Most historical accounts portray
Southern blacks as anxiously
awaiting President Abraham
Lincoln's "liberty-dispensing
troops" marching south in the
War Between the States. But
there's more to the story; let's
look at it.
Black Confederate military
units, both as freemen and
slaves, fought federal troops.
Louisiana free blacks gave their
reason for fighting in a letter
written to New Orleans' Daily
Delta: "The free colored
population love their home,
their property, their own slaves
and recognize no other country
than Louisiana, and are ready to
shed their blood for her
defense. They have no sympathy
for Abolitionism; no love for
the North, but they have plenty
for Louisiana. They will fight
for her in 1861 as they fought
in 1814-15." As to bravery, one
black scolded the commanding
general of the state militia,
saying, "Pardon me, general, but
the only cowardly blood we have
got in our veins is the white
blood."
Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest had
slaves and freemen serving in
units under his command. After
the war, Forrest said of the
black men who served under him,
"These boys stayed with me.. -
and better Confederates did not
live." Articles in "Black
Southerners in Gray," edited by
Richard Rollins, gives numerous
accounts of blacks serving as
fighting men or servants in
every battle from Gettysburg to
Vicksburg.
Professor Ed Smith, director of
American Studies at American
University, says Stonewall
Jackson had 3,000 fully equipped
black troops scattered
throughout his corps at Antietam
- the war's bloodiest battle.
Mr. Smith calculates that
between 60,000 and 93,000 blacks
served the Confederacy in some
capacity. They fought for the
same reason they fought in
previous wars and wars
afterward: "to position
themselves. They had to prove
they were patriots in the hope
the future would be better ...
they hoped to be rewarded."
Many knew Lincoln had little
love for enslaved blacks and
didn't wage war against the
South for their benefit. Lincoln
made that plain, saying, "I will
say, then, that I am not, nor
have ever been in favor of
bringing about in any way the
social and political equality of
the white and black races ... I
am in favor of having the
superior position assigned to
the white race." The very words
of his 1863 Emancipation
Proclamation revealed his deceit
and cunning; it freed those
slaves held "within any State or
designated part of a State the
people whereof shall then be in
rebellion against the United
States." It didn't apply to
slaves in West Virginia and
areas and states not in
rebellion. Like Gen. Ulysses
Grant's slaves, they had to wait
for the 13th Amendment, Grant
explained why he didn't free his
slaves earlier, saying, "Good
help is so hard to come by these
days."
Lincoln waged war to "preserve
the Union". The 1783 peace
agreement with England (Treaty
of Paris] left 13 sovereign
nations. They came together in
1787, as principals, to create a
federal government, as their
agent, giving it specific
delegated authority -specified
in our Constitution. Principals
always retain the right to fire
their agent. The South acted on
that right when it seceded. Its
firing on Fort Sumter, federal
property, gave Lincoln the
pretext needed for the war.
The War Between the States,
through force of arms, settled
the question of secession,
enabling the federal government
to run roughshod over states'
rights specified by the
Constitution's 10th Amendment.
Sons of Confederate Veterans is
a group dedicated to giving a
truer account of the War Between
the States. I'd like to see it
erect on Richmond's Monument
Avenue a statue of one of the
thousands of black Confederate
soldiers. |