I was always more of a Robert Toombs supporter. Then there were the Cobb brothers - Howell and T.R.R. Of course, one of Howell’s best known quotes was “ Use all the negroes you can get, for all the purposes for which you need them, but don’t arm them. The day you make soldiers of them is the beginning of the end of the revolution. If slaves make good soldiers our whole theory of slavery is wrong ....”
Howell was apparently not well grounded in history.
Janissaries, Mamelukes and other slave soldiers in history prove conclusively that slaves can make excellent soldiers.
He was, however, quite right that their whole theory of slavery was wrong.
If I remember correctly, that quote was from a debate in early 1865 over whether to arm blacks to fight for the CSA. The Confederate Congress only agreed to do this after a plea by RE Lee for the manpower.
The weird part is how anybody in February of 1865 could think that the CSA’s attitude towards arming slaves was going to make any difference in any but the very shortest term.