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At a time of virtually total war and in a part of the world where Blacks made up a large part of the working population it's not surprising that Blacks, free or slave did much of the work for the Confederate Army. And some of those who played music or cooked or drove or hauled freight for the Confederate army may have picked up a gun in a battle, as personal servants, slave or free may have done. But it wasn't as major a phenomenon as the article makes out.

Some of the items are downright silly: anecdotal items strung together to make a case, not a serious consideration of significant facts. Douglass would make much of rumors of Black Confederates to get concessions from the Union government. Northerners would credit all manner of rumors of what was going on in the South, and may not always have distinguished troops from laborers.

Davis's last ditch feelers to gain foreign recognition shouldn't be valued more than they deserve. There was still enough support for slavery to frustrate such plans up to the last desperate weeks of the war.

It's not hard to believe that some slaves stood by their masters. But such loyalty didn't add up to what the author wants to make out of it: a vote of confidence in the Confederacy.

Wages of free black workers at one defense plant say little about the overall condition of Blacks in the Confederacy. Black Union troops, contrary to this article, did eventually receive pay equality with White troops. We have only the author's word that the same was true of Black workers with the Confederate army, and it's doubtful that he'd make the same claim about slaves under army control.

Sir Moses Ezekiel does sound like an interesting character. It's worth noting, though, that segregationist Woodrow Wilson dedicated the monument. "Black Confederates" -- real or imagined -- don't add up to racial equality or integration, as we understand such ideas.

"It's not hard to believe that some slaves stood by their masters. But such loyalty didn't add up to what the author wants to make out of it: a vote of confidence in the Confederacy."

My Italian great grandfather Carlo Victorio Lombardi was Officer in the 39TH U.S.C.T. (United States Colored Troops) and was killed in the mine explosion right after the Battle of Ft. Fisher (A Confederate Fort) in 1865. So I'm no Rebel Flag waver. But if that article is more accurate, than your above statement. Much is made today in black history of the few black slave rebellions in the South prior to the Civil War. Yet, during the Civil War, a prime time for the Southern black population to rise up in rebellion against their masters. They did not.

I know that there was much hope and expectations in the North that the Southern blacks would violently rise up against the South, as it would greatly speed the end of the war. But, again, they did not, despite the Federal governments attempts both in the Northern papers and by Northern plants in the South to agitate such an uprising.

Davis's last ditch feelers, if true, were meaningless since constitutionally Davis lacked the authority to end slavery. Neither he nor the confederate congress could make any law whatsoever affecting slave ownership. His promises, if made, were empty and were only a ruse.