- The Patriotist is pleased to be able to offer this little
fact sheet on Black men who served proudly in the armed forces of the Confederate
States of America. While most of the media chooses to ignore the deeds
and accomplishments of minorities when those deeds and accomplishments
don't fit the stereotypical mold, we gladly fill in the gap by giving this
issue its due. Thanks to http://www.patriotist.com/ Col. Michael Kelly
of the 37th Texas Cavalry for providing the bulk of the information presented
here. More facts will be added to this page as they become available. --LG
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- "The Forgotten Black Confederate Soldier"
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- What we have been taught and come to believe has been
edited, expurgated, abridged, censored and just plain rewritten for more
than 140 years.
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- The words of Irish-born Confederate Major General Patrick
Cleburne from his January, 1864, letter which proposed the mass emancipation
and enlistment of Black Southerners into the Confederate Army express profoundly
accurate prophecy:
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- Every man should endeavor to understand the meaning of
subjugation before it is too late...It means the history of this heroic
struggle will be written by the enemy; that our youth will be trained by
Northern schoolteachers; will learn from Northern school books their version
of the war; will be impressed by the influences of history and education
to regard our gallant dead as traitors, and our maimed veterans as fit
objects for derision...The conqueror's policy is to divide the conquered
into factions and stir up animosity among them... ....It is said slavery
is all we are fighting for, and if we give it up we give up all. Even if
this were true, which we deny, slavery is not all our enemies are fighting
for. It is merely the pretense to establish sectional superiority and a
more centralized form of government, and to deprive us of our rights and
liberties.
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- In 2000 the $37 Million movie Ride With the Devil was
suppressed in distribution and offered in only 200 theaters for a limited
three-day engagement despite the fact that it was directed by Oscar-winning
director Ang Lee and had received many excellent reviews. It was suppressed
by its distributor, USA Films, because it factually portrayed a Black Confederate
guerrilla fighting with Confederate Bushwhackers in the Kansas-Missouri
operations. The video release of the movie was delayed for two months to
allow removal of the image of the Black Confederate from the cover art.
The character was based faithfully on Free Black John Noland who rode with
Quantrill as a scout and spy.
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- Black Southerners fought alongside white, Hispanic, Indian,
Jewish and thousands of foreign-born Southerners. They fought as documented
by Union sources:
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- Frederick Douglass, Douglass' Monthly, IV [Sept. 1861,]
pp 516 - "there are at the present moment many colored men in the
Confederate Army - 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 do to destroy the Federal government...There were
such soldiers at Manassas and they are probably there still." "Negroes
in the Confederate Army," Journal of Negro History, Charles Wesle,
Vol. 4, #3, [1919,] 244-245 - "Seventy free blacks enlisted in the
Confederate Army in Lynchburg, Virginia. Sixteen companies of free men
of color marched through Augusta, Georgia on their way to fight in Virginia."
"The part of Adams' Brigade that the 42nd Indiana was facing were
the 'Louisiana Tigers.' This name was given to Colonel Gibson's 13th Louisiana
Infantry, which included five companies of 'Avegno Zouaves' who still were
wearing their once dashing traditional blue jackets, red caps and red baggy
trousers. These five Zouaves companies were made up of Irish, Dutch, Negroes,
Spaniards, Mexicans, and Italians." - Noe, Kenneth W., Perryville:
This Grand Havoc of Battle. The University of Kentucky Press, Lexington,
KY, 2001. [page 270] From James G. Bates' letter to his father reprinted
in the 1 May 1863 "Winchester [Indiana] Journal" [the 13th IVI
["Hoosier Regiment"] was involved in operations around the Suffolk,
Virginia area in April-May 1863 ] - "I can assure you [Father,] of
a certainty, that the rebels have negro soldiers in their army. One of
their best sharp shooters, and the boldest of them all here is a negro.
He dug himself a rifle pit last night [16 April 1863] just across the river
and has been annoying our pickets opposite him very much to-day. You can
see him plain enough with the naked eye, occasionally, to make sure that
he is a "wooly-head," and with a spy-glass there is no mistaking
him." The 85th Indiana Volunteer Infantry reported to the Indianapolis
Daily Evening Gazette that on 5 March 1863: "During the fight the
[artillery] battery in charge of the 85th Indiana [Volunteer Infantry]
was attacked by [*in italics*] two rebel negro regiments. [*end italics*]."
After the action at Missionary Ridge, Commissary Sergeant William F. Ruby
forwarded a casualty list written in camp at Ringgold, Georgia about 29
November 1863, to William S. Lingle for publication. Ruby's letter was
partially reprinted in the Lafayette Daily Courier for 8 December 1863:
"Ruby says among the rebel dead on the [Missionary] Ridge he saw a
number of negroes in the Confederate uniform." Federal Official Records,
Series I, Vol XVI Part I, pg. 805: "There were also quite a number
of negroes attached to the Texas and Georgia troops, who were armed and
equipped, and took part in the several engagements with my forces during
the day." Federal Official Records Series 1, Volume 15, Part 1, Pages
137-138: "Pickets were thrown out that night, and Captain Hennessy,
Company E, of the Ninth Connecticut, having been sent out with his company,
captured a colored rebel scout, well mounted, who had been sent out to
watch our movements." Federal Official Records, Series I, Vol. XLIX,
Part II, pg. 253 - April 6, 1865: "The rebels [Forrest] are recruiting
negro troops at Enterprise, Miss., and the negroes are all enrolled in
the State." Federal Official Records, Series I, Vol. XIV, pg. 24,
second paragraph - "It is also difficult to state the force of the
enemy, but it could not have been less than from 600 to 800. There were
six companies of mounted riflemen, besides infantry, among which were a
considerable number of colored men." - referring to Confederate forces
opposing him at Pocotaligo, SC., Colonel B. C. Christ, 50th Pennsylvania
Volunteer Infantry, official report of May 30, 1862 "Sargt said war
is close to being over. saw several negros fighting for those rebels."
- From the diary of James Miles, 185th N.Y.V.I., entry dated January 8,
1865 Black Southerners also demonstrated loyalties based not on ownership,
subservience or fear. The Confederate Burial Mound for Camp Morton, Indiana,
at Indianapolis, Indiana, has bronze tablets which list the nearly 1200
Confederates who died at that camp. Among those names are 26 Black Southerners,
seven Hispanic Southerners and six Indiaan Southerners. At a time when
those Black Southerners could have walked into the Camp Commander's office,
taken a short oath and signed their name to walk out the gates free men
obliged to no one they chose instead to stay even unto death. Your understanding
of that choice is likely nonexistent.
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- Union soldiers robbed, raped and murdered Free Black
and slave Southerners they had come to "emancipate." Union "recruiters"
hunted, kidnapped and tortured Black Southerners to compel them to serve
in the Union Army. At the Battle of the Crater white Union soldiers bayoneted
retreating Black Union soldiers and the 54th Massachusetts was intentionally
fired upon by Union Maine troops while assaulting Battery Wagner. The Federal
Official Records and memoirs of the USCT document all of these war crimes.
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- Since the Civil War the United States flag has flown
over a country that has continued attempted genocide against its Native
Peoples with the able help of Black "Buffalo Soldiers," condoned
the slavery of Orientals in California well into the 1880s, fought wars
to maintain dominance over countries whose people were not white, and imprisoned
its own citizens because of the color of their skin as they did with the
Japanese-Americans in California from 1941-1945.
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- It is time that the misrepresentation which has come
to be accepted as "history" is restored to its full measure and
the positive and negative aspects of all parties exposed for the consideration
of all Americans.
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- Use and Enjoy these relevant quotes from history:
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- "I came here as a friend...let us stand together.
Although we differ in color, we should not differ in sentiment." -
LT Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, CSA, Memphis, Tennessee - July, 1875
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- "There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age,
who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and
political evil. It is idle to expatiate on its disadvantages. I think it
is a greater evil to the white than to the colored race." - Col. Robert
E. Lee, USA - December 27, 1856
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- " ...As usual with the enemy, they posted their
negro regiments on their left and in front, where they were slain by hundreds,
and upon retiring left their dead and wounded negroes uncared for, carrying
off only the whites, which accounts for the fact that upon the first part
of the battle-field nearly all the dead found were negroes." - Federal
Official Records, Vol. XXV, Chapter XLVII, pg. 341 - report of the Confederate
Commander, Savannah, April 27, 1864 - Battle of Ocean Pond [Olustee] -
54th Mass. present
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- [Reporting on the assault on Battery Wagner] "Sergeant
George E. Stephens of Company B described the scene to Captain Emilio:
'Just at the very hottest moment of the struggle, a battalion or regiment
charged up to the moat, halted, and did not attempt to join us, but from
their position commenced to fire upon us. I was one of the men who shouted
from where I stood, 'Don't fire on us. We are the Fifty-fourth.' I have
heard it was a Maine Regiment .'" - "A Brave Black Regiment:
History of the Fifty-Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry,"
Luis F. Emilio, Boston: Boston Book Company, 1894; Reprint, Salem: Ayer
Company Publishers, Inc., 1990., 93
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- [Regarding the Battle of the Crater] "George L.
Kilmer, an officer of the Fourteenth New York Heavy Artillery, went into
the crater with the first wave and reported afterward that when the USCT
moved forward to charge the fort, some of white soldiers refused to follow
them. Pandemonium broke out when the black soldiers could not continue
the assault and started to retreat and come back into the crater. 'Some
colored men came into the crater and there they found a fate worse than
death in the charge . . . It has been positively asserted, that white men
[Union] bayoneted blacks who fell back into the crater.'" - "The
Sable Arm." Dudley T. Cornish, New York: Longman, Green & Co.,
1956, p 274
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- The 37th Texas Cavalry
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- We invite you to visit with the 37th Texas Cavalry [Terrell's,]
Confederate States Army, the primary focal point on the Web for valid research
and documentation of the Forgotten Confederates.
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- We have the largest, most visited Civil War reenactor
web site. With 118 Web Awards to date it is the most honored Civil War
site of any kind. While we stand firmly for history and against those who
misrepresent the South and its history, we are not affiliated with any
heritage or descendant groups.
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- Our ranks include Caucasian, African American, Hispanic,
Native American, Jewish, biracial, and female troopers. We have Co. C [Dismounted,]
in Los Angeles, California, under command of Captain Edward Aguilar; Co.
D [Dismounted,] British Guard, in Hampshire, England; Co. E [Dismounted,]
in Athens, Greece; Co. F [Mounted] in Tasmania, Australia; Co. G [Dismounted]
is forming in North Queensland, Australia; Co. H is slated to form in Croatia;
Co. I is forming in South Carolina; Co. K is forming in Northern California
under the command of Capt. Mike Rodriguez; and Co. L is forming in Houston,
Texas.
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- Through painstaking research and thorough, uncommented
documentation we celebrate the courage, sacrifice, and heritage of ALL
Southerners who had to make agonizing personal choices under impossible
circumstances.
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- colonel@37thtexas.orgColonel
- Michael Kelley, CSA
- Commanding, 37th Texas Cavalry [Terrell's]
- http://www.37thtexas.org
- http://thewargallery.com
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- "We are a band of brothers!"
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- http://www.patriotist.com/black-soldier.htm
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