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The life of Ike Pringle has become a sort of enigma for local historians who are trying to figure out exactly what role the slave played in the American Civil War. Born in May, 1841, Isaac, or Ike as he was better known, was owned by the Pringle family that lived and owned land around Vimville. Ike took on the name of his owners and was forever called Ike Pringle. At an early age he was given to the grandson of the family, Frank Pringle. Not that far apart in age, the two basically grew up together until the Civil...

On Sunday afternoon at Old Union Cemetery in southern White County, over 180 people gathered to pay a debt owed nearly 80 years. The group included members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Sons of Confederate Veterans, family and friends, all there to memorialize the service of Pvt. Henry Henderson, a black Confederate soldier. Henderson was born in 1849 in Davidson County, NC. He was 11 years old when he entered service with the Confederate States of America as a cook and servant to Colonel William F. Henderson, a medical doctor. Records show Henry was wounded during his service,...

UDC marks another black Confederate grave By Clayta Richards / Chronicle staffwriter On Sunday afternoon at Old Union Cemetery in southern White County, over 180 people gathered to pay a debt owed nearly 80 years. The group included members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Sons of Confederate Veterans, family and friends, all there to memorialize the service of Pvt. Henry Henderson, a black Confederate soldier. Henderson was born in 1849 in Davidson County, NC. He was 11 years old when he entered service with the Confederate States of America as a cook and servant to Colonel William F....

History Channel show on Camp Douglas, so far not bad. Whats really interesting is the references to those non-existent Black Confederates. Just a handful but an interesting and matter-of-fact admission of their existence.

The Black Confederate By: Tom Darby · Section: Diaries Contrary to popular historical education and Southern revisionists, there is much evidence that African-American's served their country not only in the Union army but also in the Confederate army and navy. This evidence is found in the diaries, journals, newspaper articles and documents written by soldiers, officers and politicians. Many institutions have set about to dismantle these findings by declaring them as `revisionist,' however the proof that these written accounts exist at all shows that slaves were present in the service of their state and country. It was the commanders in...

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. Advertisement The South was home to some 4 million who lived there and had roots going back more...

The first National Wildlife Refuge in this country named for an African American, is now in the Mississippi Delta, near Hollandale. It is the Holt Collier Wildlife Refuge. Collier was a freed slave, who had served in the Confederate Army, and led President Theodore Roosevelt on a legendary bear hunt, near Onward, Mississippi in 1902. When Roosevelt didn't get a bear, Collier caught one and tied it to a tree. Roosevelt would not shoot it and the press corps traveling with him named it his Teddy Bear. The name stuck. The Holt Collier National Wildlife Refuge is now 1,438 acres,...

PETERSBURG - May 23, 1886 there appeared in a predecessor to this paper an obituary or death notice honoring the life of "a colored Confederate." That man, Richard "Dick" Poplar, was buried alongside some of his comrades in Blandford Cemetery on Memorial Hill in an unmarked grave. Now, 118 years after his death, he will receive a proper headstone and a memorial service, courtesy of The Richard Poplar Memorial Committee. "There died in this city Saturday morning at the residence of Mr. James Muirhead, a Virginian who cast his fortunes with the Confederacy, and endured many months of weary imprisonment...

A Calhoun County Confederate Memorial is to be 110 feet long and etched with 2,000 names of Confederate soldiers who survived the Civil War, including a black who had been freed from slavery in 1863.Work ended a month ago on the second of three black-granite walls of the memorial at Janney Iron Furnace.County Commissioner Eli Henderson said Monday the memorial's third wall, scheduled for completion in April, may display more names of blacks like Charles Bush, who is said to have walked back to Calhoun County from battle carrying the sword, pistol and other personal items of a local white...

http://www.credenda.org/issues/9-1verbatim.php Volume 9, Issue 1: Verbatim Quotations on Black Confederates Various Saints Numerous Afro-Virginians, free blacks and slaves, were genuine Southern loyalists, not as a consequence of white pressure but due to their preferences. They are the Civil War's forgotten people, yet their existence was more widespread than American history has recorded. Their bones rest in unhonored glory in Southern soil, shrouded by falsehoods, indifference and historians' censorship. Ervin L. Jordan, Jr. There are at the present moment, many colored men in the Confederate Army doing duty not only as cooks, servants, and laborers, but as real soldiers, having muskets...

On March 30, 1865, John W. Riley, the Confederate adjutant general in Richmond, Va., gave Capt. Edward Bostick of the 26th South Carolina Volunteers these orders: “You are authorized to raise a battalion of four companies of Negro troops in the state of South Carolina. You are allowed sixty days to raise the battalion.” This order during the last weeks of the Civil War has often been debated by historians and laypersons alike. Did South Carolina ever raise these four black battalions in defense of the Confederacy? The immediate answer is no. But several individual blacks did fight for the...

Black Confederates Why haven't we heard more about them? National Park Service historian, Ed Bearrs, stated, "I don't want to call it a conspiracy to ignore the role of Blacks both above and below the Mason-Dixon line, but it was definitely a tendency that began around 1910" Historian, Erwin L. Jordan, Jr., calls it a "cover-up" which started back in 1865. He writes, "During my research, I came across instances where Black men stated they were soldiers, but you can plainly see where 'soldier' is crossed out and 'body servant' inserted, or 'teamster' on pension applications." Another black historian, Roland...

So with all those hurdles in front of him, what topic does Armstrong select for his second documentary feature? How does the title Black Confederates: The Forgotten Men in Gray grab you? "Black people tend to look at me as if to say, 'Wow, we didn't know this,'" Armstrong said last week as he stood outside the Maryland Theatre in Hagerstown, where his film had just ended a two-night run. Armstrong was selling videos of Black Confederates and his first documentary, The Fort Pillow Massacre, about an infamous Civil War incident in which Confederate troops are alleged to have slaughtered...

Origin Of The Teddy Bear Most people probably know that the teddy bear, that little stuffed animal so dear to so many children, has something to do with Teddy Roosevelt. Most, I'll bet, don't know the details, including the fact that a black Confederate played a key role in the affair. It's all detailed in a new book, a biography of a remarkable Mississippi slave who became celebrated as a hunter, a soldier and a lawman. The title is simply "Holt Collier," the author is a lawyer named Minor Ferris Buchanan, and the publisher is Centennial Press in Jackson, Miss....