Answering Black Confederate Deniers

Over the past year I have shared the documented stories of several Black Confederate Soldiers.  Virtually every time I have done so there have been naysayers who argue that the Blacks were not "real" soldiers because they were non-combatants.  These Black Confederate Deniers have a pre-conceived idea of what the Confederacy was all about, and then try to create a history that fits their misconception. They bring to mind the Holocaust deniers and German apologists.

In response, I'll make just two points here...

1.  Many of the blacks who fought for the Confederacy were warriors and combatants in the truest sense of the word.

The historical records are replete with irrefutable evidence that this is so.  These include the official files of the War of the Rebellion, many newspaper reports fron 1861-1865, the testimony of scores of black Confederates who have told their stories in the WPA Slave Narratives, and more.  To list them all would take a very large book  A few quotes here bear out my point.

"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 their shoulders and bullets in their pockets, ready to shoot down loyal troops and do all that soldiers may do to destroy the Federal government and build up that of the traitors and rebels."
--Ex-Slave Fredrick Douglass, Douglass' Monthly, IV [Sept. 1861,] pp 516

"For more than two years, Negroes had been extensively employed in belligerent operations by the Confederacy. They had been embodied and drilled as rebel soldiers and had paraded with white troops at a time when this would not have been tolerated in the armies of the Union."
--Horace Greely (1811-1872), Editor, New York Tribune

April 6, 1865: "The rebels [Nathan B. Forrest] are recruiting negro troops at Enterprise, Miss., and the negroes are all enrolled in the State.... 
"It is also difficult to state the force of the enemy, but it could not have been less than from 600 to 800. There were six companies of mounted riflemen, besides infantry, among which were a considerable number of colored men."
--War of the Rebellion, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Vol. XIV, pg. 24

"The forces attacking my camp were the First Regiment Texas Rangers, Colonel Wharton, and a battalion of the First Georgia Rangers, Colonel Morrison, and a large number of citizens of Rutherford County, many of whom had recently taken the oath of allegiance to the United States Government. There were also quite a number of negroes attached to the Texas and Georgia troops, who were armed and equipped and took part in the several engagements with my forces during the day."
--Union Officer's Account:  War of the Rebellion, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Vol. XVI, page 805


2. Cooks, drivers, musicians, and others who serve in non-combat roles are still soldiers. 

While thousands of Black Confederates served in combat, both in the infantry and the cavalry, a large percentage of them served as cooks, musicians, drivers, etc.  In today's army things are still the same.  Thousands serve in support roles, but they are "soldiers" as much as those who bear the gun.

My father in law, C. E. Miller, is a good example.  Mr. Miller was a cook during World War II.  He never saw combat, never fired a shot, and never even carried a rifle.  But he served faithfully in the European Theater of War and no one ever suggested that he was not as fully a soldier as the fighting forces that he fed.  C. E. Miller passed away a few years ago.  As long as he lived, he was recognized and honored as an army veteran, with all the privileges, benefits, and respect that every soldier deserves.  No one dared ever tell him that he wasn't a "real" soldier.

An old friend of mine, Bob Champion, was a musician who played for several years in the United States Air Force Band.  Bob never fired a shot at the enemy.  He just inspired others by playing his saxaphone.  Still, the U.S. Army, and everyone else, recognized him as a "soldier."

In the same sense, cooks, musicians, laborers and others - both black and white, who served in the Confederate States Army were fully Confederate soldiers.

There's much more to be said on the subject of Black Confederates.  I'll address some of those other points in future posts.