History of the Black Confederates

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Actual, in the light of the next Confederate fall in the United States, an article about the Negroes who fought on the side of the Confederation against the Northerners.

The article, of course, is overly apologetic about the Confederation, but it contains an interesting texture on the black supporters of the Confederation.

History is a very tricky thing. It must be sieved like rock in gold mining. Here's what is known, for example, about the so-called? The fact that the alleged Yankees fought to free the slaves. Although in reality the reasons for the war lay in the economy. The Yankees simply strangled the South with their economic policy, everything that was imported to the South from the North was imported at an exorbitant price, they wanted to make the South a raw material appendage. But you can't just start a war, you need a pretext. And it is better for this prelog to be beneficial for the aggressor, that is, to present him in a favorable light. Well, and accordingly, the South began to be exposed in the most unfavorable light, they say, where is Ancient Rome … Although in fact, gradually the South itself abolished slavery, every year more and more slaves became free, and they were arranged in life. Well, that is, they gave a job, etc. But this is so, a saying, a fairy tale ahead …

But the fact that the black southerners fought for the South, and even how they fought, the official history denies, to put it mildly. And it would be okay only in the USA, where all sorts of libero-fascists and others like them rule the ball. So in Russia as well! For example, when I tell people about the black heroes of CSA, their first reaction is, how would it be softer: And this is not pi.. you go? And so on …

But it's not just that they hide the truth about the black Confederates. After all, if we officially admit this, that is, admit that the black southerners side by side with the white southerners fought against the Yankee aggressors, then the north looks very unattractive. It turns out that the southerners were not stupid evil racists, otherwise would black people of the South fight like this for the Confederation? Below I will give information about these loyal sons of the South. Information taken from one Russian site. Moreover, please note the infa to this site is provided by the Sons of Veterans of the Confederation, this is an organization of the descendants of the soldiers of the South. So: …

At least 35 percent of free blacks and 15 percent of slaves stood up for the Confederation all 4 years of the war.

Already in April 1861, i.e. In the early days of the conflict, the editor of the Virginia newspaper, the most important stronghold of the Confederation, proclaimed "thrice hurray for the free black patriots of Lynchburg" after learning that 70 blacks offered themselves to the full disposal of the CSA authorities "to protect the Country of Dixie from the tyranny of the federal government of Lincoln."

Very little time passed, and now, the outstanding Negro abolitionist Frederick Douglas, who devoted his whole life to the struggle for the rights and interests of his brothers in race, noted with amazement: “There are many colored people serving in the Confederate Army! And not only as cooks, servants and auxiliary workers, but as full-fledged soldiers. They are eager to kill all of us, supporters of the federal government, and are ready to undermine its policies in every possible way.”His associate Horatio Greeley later wrote:“From the first days of the war, Negroes have been actively involved in the military operations of the CSA. In the South, they form regular units of the rebel army, they are trained according to general regulations, and at parades they march shoulder to shoulder with units from white southerners; meanwhile, this is so far completely inconceivable in the Armed Forces of the North."

Therefore, Dr. Lewis Steiner of the "US Sanitary Commission" was not at all surprised to witness how "three thousand black Confederates in full combat gear - armed to the teeth with melee weapons and firearms - marched through Maryland" in the fall of 1862 with the 55-thousandth Army of General Robert Lee. Having invaded neutral "slave-owning" Maryland, Lee hoped to replenish the troops with volunteers, but met a very cold welcome from the white population - not by the blacks! Steiner, whom the Confederate occupation found in the city of Frederick, testified: "Most of the local blacks publicly declared their desire to join the ranks of the KSA Army." General Lee's black soldiers took an active part in the main event of the Maryland Campaign - the brutal battle of September 17 at Sharpsburg, on the banks of the blood-red Antytem Creek that was densely colored that day. Two months earlier, Yankee veterans from the Army of the Potomac, who survived two days of battle General Johnston at the village of Seven Pines, told their comrades with horror: “In the first ranks of the enemy there were two regiments of rebel Negroes. From them there was no mercy to the northerners - neither the living, nor the wounded, nor the fallen: they maimed, and mocked, and robbed, and killed us in the most cruel ways!"

The black Confederate George, who was captured by the feds, explained his courageous behavior this way: “I am not a deserter. In our South, deserters dishonor their families, and I will never do that."

Free and forced negros even served in the shock cavalry units of Nathaniel Bedford Forrest, known for their ruthlessness and desperate raids on the rear of the enemy. General Forrest, the most aggressive commander of the CSA and the irreconcilable enemy of the northerners, gave them an extremely flattering assessment: “These guys stayed with me until the end. People like them are better than the Confederation!"

A rather curious case is described by the historian Erwin L. Jordan in the pages of the monograph "Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees during the Civil War in Virginia." Once the northerners managed to capture the "multiracial" detachment of the Confederates, which consisted of white slave owners and blacks of both classes. In exchange for the offer of freedom in exchange for “just” an oath of allegiance to the United States, a free Negro boldly threw in the face of the Yankee commander: “No way! I am forever a rebellious nigga! " After him, the young slave proudly replied that he could not do anything contrary to honor and conscience. In general, for the entire group, only one single white officer swore allegiance to the Lincoln government, the rest were sent to prisoner of war camps. The traitor's slave who returned home from imprisonment in 1865 indignantly recalled, shaking his head sadly: “Shame and disgrace! Mass is not a good person! There are no principles at all!"

Among the blacks - "dixiecrats" there were bright and extraordinary personalities. For example, born in 1800 (and lived for about 110 years!) Free Negro James Clark. Already quite an old man (61 years old), he left a large family in order to fulfill his patriotic duty as a private in the 28th Georgia Volunteer Regiment. He went through all the fighting hardships of his unit. And only when he turned 104, the deep old man, who had honestly worked up to that time in various fields, considered himself entitled to bother about the veteran's pension he had long deserved.

Former slave Horatio King, a venerable engineer who designed bridges throughout the United States, made a significant contribution to the defense of Dixie; Always flying the Confederate banner with pride, King received important contracts to build ships for its navy.

On account of the servant of Sam Ash - the first Yankee officer killed by the Confederates: Major Theodore Winthrop, a prominent abolitionist.

Famous in the same Georgia at the end of the 19th century, humanitarians priests - loyal friends from their youth, Alexander Harris and George Dwelle fought bravely throughout the war in the ranks of the 1st Volunteer Regiment of their native state.

The famous Richmond Howitzers were half black militia. Battery No. 2, which was served by negroes, fought at the 1st Manassas. In this same battle, two completely "black" regiments took part, one of the slaves, the other of the free. Both of these regiments suffered heavy losses.

Private John Bookner entered the annals of military history in the South as the hero of the Battle of Font Wagner against the 54th Massachusetts Negro Regiment of the federal army.

George Wallace, Robert Lee's own orderly, who was next to him at Appomattox during the surrender of weapons on the sad day of April 12, 1865, later served the people of Georgia as a state senator. But the orderly of General Thomas "Stone Wall" Jackson, who died tragically in May 1863 d, was awarded the great soldier's honor to lead by the bridle at the funeral of the famous commander of his horse "Chestnut Kid".

By February 1865, more than 1,100 black sailors were serving on the Confederate Navy. Among the last southerners to capitulate in England aboard the Shenandoah six months after the war officially ended, there were several blacks.

The Negro Moses Dallas, who served as the helmsman of Lieutenant Thomas Pelo's gunboat, died a heroic death along with the commander and many of his comrades during a daring, almost kamikaze-style raid against the USS WaterWitch in July 1864 at Green Island Sound. Before sailing, Pelo ordered the little black cabin boy John Deveaux to leave the ship; Deveaux, who later became a well-known politician in Georgia and the owner of the Savannah Tribune newspaper, until his death in old age, looked after the grave of the brave lieutenant, carefully honored his memory and considered his savior.

White and black militiamen equally fought back against Union forces at the Battle of Griswoldsville in Georgia, killing more than six hundred elderly and teenagers, both whites and blacks.

Dick Poplar, in his early youth, became famous in St. Petersburg (Virginia) as an unsurpassed chef from the fashionable Bollingbroke Hotel. Volunteering in the Confederate Army, he served diligently in his specialty until he was captured in the famous Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863), which claimed the lives of more Americans than the entire Vietnam War. After spending 20 months in the ominous Maryland Camp "Point Lookout" (whose black guards had the sad "notoriety" of sadists and executioners), Poplar, despite daily harsh pressure, torture and bullying, each time refused to betray Dixie by swearing oath to the "legitimate government" of the United States. declared himself a "supporter of Jeff Davis" (President of the CSA) and publicly praised the Confederation. Returning to St. Petersburg after the war, the die-hard southerner soon became a successful culinary businessman, the pride of his native city. Poplar was buried as "the faithful Son of the South" - with all the honors due to famous veterans of the Confederation.

Southern General John B. Gordon (Army of Northern Virginia) reported that all of his subordinates were in favor of organizing the Colored troops, that their appearance would "greatly encourage the army." General Lee was also a supporter of the creation of black regiments. And the Richmond Sentinel newspaper wrote in an editorial on March 24, 1864: “No one will deny the fact that our servants (the word 'slave' was not popular in the South) are more worthy of respect than the motley hordes advancing on us from the North … Mistrust in the black confederates must be done away with …”.

And by the way - the "reactionary" Confederation, unlike the "revolutionary North", did not know any lynching courts or concentration camps, and wild pogroms, such as the July 1863, in New York, when thugs, dissatisfied with the introduction of compulsory military service, devoured hundreds of colored and burned many houses, incl. Negro orphanage (dozens of unfortunate orphans died in the flames) were completely unthinkable in KSA.

More than 180,000 black southerners from Virginia maintained the smooth running of the Confederate army. They performed many jobs - they were orderlies, charioteers, firefighters, machinists, stokers, boatmen, blacksmiths, mechanics, wheel craftsmen, etc. In the early 20s of the 20th century, all of them were assigned military pensions on a par with white soldiers.

Until the First World War, aging Dixie warriors paraded regularly on the streets of America's cities and towns, and black "rebels" strolled as proudly in shabby gray uniforms as all their brothers in arms - be they white Protestant Anglo-Saxons, Catholic Irish, Jews, Indians and even Chinese.

But some did not like the participation of blacks in this war.

Historian Ed Burrs commented on this: "I do not want to call the silence on the role of blacks on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line (ie the border between the southern and northern states) a conspiracy, but this trend was clearly defined sometime after 1910." Historian Erwin L. Jordan, Jr. called this state of affairs a "harboring truth" that began as early as 1865. He wrote: “While researching military pension records, I found that blacks indicated that they were soldiers in their pension applications, but the word soldier was then crossed out by someone's hand. Instead, they wrote in "personal servant" or "driver". Another black historian, Roland Young, says he is not surprised that so many blacks fought on the side of the Confederacy:

"Many, if not most, black southerners wanted to support their country" and in this way argued that "you can hate the slavery system, but at the same time love your country."

In 1913, thousands of veterans, northerners and southerners, came to Gettysburg to commemorate

fiftieth anniversary of the battle. The organizers of the event have prepared places for

accommodation for guests, including separate tents for black veterans from the army

northerners. However, to their surprise, a group of Negroes who fought for

confederation. There were no places for them, and the black confederates had to sleep

on straw mattresses in the main tent of the camp. Having learned

about this, white veterans from Tennessee invited blacks to their camp, singled out

them a separate tent and shared the groceries.

In the early 20th century, many members of the United Confederate Veterans advocated the granting of land and houses to former slaves. At one time, the victorious Yankees promised each freed slave "forty acres and a mule," but never kept their promise. Confederate veterans were grateful to the former slaves, "thousands of whom showed the utmost loyalty and loyalty during the war," but ended up stagnating in the poverty of the big cities. Unfortunately, the legislative initiatives of the southerner veterans did not find support on Capitol Hill.

The first military monument to pay tribute to African American Confederates was erected at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington in 1914. It depicts a black soldier marching toe-to-toe with a white Confederate and a white southern soldier handing his child into the arms of a black nanny.

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For example.

As the daughters of Confederate officers from Alabama say, not everything is so simple …