The Forgotten and Ignored Black Confederate Soldier
Having received the following in an e-mail, I am 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, the following information helps 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. --VHP
"The Forgotten Black Confederate Soldier" What we have been taught and made to believe has been edited, expurgated, abridged, censored and just plain re-written for more than 148 years.
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:
"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 (US Federal) government, and to deprive us of our rights and liberties."
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.
Black Southerners proudly fought alongside white, Hispanic, Indian, Jewish and thousands of foreign-born Southerners. They fought as documented by even Union sources:
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 (Union) 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 two rebel negro regiments."
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 negroes 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 Indian 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.
The Federal account at the time showed total disbelief that the blacks (most slaves were freed BEFORE the Lincoln War even began that the re-written Federal 'history' does not reveal, nor wants revealed) that blacks so proudly and willingly fought for the South. In the North, Blacks were forced to fight in Lincoln's armies under threat of death and often were killed by the white Northern soldiers just for being black - their own side. Astonished were the Yankees how blacks and whites and all other races fought side by side in equality in all the Southern armies. There was absolutely NO racism, as there was in the Northern armies. This amazed the Yankees, who were totally white supremacists.
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. They lied to them promising them good jobs and money if the blacks would stop being loyal to their former masters and the south. Then the captured blacks were led north and were turned into REAL slaves and the young males were forced to be soldiers in Lincoln's army against their own Southern nation and people, and tortured to death if they refused. Southern blacks were not used to being brutally treated like they were in the north. They were treated like family by Southerners even when they were considered 'slaves', a term the south detested. These facts the North never allowed to be known publicly or in any 'history' book!
At the Battle of the Crater white Union soldiers bayoneted their own retreating Black Union soldiers and the (black) 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. Blacks of the North were fired upon from both sides and were basically deliberately sacrificed by the Yankee armies. The Northern blacks had no place to turn. Any who tried to flee back south were killed (hung) when found. [But some did make it back and told of these Yankee atrocities.]
Since the "Civil War" the United States (Federal) flag has flown over a country that has continued attempted genocide against its Native Peoples (Indian) 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.
The Yankee North has always been the slave nation and the US Yankee Federal flag has always been the flag of true slavery over anyone who is not white, however they also made slaves out of whites as well, another fact they never want out to the public. It is ironic how they (North) have twisted all facts to APPEAR as if the south did all the actual crimes that they did themselves, and the south fought against; that the North has so well indoctrinated their lies into the black American people today to believe that the freedom flags against tyranny and against slavery that are the southern flags, are today seen as hate or racism flags when they have always been the opposite. Their own ancestors proudly flew the Southern flags right up to the 1950's. Only one flag from this continent flew over the slave ships and slavery - and that is the US Federal northern flag - the TRUE FLAG OF SLAVERY and Tyranny.
Take note of the first quote on this report on how the 'victor' writes the 'history' on how people will be taught it was, even though the entire account fed to the nation's people has been a total lie. Blacks, Indians, Jews, Cubans, Mexicans, Italians, Welsh, Irish, etc. all fought for the Southern Confederacy for good reason. These were all races who were, and are still, intensely hated by the white supremacist North. There was never any hate in the original south before all the infiltrations by Yankees from the north who brought their racism with them and implanted it into the South to make it APPEAR that hate centered in the south, which is a total lie and deliberate deception - that is still ongoing. The Southern Nation has always been the Christian America; whereas the Northern America has always been Unitarian, which is not based on Christianity. The original Founders were ALL Christians or at least believed that the nation required a Christian (Biblical) moral ethic (contrary to re-written modern 'history') and most were from the Southern Nation (CSA).
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.
Use and Enjoy these relevant quotes from history:
"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
"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
Yankee's left their black wounded to die where they fell :
" ...As usual with the (Yankee) 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
Yankees deliberately fired on their own black soldiers : [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 (white)battalion or regiment charged up to the moat, halted, and did not attempt to join us (the black soldiers), 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
Yankees Killed Their Own Black Soldiers Who Refused to Sacrifice Themselves to Shield White Soldiers : [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 (Black soldiers) 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
The 37th Texas Cavalry:
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.
We have the largest, most visited "Civil War" re-enactor 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.
Our ranks include Caucasian, African American, Hispanic, Native American, Jewish, bi-racial, 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.
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.
I have met and worked a couple of KKK protest with Col. Kelly. He is well educated and a fine fellow to just talk to. He is also one of the leading experts on minorities serving in the Confederacy. Sgt Bob Harrison of Virginia also of the 37th Texas is a black man who never receives any publicity, but has been defending his Confederate heritage for many years; he too should be recognized for his efforts.
Truth be know it was either Col. Kelly or Sgt. Harrison who gave me the first CBF I ever owned.
Good to know that the "source" is trustworthy even though there were other sources presented. Sometimes people have an agenda and can take "facts" and twist them until they are unrecognizable. That the gentleman is trustworthy is a very good thing to know. It gives one confidence to repeat his information.
Yes it is. I trust Col. Kelly's research 100% and to the best of my knowledge he doesn't really have an agenda, although I won't say that as proof positive, it is just I have never picked up on it.
