Posted on 02/26/2005 9:53:22 PM PST by SmithL
The month of February has begun and so has the celebration of Black History Month in the nation, schools and communities. Throughout this time, many noteworthy leaders, citizens, scientists and soldiers who fought in wars and conflicts will be recognized.
However, there is one group of African Americans who will receive no recognition again this year during this month. I am speaking of black Confederates who served and fought to defend their homeland from what they believed to be an armed invasion.
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The South was home to some 4 million who lived there and had roots going back more than 200 years. Deep devotion, love of homeland and strong Christian faith joined black with white Confederate soldiers in defense of their homes and families.
A conservative estimate is that between 50,000 to 60,000 served in the Confederate units. Both slave and free black soldiers served as cooks, musicians and even combatants. The first northern officer killed in battle was Maj. Theodore Winthrop, who was shot by a black sniper of the Wythe Rifles of Hampton, Va.
The most amazing fact concerning black Confederates is that they served within the Confederate units alongside their white brothers in arms while their Union counterparts were kept separate in all-black units led by white officers (as portrayed in the movie "Glory").
In fact, it was not until 1950 that the U.S. military integrated its units at the start of the Korean War.
On Jan. 22, H.K. Edgerton, a former head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in North Carolina, was the keynote speaker for the annual Sons of Confederate Veterans dinner in Knoxville. Although his scheduled appearance to speak on southern heritage and black Confederates was published a week ahead in the local paper, not one representative of any established mainstream news media was present to record his comments.
Edgerton was the second African American to speak on black Confederates and other historical facts in the last five years whose comments were only heard by the attendees and went unpublished. Dr. Leonard Haynes, a professor at Southern University, stated: "When you eliminate the black Confederate soldier, you've eliminated the history of the South."
For those who have been taught or misled to think the people in the northern cities were more tolerant and supportive of their black population, look up the Draft Riots of 1863.
Maj. Arthur Fremantle of the British Army was an observer for Queen Victoria and spent three months with the Army of Northern Virginia and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Freemantle kept a diary and had arrived in New York City just in time to personally observe and witness the worst riots in our history.
He included in his diary seeing gangs of white men chasing, beating and even hanging blacks. Some black men and women were even pulled from their homes and beaten. Police and militias were called out, and more than 1,200 people lost their lives during the three days of riots.
The rioters resented free blacks being excluded from the draft since they were not considered citizens. The motion picture "Gangs of New York" shows some of this violence.
In closing, I have written this article in the hope that it will ignite people to research, read, study and discover the true historical facts. For me to remain silent as an American citizen, Southerner, retired soldier and living historian and ignore the service and sacrifices of these forgotten soldiers is unacceptable.
I quote the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who said: "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
Funny the southerners, in the entire decade leading up to Lincoln's election, didn't complain about tariffs. Funny that the ONLY THING they talked about was slavery; it was the ONLY THING their state legislatures legislated against; the ONLY THING their mail/censorship laws dealt with; and the ONLY THING that their entire religion changed over.
The only thing "tripping you up" is truth. You're clearly a Lincoln-hater and will use any deception to conceal the fact that slavery was the central issue in the Confederacy, and the sole reason they saw Lincoln as a threat.
Allowing for the possibility that you have read the debates in Congress for the entire decade, etc., you conveniently leave out of the equation the fact that both the Pierce and Buchanan Administrations were very friendly to the South. They did not have that much to complain of, except the fact that mobs in the North were interfering with Southern rights in some areas, and that the Abolitionist influence was on the rise in the new Republican Party.
It wasn't about slavery per se. It didn't matter what the particular precipitant was. The fact was that the South was being smeared in the North, and in the four way division at the polls in 1860, a purely sectional party--entirely non-Southern had captured the Federal Executive.
If you are not aware of the viciousness of the Abolitionist assault on their fellow Americans, read Daniel Webster's comments on the same: Webster Address. (We quote Webster's speech, rather than a Southern one, because Webster was definitely anti-slavery. But he loved the Union and the Constitutional compact, which respected all the States, more than his personal feelings on that particular issue.)
I do not know why you, as a man interested in history, do not have the decency and kindness to respect those Southern Negroes who were in fact loyal to their States. Why does that bother you? Booker T. Washington also alludes to that fact in his classic speech in Atlanta, 1895: Booker T. Washington Address.
William Flax
slaves could NOT/did NOT serve in the CSA, as they were NOT free to take the oath of enlistment.
the 100,000+ black men (and NOT a few women, btw!) who served HONORABLY in the PACSA were FREEmen, who were fighting for their families,homes,farms,state & EACH OTHER.
in point of fact, the blacks who served the TRUE CAUSE were just as good as soldiers as their NON-black compatriots-in-arms in the ranks.
the army of dixie was about 20% NON-white.
free dixie,sw
do you think they were TOO DUMB to know?
our black troops in gray were fighting for precisely the same thing as the NON-black troops = FREEDOM FOR DIXIE!
free dixie,sw
slaves could NOT be soldiers, as they were NOT FREE to take the oath of enlistment.
free dixie,sw
the VAST majority of the 100,000+ black CSA soldiers served in DESEGREGATED units.
MANY, until their deaths, were full members of the United Confederate Veterans.
free diixe,sw
Slaves were offered their freedom in return for signing up. See Jordan, "Afro-Yankees and Black Confederates in Civil War Virginia," Virginia University Press. Moreover, there were some---though not many---"free men of color" still in Virginia on the eve of the Civil War who could sign up.
I'm well aware of abolitionists. I'm also well aware that southern slave owners engaged in mob action when someone so much as breathed a word about abolition---so much so that mob violence related to slavery (but not on the part of slaves) constituted the single most common type of mob activity in the antebellum south.
That is simply nonsense. The difference between a laborer in a uniform, who was deliberately NOT given a gun nor trained in firearms because of fear he would revolt, and a soldier is the difference between night and day. The statistics showing ANY percentage of Confederate "soldiers" is highly misleading. The numbers of blacks who actually held a weapon was infinitessimal. See for example (though I know you won't bother to consult real scholarship), Jordan, "Afro Yankees and Black Confederates in Civil War Virginia," just for example.
Because he did not have the Constitutional power to outlaw slavery in non-rebel states.
Sure. Traitors deserve no better.
Of course it did. Free blacks came from former slaves.
Well said.
The point being that the North was not 'Heaven' for free blacks.
I used to have an article bookmarked that was written shortly after the civil war and had some excellent insight into the history of the time.
But apparently I am an idiot and can'r remember how to see my bookmarks.
I'm an idiot too, so don't feel bad :o)
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