Records from the time are incomplete, but several thousand African Americans may have served as soldiers
for the Confederacy. Anecdotal evidence implies at least some went into combat against Union forces.
Confederate Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne was a born fighter. A division commander in the Army of Tennessee,
Cleburne hated to lose.
In 1864, Union forces, with their virtually unlimited resources of men and materiel, were grinding
the Confederacy toward defeat. Cleburne saw an untapped Southern resource he wanted to use before it was too late.
Cleburne made a revolutionary proposal to Army Commander Gen. Braxton Bragg: Arm Southern slaves and have
them fight for their freedom with the Confederate army.
What mattered to Cleburne was not the institution of slavery, but the establishment of the Confederate States
of America. He believed logical men would see the only way to overcome the tremendous Union advantages in men and materiel
was to arm the slaves.
In February 1862, 800 prisoners of war (officers and enlisted men) arrived at Camp Chase. Included
among the 800 Confederate soldiers were approximately 75 African Americans.*
Consequently, Bragg, his corps commanders and selected division commanders in the Army of Tennessee listened
to Cleburne's proposal in shocked silence. The whole idea was repugnant to them. Still, Bragg forwarded Cleburne's proposal
to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
Davis killed the idea and in fact was so worried about the effect of such a proposal on morale that he suppressed
any mention of it. Cleburne's novel idea did not see the light of day until 40 years after the war.
But African Americans did serve with Confederate armies. And eventually they even bore arms for the Confederacy.
Early in the war, "Free Negroes" tried to enlist in the Confederate army. Black militia units, most notably
in Louisiana, rushed to join in the war. The Confederate government did not accept the black militia units for army duty.
Whether entire black units appeared in combat is debatable, however, many blacks performed what is referred to as combat service
support today.
Thousands of African Americans marched off to war for the Confederacy. Many accompanied their masters, and
there were isolated instances throughout the war of these "body servants," as these slaves were called, taking up arms when
their masters went into combat.
Many other slaves served as laborers for the Confederate army. During the
Atlanta Campaign of 1864, for instance, Confederate Gen. Joseph Johnston used thousands of slaves to prepare fortifications
as his army sparred with that of Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman.
Thousands of additional slaves served the Confederate army driving horse drawn supply wagons. The Confederate
fighting force was white, but much of its support was black.
But sheer Union numbers facing the Confederacy meant arming the slaves and inevitably giving them freedom.
The Northern population was 20 million. Of the South's 9 million people, nearly 4 million were African Americans.
By late 1864, it was becoming apparent to even the most optimistic Southerner that the North was winning.
The fall of Atlanta and Sherman's subsequent March to the Sea, Union victories in Virginias Shenandoah Valley, and Lt. Gen.
Ulysses S. Grant's death grip on Richmond and Petersburg, Va., meant time was running out for the Confederacy. The last hope
expired when Northern voters reelected Abraham Lincoln president.
Now desperate, Jefferson Davis embraced an idea he thought revolting a year earlier. The Confederate Congress
began looking at bills allowing the enlistment of African Americans into the army in early 1865. Confederate Secretary of
State Judah P. Benjamin spoke at rallies around Richmond. He said 680,000 African American males were ready to fight for the
Confederacy: "Let us say to every Negro who wants to go into the ranks, 'Go and fight, and you are free ... Fight for your
masters, and you shall have your freedom.'"
Representatives from the Deep South were especially keen on getting blacks to enlist; since Sherman was currently
destroying their cities, towns, and crops. Some in the Confederate government saw the measure as an admission the Confederacy
was wrong about slavery from the beginning.
"If we are right in passing this measure we were wrong in denying to the old government [the United States]
the right to interfere with the institution of slavery and to emancipate slaves, Virginia Sen. Robert M.T. Hunter said. Besides,
if we offer slaves their freedom ... we confess that we were insincere, were hypocritical, in asserting that slavery was the
best state for the Negroes themselves."
In February 1865, the Confederate Congress, after months of stalling, passed an act allowing black enlistments.
Immediately, Virginia started enlisting slaves to fight for the Confederacy.
White officers commanded these battalions. They drilled and marched in downtown Richmond. Recruiters enlisted
blacks from Richmond to Petersburg, but they moved too slowly for Gen. Robert E. Lee. Lee took officers from the Army of Northern
Virginia and started recruiting blacks immediately.
But time expired. On March 31, Union forces broke the Confederate lines at Petersburg. Lee was compelled to
evacuate Richmond and Petersburg. His only hope of carrying on the fight was to escape to North Carolina and link up with
Confederate forces.
On April 4, a Confederate courier observed black Confederates defending a wagon train near Amelia Court House,
Va. When Union cavalry approached, the black soldiers formed up, fired and drove them off. The cavalry reformed, charged and
took the wagon train.
Later, near Farmville, Va., white refugees saw black Confederates building and preparing to man fortifications.
Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, Va., on April 9. The enlistment of black Confederate soldiers was
the dying gasp of the South.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 1, 1996
by Jim Garamone (ed. Matthew D. Parker)
American Forces Press Service
