~~According to the 1860 Census, blacks made up 1.2% of the population of the Northern states and 40.2% of the Southern states (excluding the border states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri from both groups).

~~"Race prejudice seems stronger in those states that have abolished slavery than in those where it still exists, and nowhere is it more intolerant than in those states where slavery was never known." (Source: Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, circa 1830)

Did Blacks Serve in the Civil War?

Yes, they did exist, Black Confederates.  National Park Service historian, Ed Bearss, stated, "I don't want to call it a conspiracy to ignore the role of blacks both above and below the Mason-Dixon line, but it was definitely a tendency that began around 1910."  Historian, Erwin L. Jordan, Jr., calls it a "cover-up" which started back in 1865.  He writes, "During my research, I came across instances where black men stated they were soldiers, but you can plainly see where 'soldier' is crossed out and 'body servant' inserted, or 'teamster' on pension applications."  Another black historian, Roland Young, says he is not surprised that blacks fought.  He explains that "some, if not most, black southerners would support their country" and that by doing so they were "demonstrating it's possible to hate the system of slavery and love one's country."  This is the very same reaction that most black Americans showed during the American Revolution, where they fought for the colonies, even though the British offered them freedom if they fought for them.  It must be remembered that blacks were patriots too, whether to their land or to their cause.

It has been estimated that over 65,000 Southern blacks were in the Confederate ranks.  Over 13,000 of these, "saw the elephant" also known as meeting the enemy in combat.  These Black Confederates included both slave and free.  Many blacks who went to war did so to serve as protectors and servants of their masters who had signed up to fight.  They saw to their needs on the front and even carried them home on wagons if they were killed in battle.  The Confederate Congress did not approve blacks to be officially enlisted as soldiers (except as musicians), until late in the war.  Generals such as Patrick Cleburne and Robert E. Lee advocated using black troops to aid in the cause.  Just before Grant marched into Richmond a fresh unit of black soldiers paraded down the street in the trappings of regular Confederate soldiers.  But in the ranks it was a different story.  Many Confederate officers did not obey the mandates of politicians, they frequently enlisted blacks with the simple criteria, "Will you fight?"  Historian Ervin Jordan, explains that "biracial units" were frequently organized "by local Confederate and State militia Commanders in response to immediate threats in the form of Union raids."  Dr. Leonard Haynes, a black professor at Southern University, stated, "When you eliminate the black Confederate soldier, you've eliminated the history of the South."  Overall, many students of Civil War history forget that blacks, slave or free, were not just passive observers of the conflict.  They had opinions about it as well as goals and they were just as "southern" as anyone in the South.

As the war came to an end, the Confederacy took progressive measures to build back up its army.  The creation of the Confederate States Colored Troops, copied after the segregated northern colored troops, came too late to be successful.  Had the Confederacy been successful, it would have created the world's largest armies (at the time) consisting of black soldiers, even larger than that of the North. This would have given the future of the Confederacy a vastly different appearance than what modern day racist or anti-Confederate liberals conjecture.  Not only did Jefferson Davis envision black Confederate veterans receiving bounty lands for their service, there would have been no future for slavery after the goal of 300,000 armed black CSA veterans came home after the war.  Consequently, black Confederates showed up at veterans reunions forever afterward and were held in high regard by their comrades in arms.  The memory of the black Confederate should remain a revered, studied and honored one.

More Facts About Black Confederate

1.  The "Richmond Howitzers" were partially manned by black men.  They saw action at 1st Manassas where they operated battery number two.  In addition two black "regiments", one free and one slave, participated in the battle on behalf of the South. "Many colored people were killed in the action", recorded John Parker, a former slave.

2.  At least one Black Confederate was a non-commissioned officer.  James Washington, Co. D 35th Texas Cavalry,  Confederate States Army, became it's 3rd Sergeant.  Higher ranking black commissioned officers served in militia units, but this was on the State militia level (Louisiana) and not the regular army.

3.  Free black musicians, cooks, soldiers and teamsters earned the same pay as white confederate privates.  This was not the case in the Union army where blacks did not receive equal pay.  At the Confederate Buffalo Forge in Rockbridge County, Virginia, skilled black workers earned on average three times the wages of white Confederate soldiers and more than most Confederate army officers (three hundred fifty to six hundred dollars a year).

4.  Dr. Lewis Steiner, Chief Inspector of the United States Sanitary Commission while observing General "Stonewall" Jackson's occupation of Frederick, Maryland, in 1862 that "Over 3,000 Negroes must be included in this number [Confederate troops].  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.....and were manifestly an integral portion of the Southern Confederate Army."

5.  Frederick Douglas reported, "There are at the present moment many colored men in the Confederate Army doing duty not only as cooks, servants and laborers, but real soldiers, having musket on their shoulders, and bullets in their pockets, ready to shoot down any loyal troops and do all that soldiers may do to destroy the Federal government and build up that of the Rebels."

6.  Black and white militiamen returned heavy fire on Union troops at the Battle of Griswoldsville, near Macon, Georgia.  Approximately 600 boys and elderly men were killed in this skirmish.

7.  In 1864, President Jefferson Davis approved a plan that proposed the emancipation of slaves, in return for the official recognition of the Confederacy by Britain and France.  France showed interest but Britain refused.

8.  The Jackson Battalion included two companies of black soldiers.  They saw combat at Petersburg under Colonel Shipp. Said Colonel Shipp, "My men acted with utmost promptness and goodwill...Allow me to state sir that they behaved in an extraordinarily acceptable manner."

9.  Recently the National Park Service, with a recent discovery, recognized that blacks were asked to help defend the city of Petersburg, Virginia and were offered their freedom if they did so. Regardless of their official classification, black Americans performed support functions that in today's army many would be classified as official military service.

10.  Confederate General John B. Gordon, Army of Northern Virginia, reported that all of his troops were in favor of Colored troops and that it's adoption would have "greatly encouraged the army." General Lee was anxious to receive regiments of black soldiers.  The Richmond Sentinel reported on 24 Mar 1864, "None will deny that our servants are more worthy of respect than the motley hordes which come against us."  "Bad faith [to black Confederates] must be avoided as an indelible dishonor."

11.  In March 1865, Judah P. Benjamin, Confederate Secretary Of State, promised freedom for blacks who served from the State of Virginia.  Authority for this was finally received from the State of Virginia and on April 1st 1865, one hundred dollar bounties were offered to black soldiers.  Benjamin exclaimed, "Let us say to every Negro who wants to go into the ranks, go and fight, and you are free Fight for your masters and you shall have your freedom."  Confederate Officers were ordered to treat them humanely and protect them from "injustice and oppression."

12.  A quota was set for 300,000 black soldiers for the Confederate States Colored Troops.  Eighty-three percent of Richmond's male slave population volunteered for duty.  A special ball was held in Richmond to raise money for uniforms for these men. Before Richmond fell, black Confederates in gray uniforms drilled in the streets.  Due to the war ending, it is believed only companies or squads of these troops ever saw any action.  Many more black soldiers fought for the North, but that difference was simply a difference because the North instituted this progressive policy sooner than the more conservative South.

13.  Union General U.S. Grant in Feb 1865, ordered the capture of "all the Negro men before the enemy can put them in their ranks."  Frederick Douglass warned Lincoln that unless slaves were guaranteed freedom and land bounties, "they would take up arms for the rebels".

14.  On April 4, 1865 (Amelia County, VA), a Confederate supply train was exclusively manned and guarded by black Infantry.  When attacked by Federal Cavalry, they stood their ground and fought off the charge, but on the second charge they were overwhelmed.  These soldiers are believed to be from "Major Turner's" Confederate unit.

15.  Federals attempted to bribe a black Confederate named George after he was captured.  He defiantly spoke, "Sir, you want me to desert, and I ain't no deserter.  Down South, deserters disgrace their families and I am never going to do that."

16.  Former slave, Horace King, accumulated great wealth as a contractor to the Confederate Navy.  He was also an expert engineer and became known as the "Bridge builder of the Confederacy." One of his bridges was burned in a Yankee raid.  His home was pillaged by Union troops, as his wife pleaded for mercy.

17.  As of Feb. 1865 1,150 black seamen served in the Confederate Navy.  One of these was among the last Confederates to surrender, aboard the CSS Shenandoah, six months after the war ended.

18.  Nearly 180,000 black Southerners, from Virginia alone, provided logistical support for the Confederate military.  Many were highly skilled workers.  These included a wide range of jobs:  nurses, military engineers, teamsters, ordnance department workers, brakemen, firemen, harness makers, blacksmiths, wagon makers, boatmen, mechanics, wheelwrights, etc.  In the 1920s Confederate pensions were finally allowed to some of those workers that were still living.  Many thousands more served in other Confederate States.

19.  During the early 1900's, many members of the United Confederate Veterans (UCV) advocated awarding former slaves rural acreage and a home.  There was hope that justice could be given those slaves that were once promised "forty acres and a mule" but never received any.  In the 1913 Confederate Veteran magazine published by the UCV, it was printed that this plan "If not Democratic, it is [the] Confederate thing to do.  There was much gratitude toward former slaves, which "thousands were loyal, to the last degree," now living with total poverty of the big cities.  Unfortunately, their proposal fell on deaf ears on Capitol Hill.

20.  During the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1913, arrangements were made for a joint reunion of Union and Confederate veterans.  The commission in charge of the event made sure they had enough accommodations for the black Union veterans, but were completely surprised when unexpected black Confederates arrived.  The white Confederates immediately welcomed their old comrades, gave them one of their tents, and "saw to their every need."

21.  The first military monument in the US Capitol that honors a black American soldier is the Confederate monument at Arlington National cemetery.  The monument was designed in 1914 by Moses Ezekiel, a Jewish Confederate.  Who wanted to correctly portray the "racial makeup" in the Confederate Army.  A black Confederate soldier is depicted marching in step with white Confederate soldiers.  Also shown is one "white soldier giving his child to a black woman for protection."

22.  Black Confederate heritage is beginning to receive the attention it deserves.  For instance, Terri Williams, a black journalist for the Suffolk "Virginia Pilot" newspaper, writes: "I've had to re-examine my feelings toward the [Confederate] flag when I read a newspaper article about an elderly black man whose ancestor worked with the Confederate forces.  The man spoke with pride about his family member's contribution to the cause and was photographed with the [Confederate] flag draped over his lap.  That's why I now have no definite stand on just what the flag symbolizes, because it no longer is their history, or my history, but our history."

23.  One of the best marksmen in the Confederacy was an African-American who outfitted himself in a sniper roost in an almost perfect hiding spot inside a brick chimney from which he proceeded to shoot Yankees at their nearby camp.  Any Union soldier who dared to come into his range was fired at.  Several times the Federalize called up to the sniper to desert, but the black Confederate ignored their appeals.  This ordeal ended when a regiment was marched off to fire a volley at the chimney, eventually putting a bullet through the sniper's head.

24.  Black servants, many who were excellent musicians and good singers, kept the soldiers spirits up in camp.  'When life became sad or monotonous for Jeb Stuart's officers, they frequently built a roaring fire, formed a large circle, and had the servants dance and sing to the music of the banjo.'  Soldiers who had come from plantations knew about their slaves musical talents, a fact which might explain why a few body servants were called on to be musicians for the units to which their masters belonged.

25.  Robin, a black servant with the "Stonewall" Brigade, demonstrates black patriotism.  According to the newspaper the Richmond Whig, he was imprisoned for a time away from his master and then offered his freedom on the condition he take an oath and swear allegiance to the United States.  Robin stated, in the Richmond Whig, 'I will never disgrace my family by such an oath.'  After the siege of Vicksburg there were servants who were captured along with their masters who could have had their freedom.  But instead of their freedom they chose to share in the cruelties of the northern prisons with which they had been serving in the Confederate army.

Resources:

Charles Kelly Barrow, et. al. Forgotten Confederates: An Anthology About Black Southerners (1995).

Ervin L. Jordan, Jr. Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia (1995).

Richard Rollins. Black Southerners in Gray (1994).

Dr. Edward Smith and Nelson Winbush, "Black Southern Heritage".

On the South: All of this information is obtained from Coats' Facts Historians Leave Out

Here's some "Hurrah for Southerners!" information.  If you don't like Southerners, you probably won't like this page.

Five events birthed our nation.

(1) The First Continental Congress, which sent to George III our declaration of rights. Its President was Peyton Randolph.

(2) The agitation for armed resistance led by Patrick Henry.

(3) The Declaration of Independence authored by Thomas Jefferson.

(4) The First American Revolution. Our Commander-in- Chief was George Washington.

(5) The adoption of the Constitution. Its father was James Madison.

All these men were Southern men: Jefferson promoted the Louisiana Purchase. Andrew Jackson led our army at New Orleans. Polk guided the nation during the War with Mexico and led to securing then Texas, New Mexico, and California. These were all Southern. Four of the first five Presidents were Southern. Seven of the first ten were from the South. Ten of the first thirteen were natives of the Blessed Region.

Words of Mr.Lincoln: When once read, one may find himself having been "enamoured of an ass." These are the words of Mr. Lincoln: 12/22/1860 "Do the people of the South really entertain fears that a Republican administration would, directly or indirectly, interfere with their slaves? If they do, I wish to assure you, that there is no cause for such fears." 3/4/1861 Inauguration "I declare that I have no intention, directly or indirectly, to interfere with slavery in the states where it exists." 1847, Congress "Any people, anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, a most sacred right."

Did the South Fight for Slavery? One in fifteen whites ever owned a slave. There were 350,000 slave owners, but 800,000 Confederate soldiers. What did the rest fight for? General Robert E. Lee freed his slaves long before the War, and declared slavery "a moral and political evil." At Appomattox, General Lee, who had freed his slaves, surrendered to a slave owner General Ulysses S. Grant.

Who Imported Slaves? Dutch and British vessels engaged in the slave trade, as well as American ships. Massachusetts Puritans captured their Pequot Indian neighbors and sold them into slavery in the West Indies, as well as importing Africans. Between 1755 and 1766, Massachusetts imported 23,000 African captives. In 1787, Rhode Island was the leading importer of humans. New York later took the lead. Philadelphia soon found the trade profitable. The slave trade was abolished in 1808, but in 1820, Northern smugglers were still importing 40,000 Africans a year.

Secession?  In the South? In 1803, New England leaders enraged over the admission of Louisiana into the Union threatened to secede. In 1814, New Englanders held the Hartford Convention to discuss withdrawal from the Union. In 1845, John Quincy Adams and other New Englanders opposed to the admission of Texas to the Union urged secession. When the Southern States exercised their Constitutional right to secede from the Union, these same New England states were first, with Mr. Lincoln, to prosecute war against them. "Frederick Law Olmstead, one of the most realistic of Northern travelers in the South, rejected the myth, perpetuated in the North by abolitionists and some neoabolitionist writers of our time, that the Southern slaves were savagely treated. Rather, he found in his three journeys into the South in the 1850's that the slaves of the South were better fed and housed than any poletarian class in the world.

Although on large plantations in the Southwest he saw Negro drivers cracking whips over the heads of negligent and lazy workers, he noted that they seldom whipped them. In all his travels in the South he saw only one case of a severe flogging of a slave by an overseer. Masters tended to rebuke or dismiss overseers for brutality and to limit the mumber of lashes applied to offenders. William K. Scarborough, in his study, observes that 'the majority of southern overseers treated the Negroes in their charge fairly well.' These floggings should be viewed in the context of the normal practice during that age of parents and schoolmasters of flogging children for offenses. Catherine C. Hopley, an English woman, tutor to the children of Governor John Milton on his plantation near Tallahassee, Florida, observed that the slaves were seldom whippped, but that the children of the master were frequently flogged." Source: Eaton, Clement. JEFFERSON DAVIS, pp. 42-44.

FAQ about the War for Southern Independence:

'I love the Union and the Constitution, but I would rather leave the Union with the Constitution than remain in the Union without it.' ---President Jefferson Davis

'I am with the South in death, in victory or defeat. I never owned a Negro and care nothing for them, but these people have been my friends and have stood up to me on all occasions. In addition to this, I believe the North is about to wage a brutal and unholy war on a people who have done them no wrong, in violation of the constitution and the fundamental principles of the government. They no longer acknowledge that all government derives its validity from the consent of the governed.'--General Patrick Cleburne

'Under Federal Legislation, the exports of the South have been the basis of the Federal Revenue. Virginia, the two Carolina's, and Georgia, may be said to defray three fourths of the annual expense of supporting the Federal Government; and of this great sum, annually furnished by them, nothing or next to nothing is returned to them, in the shape of Government expenditures. that expenditure flows in an opposite direction -- it flows north, in one uniform, uninterrupted and perennial stream. This is the reason why wealth disappears from the south and rises up in the north. Federal Legislation does this.' ~ Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton

Abraham Lincoln during his stint as Illinois US Representative regarding Texas independence, 'Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable a most sacred right a right, which we hope and believe is to liberate the world. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government, may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that can, may revolutionize, and make their own, of so much territory as they inhabit.'

A little over 10 years later after the South attempted precisely that Lincoln, when asked 'Why not let the South go in peace?', replied: 'I can't let them go. Who would pay for the government?' 'And, what then will become of my tariff?' Abraham Lincoln to Virginia compromise delegation, March 1861.

New Orleans Daily Crescent-1861, 'They (the South) know that it is their import trade that draws from the people's pockets sixty or seventy millions of dollars per annum, in the shape of duties, to be expended mainly in the North, and in the protection and encouragement of Northern interest.... These are the reasons why these people do not wish the South to secede from the Union. They (the North) are enraged at the prospect of being despoiled of the rich feast upon which they have so long fed and fattened, and which they were just getting ready to enjoy with still greater gout and gusto. They are as mad as hornets because the prize slips them just as they are ready to grasp it.'

Lincoln said: ' ... in saving the union, I have destroyed the Republic. Before me I have the Confederacy, which I loath. *But behind me I have the bankers, which I fear.'

English author Charles Dickens: 'The Northern onslaught upon slavery was no more than a piece of specious humbug designed to conceal its desire for economic control of the Southern states.' Charles Dickens, 1862

Colonel Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, at the dedication of the Confederate monument at Old Chapel in Clarke County, Virginia: 'It is stated in books and papers that Southern children read and study that all the blood-shedding and destruction of property of that conflict was because the South rebelled without cause to preserve human slavery, and that their defeat was necessary for free government and the welfare of the human family.

As a Confederate soldier and as a citizen of Virginia, I deny the charge, and enounce it as a calumny. We were not rebels; we did not fight to perpetuate human slavery, but for our rights and privileges under a government established over us by our fathers and in defense of our homes.'

Native of Ireland and immigrant Arkansan, CSA Major General Patrick Cleburne,'...... I believe the North is about to wage a brutal and unholy war in violation of the Constitution...They no longer acknowledge that all government derives its validity from the consent of the governed. They are about to invade our peaceful homes...We propose no invasion of the North, no attack on them, and only ask to be left alone.

President Jefferson Davis, 'If this action is once tolerated, where will it end? Where is constitutional liberty? What strength is there in bills of rights-in limitation of power? What new hope for mankind is to be found in written constitutions, what remedy which did not exist under kings of emperors? If the doctrines thus announced by the government of the United States are conceded, then look through either end of the political telescope, and one sees only an empire, and the once famous Declaration of Independence trodden in the dust of as a 'glittering generality,' and the compact of the union denounced as a 'flaunting lie'. I love the Union and the Constitution, but I would rather leave the Union with the Constitution than remain in the Union without it. Those who submit to such consequence without resistance are not worthy the liberties and rights to which they were born, and deserve to be made slaves. Such must be the verdict of mankind.'

Robert E. Lee , 'All that the South has ever desired was the Union as established by our forefathers should be preserved and that the government as originally organized should be administered in purity and truth.'

To the governor of Texas after a few years of northern 'reconstruction'- 'Governor, if I had foreseen the use those people designed to make of their victory, there would have been no surrender at Appomattox Courthouse; no sir, not by me. Had I foreseen these results of subjugation, I would have preferred to die at Appomattox with my brave men, my sword in this right hand.' CSA General Robert E. Lee

Long ago (1281 A.D.), Sir William Wallace, leader of the Scot resistance against English oppression said, 'Any society which suppresses the heritage of its conquered minorities, prevents their history, and denies them their symbols, has sewn the seed of its own destruction.'

It took until 1703 A.D. for England to fully conquer the Scots and thereafter to ban the wearing of kilts, Scot clan symbols and even the playing of bagpipes. 250 years later, the British Empire was no more. 73 years after England had fully defeated the Scots, the predominately Celtic (Scots and Scots Irish) immigrants who settled and built the South, won independence from England. They established a government based on the principles of ordered liberty enshrined in the Constitution of the United States of America. 71 years later, using what Thomas Jefferson called the 'Whig Party trick' of agitation over the slavery issue, and which even Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster admitted had delayed the end of slavery not advanced it, the descendants of the English who had settled in the New England section of the United States violated the US Constitution in an attempt to recast the government of the founders' into one which served their interests more directly without hindrance from the Southern (Celtic) section of the country.

The States of the South refused to see the law of the land violated and chose as its (Kentucky born and educated) leader, Jefferson Davis, the descendant of Celtic (Welsh) Baptists who had immigrated to South Carolina in 1660 A.D. seeking respite from English dominance. But rather than this story we have instead the deception that the 'Civil War' was fought to end slavery and racism, when slavery ended everywhere else without a war.