| The Negro in the American Rebellion; his heroism and his fidelity,
William Wells Brown, Lee & Shepherd, Boston, 1867, page 182:
(In reference to Louisiana) "The slaves were mustered into the
rebel army,"
 |
| From The Official Louisiana Tourism web site.
The Civil War in Louisiana: An Overview
http://www.crt.state.la.us/crt/tourism/civilwar/overview.htm
"In Louisiana, the war took a heavy toll, out of proportion to
the extent of the fighting. Only three states suffered as much or more:
Virginia, Georgia and South Carolina. Approximately one-fifth of the state's
able-bodied white males and hundreds of black soldiers were killed in battle
or died of disease. Thousands of whites and blacks were maimed or permanently
disabled."
This is official state acknowledgement of the sacrifice of "hundreds"
of Black Confederate soldiers in defense of their homes.
|
| Gen. R. E. Lee's opinions on recruitment of Black Southerners for
the Confederate Army. The following messages written
by Lee's Assistant Adjutant General and expressed his official position
on the proposal for mass-enlisting Black Southerners into the Confederate
Army. The original letters are located in the Richards S. Ewell Papers,
Manuscript Division, Library of Congress:
Hd Qs CS Armies
27th March 1865
Lt Gen RS Ewell, Commdg General,
General Lee directs me to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of
the 25th inst: and to say that he much regrets the unwillingness of owners
to permit their slaves to enter the service. If the state authorities can
do nothing to get those negroes who are willing to join the army, but whose
masters refuse their consent, there is no authority to do it at all. What
benefit they expect their negroes to be to them, if the enemy occupies
the country, it is impossible to say. He hopes you will endeavor to get
the assistance of citizens who favor the measure, and bring every influence
you can to bear. When a negro is willing, and his master objects, there
would be less objection to compulsion, if the state has the authority.
It is however of primary importance that the negroes should know that the
service is voluntary on their part. As to the name of the troops, the general
thinks you cannot do better than consult the men themselves. His only objection
to calling them colored troops was that the enemy had selected that designation
for theirs. But this has no weight against the choice of the troops and
he recommends that they be called colored or if they prefer, they can be
called simply Confederate troops or volunteers. Everything should be done
to impress them with the responsibility and character of their position,
and while of course due respect and subordination should be exacted, they
should be so treated as to feel that their obligations are those of any
other soldier and their rights and privileges dependent in law & order
as obligations upon others as upon theirselves. Harshness and contemptuous
or offensive language or conduct to them must be forbidden and they should
be made to forget as soon as possible that they were regarded as menials.
You will readily understand however how to conciliate their good will &
elevate the tone and character of the men....
Very respy.
Your obt. servt.
Charles Marshall
Lt. Col & AAG
Hd. Qts. CS Armies
30th March 1865
Lt Gen RS Ewell, Commdg General,
General Lee directs me to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of
the 29th inst: and to say that he regrets very much to learn that owners
refuse to allow their slaves to enlist. He deems it of great moment that
some of this force should be put in the field as soon as possible, believing
that they will remove all doubts as to the expediency of the measure. He
regrets it the more in the case of the owners about Richmond, inasmuch
as the example would be extremely valuable, and the present posture of
military affairs renders it almost certain that if we do not get these
men, they will soon be in arms against us, and perhaps relieving white
Federal soldiers from guard duty in Richmond. He desires you to press this
view upon the owners.
He says that he regards it as very important that immediate steps be
taken to put the recruiting in operation, and has so advised the department.
He desires to have you placed in general charge of it, if agreeable to
you, as he thinks nothing can be accomplished without energetic and intelligent
effort by someone who fully appreciates the vital importance of the duty....
Very respy
Your obt servt
Charles Marshall
Lt col & AAG
|
| Miami Weekly News of Miami, Missouri, September 01, 1905. Note
that even the notorious Quantrill's Guerrillas had a Black member, who
was honored at a veterans reunion along with the rest of his comrades..
"The following is an account of the Eighth Annual Reunion at Independence
on August 25-26,1905 :Among those registered Friday morning were Captain
Ben Morrow of Lake City, Lieutenant Lee Miller of Knobnoster, Hi George
of Grain Valley, Sylvester Akers of Levasy, William Greer of Lexington,
John A. Workman of Wellington,George (Jim) Holand of Kansas City (this
the Negro spy Quantrill sent to Lawrence), A.J. Liddil of Independence
( the man Wood Hite tried to kill), J.M. Campbell of Lee's Summit, Levi
Potts of Grain Valley, Henry Frazier of Mount Washington, D. Hughes of
Hughes, Ark.; Tyler Burris (or Burns) of Mount Washington, D.S. Lane of
Armourdale, William Gaugh of Jackson County and J.C. Ervin of Marshal,
Mo. These visitors are given badges of bright red ribbon on which are pinned
a medallion portrait of Quantrell (sic). Underneath are the words : ' Eighth
Annual Reunion of Quantrill's Guerrillas, Independence, MO., August 25
and 26,1905..."
|
| Roster of Confederate Soldiers of Georgia, Confederate Veteran, Volume
XXVIII (1920), Forgotten Confederates
 Bill Yopp, colored, enlisted in the 14th Georgia
Infantry on July 9, 1861, as a drummer. He surrendered at Appomattox Court
House on April 9, 1865.
After the war, now a free man, he returned to the Yopp plantation in
Georgia and worked there until 1870. He then secured a job as bell boy
at the Brown House in Macon. From there he went to New York, California,
Europe, and then worked as a porter on the private car of the President
of the Delaware and Hudson Railway.
In his later years he returned to Georgia to find his former master,
Captain T.M. Yopp, ready to be enrolled in the Confederate Soldier's Home
in Atlanta. Bill was a frequent visitor to the home, not only to see his
former master but the other Confederate veterans as well. At Christmas,
with the help of the Macon Telegraph, he raised enough money to give each
resident in the home $3.
In 1920 Bill wrote a book entitled "Bill Yopp, 'Ten-Cent' Bill".
The book was about his exploits before, during, and after the war. The
book sold for 15 cents a copy, or $1.50 for a dozen. Proceeds were shared
by Bill and the Confederate Soldier's Home. The Confederate veterans were
so appreciative of Bills help that they took up a collection and awarded
him a medal. The board of trustees voted to allow Bill to stay at the Home
for as long as he lived. He was one of the last remaining veterans in the
Home when it closed its doors in the 1940's. Bill was also a member of
the Atlanta U.C.V. Camp.
When "Ten Cent" Bill Yopp died he was buried in the Confederate
Cemetery in Marietta, Georgia, the same place as his former master Captain
T.M. Yopp.
|
| Battlefields of the South. Vol. 2, page 253
At the Battle of Seven Pines, or Fair Oaks, near Richmond (May 31 and
June 1, 1862), a black cook and minister named Pomp who was serving with
an Alabama regiment got excited, picked up a rifle and went into the battle.
He was heard yelling at his regiment, "Der Lor' hab mercy on us all,
boys, here dey comes agin! Dar it is," he shouted, as the Yankees
fired over their heads, "just as I taught! Can't shoot worth a bad
five-cent piece. Now's de time, boys!" As the Alabamians returned
with a withering fire and mounted a furious charge, the black minister
was heard shouting, "Pitch in, white folks- Uncle Pomp's behind yer.
Send all de Yankees to de 'ternal flames, whar dere's weeping and gnashing
of-sail in Alabama; stick 'em wid de bayonet, and send all de blue ornery
cusses to de state of eternal fire and brimstone!"
|
| THE CIVIL WAR - Strange & Fascinating Facts, by Burke Davis,
Ch. 16, (Imported Warriors), pg. 100, (regarding the Avegno Zouaves of
New Orleans):
"The Avegnos Zouaves, recruited from a high stratum of society,
also had a reputation for wildness; in their ranks were Frenchmen, Chinese,
Mexicans, Italians, Spaniards, and Irishmen."
|
| Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia, Ervin
L. Jordan, Jr., (Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1995)
pp. 218-219
Tennessee in June 1861 became the first in the South to legislate the
use of free black soldiers. The governor was authorized to enroll those
between the ages of fifteen and fifty, to be paid $18 a month and the same
rations and clothing as white soldiers; the black men appeared in two black
regiments in Memphis by September
|
| "Calico, Black and Gray: Women and Blacks in the Confederacy."
Edward C. Smith, CIVIL WAR MAGAZINE, vol. VIII, No. 3, Issue XXIII, pg.
14:
To quote Dr. Lewis Steiner, Chief Inspector of the United States Sanitary
Commission while observing Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson's occupation
of Frederick, Maryland, in 1862:
"Wednesday, September 10: At 4 o'clock this morning the Rebel army
began to move from our town, Jackson's force taking the advance. The movement
continued until 8 o'clock P.M., occupying 16 hours. The most liberal calculation
could not give them more than 64,000 men. Over 3,000 Negroes must be included
in the number. . . . They had arms, rifles, muskets, sabers, bowie-knives,
dirks, etc. They were supplied, in many instances, with knapsacks, haversacks,
canteens, etc., and they were manifestly an integral portion of the Southern
Confederacy army. They were seen riding on horses and mules, driving wagons,
riding on caissons, in ambulances, with the staff of generals and promiscuously
mixed up with all the Rebel horde."
|
| North Carolina Troops, Volume I: - (Notice that these blacks
were paroled and exchanged just as white soldiers would have been. It should
be noted that most if not all captured Confederates were offered the opportunity
to sign the Oath of Allegiance. Notice that none of them did except the
fourth man listed, Daniel Herring. And even he didn't agree to sign it
until more than two months Lee's surrender!)
"When Fort Fisher fell to the Union troops in January, 1865, the
following blacks are recorded as being among the captured Confederates:
Charles Dempsey, Private, Company F, 36th NC Regiment (2nd NC
Artillery), Negro. Captured at Fort Fisher January 15, 1865 and
confined at Point Lookout, MD, until paroled and exchanged at Coxes Landing,
James River, VA, February 14-15, 1865.
Henry Dempsey, Private, Company F, 36th NC Regiment (2nd NC Artillery),
Negro. Captured at Fort Fisher January 15, 1865 and confined at
Point Lookout, MD, until paroled and exchanged at Coxes Landing, James
River, VA, February 14-15, 1865.
J. Doyle, Private, Company E, 40th NC Regiment (3rd NC Artillery),
Negro. Captured at Fort Fisher January 15, 1865 and confined at
Point Lookout, MD, until paroled and exchanged at Boulware's Wharf, James
River, VA, March 16, 1865.
Daniel Herring, Cook, Company F, 36th NC Regiment (2nd NC Artillery),
Negro. Captured at Fort Fisher January 15, 1865 and confined at
Point Lookout, MD, until released after taking Oath of Allegiance June
19, 1865 (he was held prisoner for two months AFTER the official surrender)." |
