confederacy than any other. Of course, we must define what a soldier is. If we only count those after the confederate congress officially recruited black soldiers in the regular army in 1865, then less than 1,000 served. If we accept a black man armed as an individual, in mixed regiments, or in-state militia units, fighting under a confederate general, then I would guess at least a few thousand. In some cases, blacks might have been forced by their master or white officer to help fight in battle; these would not count as soldiers, in my opinion.
However, there were a great many slaves who wanted to fight, but their masters would not allow them. Masters would send their sons to die, but not their slaves. In a speech given on February 9, 1865, Confederate Secretary of State Judah Benjamin said, "Let us now say to every negro who wishes to go into the ranks on condition of being free, go and fight—you are free. My own negroes have been to me and said, 'Master, set us free and we'll fight for you."
The Slave Narratives provide many examples of slaves wanting to go to war with their masters, but either their masters were unwilling to send them, or they were too young. Many free mulattoes had to sneak into the service to fight. One Confederate who pushed for the freeing of slaves and their enlistment by the Confederate federal government, was General Lee, who said he "Regrets the unwillingness of owners to permit their slaves to enter the service." And Charles Marshall wrote to General R.S Ewell on March 27, 1865, "The state authorities can do nothing to get those negroes who are wanting to join the army, but whose masters refuse their consent."
Large numbers of southern blacks wanted to join but many stubborn slave owners were unwilling. In fact, some slaves, like William Rose of the 1st SC Infantry, ran away to join the army as a musician.
"Every precaution should be taken to insure proper and kind treatment of the negroes and to render them contented in the service...there should be a system of rewards too, for good conduct and industry...most of the negroes are accustomed to something of this sort on the plantations."
-J.F Gilmer Major-General and Chief of the Engineer Bureau 1864
When the Confederate Congress did authorize the enlistment of federal black confederates, they did so with fair treatment in mind as statements like "primary importance that the negroes should know that the service is voluntary on their part" and "harshness...or offensive language or conduct to them must be forbidden." Southern blacks receive fair treatment from the outset of the war. They received equal pay and worked in integrated units, but they were also treated fairly otherwise.
On April 29, 1862, Secretary of War George Randolph heard rumors the slaves doing manual labor for the Southern army were in dire conditions on the Peninsula. He wrote to confederate general John Magruder who responded, "The soldiers, however, have been more exposed and have suffered far more than the slaves. The latter have always slept undercover and have had fires to make them comfortable, while the men have been working in the rain, have stood in the trenches and rifle pits in mud and water almost knee-deep without shelter, fire or sufficient food." Hard to detect any racism and discrimination there.
Other minorities fought for the South as well. Jews were the largest minority group of soldiers to fight for the Confederacy, with an estimated 10,000 soldiers who fought. Other minority groups who supported the Confederacy with thousands of soldiers were Native Americans, Chinese and Mexicans. As DiLorenzo points out, those who desire to make the civil war one of slavery and white supremacy of the South vs. tolerance and freedom from the North must stop to consider that federal units with slave owners fought against non-slave-owning southerners through the entire war. And black southerners volunteered to fight while white southerners, both slave-owning, and non-slave-owning, avoided the war.
Jeb Smith is the author of Missing Monarchy: What Americans Get Wrong About Monarchy, Democracy, Feudalism, And Liberty (Amazon US | Amazon UK) and Defending Dixie's Land: What Every American Should Know About The South And The Civil War (written under the name Isaac. C. Bishop) - Amazon US | Amazon UK
You can contact Jeb at jackson18611096@gmail.com
