There were practically no black confederates.
But this is interesting:
" Kudos to Carroll Wilson for his Sunday column ("A lack of evidence: Blacks did not fight for the South, despite what Confederate apologists argue," July 9, page 6B). Robert McNeely's (letter to the editor, "Fighting for states rights," March 25, page 6B) and Randy Hill's (letter to the editor, "Blacks fought for South,"March 24, page 7B) reference to the 1st Louisiana Regiment of Native Guards has enough spin on it to make a statue of Abe Lincoln dizzy.
The Louisiana "Native Guards" were organized years before the Civil War. When the war came, they offered themselves to the Confederate leadership because it was the only government they had to offer themselves to in order to maintain and enhance their status as "free people of color." But the Confederacy turned down the offer. When the United States took New Orleans, the Native Guards offered themselves to the United States for the rest of the war, killing many Confederates.
When New Orleans was evacuated by the Confederate authorities in March 1862 they were ordered to report to Mjr. Gen. John Lewis, who commanded the state militia under the orders of Gov. Thomas O. Moore, but the Native Guards did not leave. The Creole in command, instead of following the Confederate troops out of the city when they evacuated it, allowed his command to be cut off, and then volunteered to Union Gen. Butler to serve in the Union. On June 6, 1863, the four regiments of the Louisiana Guards were transferred into the Corps d'Afrique. On April 4, 1864, these regiments were designated the 73rd, 74th, 75th and 76th Regiments of Infantry, United States Colored Troops, respectively, and served in that capacity 'til the end of the Civil War. On May 27, 1863, the "free blacks" of the Louisiana Regiments were to distinguish themselves in the battle of Port Hudson against Confederate forces before the 54th Massachusetts Regiment would storm Fort Wagner and gain modern fame in the movie "Glory." An editorial in the New York Tribune of June 8,1863, eloquently declared: "That heap of six hundred corpses, lying there dark and grim and silent and within the Rebel works, is a better proclamation of freedom than even President Lincoln's. A race ready to die thus was never yet retained in bondage and never can be."
Walt
I thought this was neat.
"On the steaming night of June 6, 1863, four rebel regiments surprised black guards. The black novices, soldiers for only sixteen days, fumbled with their guns, fell back, stood firm, and flashed their bayonets. The blacks' white captain called the ensuing bayonet brawl "a horrible fight, the worst I was ever engaged in—not even excepting Shiloh."
In one ironic tableau, a Union black and a Confederate white lay slam, arms locked like brothers, each with the other's bayonet planted in his belly. At last, a Union ship reinforced the unyielding blacks, and the rebels retreated.
Black soldiers, declared an astounded Confederate battle report, resisted us "with considerable obstinacy, while the white or true Yankee portion ran like whipped curs."
One Confederate master suffered the best proof of black obstinacy. His slave captured him "and brought him into camp with great gusto." A Wisconsin cavalry officer described the lesson many Northerners learned from Fort Wagner and Milliken's Bend (and from the battle for Port Hudson, Louisiana, where black troops futilely charged and their bodies were left to rot under the blazing sun), "I never believed in niggers before, but by Jasus, they are hell for fighting."
--"The South vs. the South" p. 127 by William Freehling
Guess them white boys just weren't suited for fighting.
Walt