Black South Carolina man refuses to take down his Confederate Flag

This young man known as GoGreen58, from Bluffton, South Carolina says:

"My college has forced me to take down my Confederate Flag, because they said I was violating a "Racism Code". The flag has been up for the last 2 months and no problems were happening around me, but now they want to say I'm violating a code. They cannot do this to me, because this is a public college and i have my rights to freedom of speech. The Sons of Confederate Veterans are on my side and  I have an attorney. If the housing department does not allow me to put it back up, after the letter has been sent. Then a HUGE LAWSUIT will take place, because the housing department is violating my rights of Freedom of Speech. I'm Black NOT African American and I Don't see the Confederate Flag as a RACIST SYMBOL!!!

Follow this link for the story on CNN:  http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-709533

New Book, "My Confederate Cousin" tells story of a Black Confederate Soldier

King George, Virginia – Writer Robert Broome, Jr. announces the release of My Confederate Cousin, a fictional narrative based on a true account of his ancestor, a Black soldier who fought for the South during the War Between the States. This compelling novel charts the course of a family lineage with origins of English nobility interwoven with slavery on a plantation in Poolesville, Maryland.

Through a tapestry which involves military battles of the eighteenth century, Broome introduces the reader to Basil Dawson, the son of a white slave owner and a Black slave mother. Although Basil was a slave, he was not treated like one. He was educated, learning to speak both Latin and French, and was  inducted into the Confederate Army where he fought alongside his father and half brother.

The author hopes his work will encourage others to have a new perspective of Black soldiers who had allegiances on both sides of the war which ultimately ended slavery in the United States. “Enlisting Black soldiers both slave and free in the militia from 1861 through 1865 played a significant role in the Civil War,” notes Broome. “It redefined our legacy and cultural history.” Broome received inspiration to pen this depiction of events after hearing many stories from family members of his cousin’s heroic efforts.

 Many of Basil Dawson’s descendants continue to live in Poolesville, Maryland. Others have migrated to Gaithersburg, Maryland; Baltimore, Maryland; Washington, D.C.; Florida; Wisconsin; and California.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robert Broome, Jr. is a published author and speaker who served in the United States Marine Corp, January 1976 through January 1980. His historical research unveils the often misunderstood details of military battles that helped shape the social, political, and economic landscape of America today.

With a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management from Strayer University, Washington, D.C., Broome is employed by the federal government. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., he resides in King George, Virginia with his wife and daughter.

Broome is available for speaking engagements, book club presentations, and interviews. He can be reached at broome50@peoplepc.com or 540.663.2232. Learn more about his book, My Confederate Cousin, or order online through the publishers’ website at http://sbpra.com/robertbroome/. The book can also be purchased at www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnobel.com.

Publisher: Strategic Book Group

ISBN: 978-1-60976-390-9
Cost: $23.50 USD
Hardcover, 151 pages

Albany Herald reports on Black Soldiers in Confederate Gray

Albany Herald
Carlton Fletcher, metro editor

ALBANY, Ga. — When Confederate Civil War hero Amos Rucker died, the city of Atlanta shut down for his funeral.

Eulogized by the state’s poet laureate with the moving “When Rucker Called the Roll,” the fallen veteran’s pallbearers included then-Georgia Gov. Allen Chandler, Judge William Lowndes Calhoun, ex-Postmaster Amos Fox and former Confederate Army Camp Commander Frank Hilburn. Rucker was laid to rest in Atlanta’s Southview Cemetary, current burial site of members of Martin Luther King’s family.


H.K. Edgerton, right, is a black Confederate

activist who works to bring the truth of

black southern heritage to people of all races.

 While such ceremony was not uncommon among Southern survivors of America’s Civil War, what made Rucker’s funeral so memorable is that he was among the black soldiers who fought for the Confederacy during the war.

Whether Southern blacks willingly participated as Confederates against the Northern army that eventually won them their freedom is an argument that continues to be waged today in the year that marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the war. But documented stories like the ones of Amos Rucker, Bill Yopp, Holt Collier, Louis Napoleon Nelson and the all-black First Louisiana Native Guard offer evidence that African Americans did indeed take up arms alongside the men who at the time were their masters.

“I hear today — from blacks and whites — that there were no black Confederate soldiers,” said Kelly Barrow, a Henry County history teacher who has published two books — “Black Confederates” and “Black Southerners in Confederate Armies” — and is working on a third about the subject. “But the documented evidence is overwhelming.”

Barrow, who teaches and coaches soccer at Locust Grove High School, said he became passionate about researching black Confederates after a professor at Shorter College in Rome told him they didn’t exist.

“I’d find all this material about black soldiers, about blacks who were heroes during the war, and (my professor) would say I was wrong,” Barrow said. “She, of course, had her own agenda, but I kept finding more and more stuff.

“After I graduated, I was working with the General Assembly when the flag fight started kicking up. I did a lot of research for (former) Rep. Frank Redding, including genealogy, and I kept coming across more evidence of black Confederates. I eventually put an ad in a Confederate Veterans magazine asking for documentation of black Confederates and was overwhelmed with information. I guess I kind of became the clearinghouse for stuff people said they’d had for years but didn’t know what to do with.”

Historians question whether blacks would have freely fought alongside men who “owned” them and against an army that would free them, but a number of potential answers have surfaced. Noted African-American journalist Walter Williams tackled that question in a recent syndicated column.

“One would have to be stupid to think that blacks were fighting in order to preserve slavery,” he wrote. “What’s untaught in most history classes is that it is relatively recent that we Americans think of ourselves as citizens of ‘United States.’ For most of our history, we thought of ourselves as citizens of Virginia, citizens of New York and citizens of whatever state in which we resided.

“(African-American Historian Charles) Wesley says, ‘To the majority of the Negroes, as to all the South, the invading armies of the Union seemed to be ruthlessly attacking independent states, invading the beloved homeland and tramping upon all that these men held dear.’ Blacks have fought in all of our wars, both before and after slavery, in hopes of better treatment afterward.”

Charles Lunsford, who is retired now but who once served as national spokesman for the Sons of Confederate Veterans organization, said his research into the subject of black soldiers serving in the Confederate army has offered some telling information that history books have failed to mention.

“One of the truths that a lot of people don’t like to talk about is that Northerners were far more racist that Southerners until the Jim Crow era,” Lunsford, who lives in Mansfield in north Georgia, said. “That’s part of the reason so many people say there were no black Confederates. See, the Yankee army segregated its black troops, while the blacks who fought for the South fought alongside white soldiers.

“Experts — both black and white — that I’ve talked with estimate that as many as 90,000 black soldiers wore the uniform of the Confederacy and as many as 300,000 served as support personnel.

Just like the white Confederates, these men were fighting for their homeland.”

There's more.  To see the entire article go here:  http://www.albanyherald.com/news/headlines/A_question_of_blue_and_gray__and_black_lingers_117474833.html?ref=833

New York Times Reports on Black Confederate Soldiers

In an article dated March 1, 1861, from the archives of the New York Times, is a very interesting story which reports on the black soldiers who served "extensively" in the ranks of the Confederate army.  Despite the overwhelming historical evidence that confirms thousands of black men, slave and free, fought to defend the Confederacy, some Union historical revisionists still try to deny the reality of the Black Confederate.  It destroys their whole false premise that the War to Prevent Southern Independence was fought to end slavery.  

Interestingly, the same article also confirms that large numbers of black men were unwilling to take up arms against the South  Instead, they were forced against their wills to serve in Mr. Lincoln's War.   

Below is an excerpt, followed by a link to the complete article:

Negro Soldiers  

The following advertisement, from the Savannah Republican, with the letter from Capt. W.S. DAVIS, are given as sufficient demonstration that the rebels have employed negroes:


THIRTY DOLLARS REWARD. -- Deserted from Company A, Twenty-ninth Georgia Regiment, stationed at Dawton Battery, on Savannah River, JOHN ROSS, 22 years of age, about 5 feet 7 inches in height, complexion a brown black. He is a free negro, and an excellent drummer; was enlisted Oct. 10, 1861, and deserted Nov. 13, 1862. He is at present concealed in Savannah. W.H. BILLAPP,

Captain Commanding Dawton Battery.

Extract from a private letter of Capt. W.S. Davis.

DEAR SIR: In answer to your inquiry, I would state that after the battle of West Point I walked over the field and saw the dead bodies of four Negroes dressed in Confederate uniforms, and wearing their cartridge-boxes and roundabouts.

I have heard Confederate prisoners acknowledge that the blacks are used as soldiers, and they argue that they are willing to fight against us.

At Yorktown I saw myself plainly the negroes working the enemy's heavy guns.

I have not the slightest doubt, from my own observation and from conversation with our returned prisoners and captured enemies, that the negroes are extensively used by the enemy.

I have no doubt the negro will fight, and I saw a negro servant in the thickest of the fight at Fredericksburgh, who fired away sixty rounds, and was as cool as any man on the field.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W.S. DAVIS, Capt. and A.A.G.


Here is a link to the complete article in the New York Times archives: http://www.nytimes.com/1863/03/01/news/negro-soldiers-private-letter-gen-hunter-colored-regiment-massachusetts.html?scp=55&sq=negro%20confederate&st=cse

National Wildlife Refuge honors a Black Confederate Soldier

Of the 552 National Wildlife Refuges in the United States, only one is named for an African American.  He was Holt Collier, a Confederate soldier during the War for Southern Independence.  The Holt Collier National Wildlife Refuge spreads over 2,033 acres on  Collier’s historic hunting grounds near Darlove, Mississippi, about 29 miles southeast of Greenville. 

Below is the remarkable story of Holt Collier which is reprinted from an official publication of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  

Holt Collier

Born in 1846 to the Mississippi slave family of Harrison and Daphne Collier, Holt was one of probably 11 children. The Colliers were house servants to the prominent and influential Howell Hinds family at the Home Hill Plantation in Jefferson County. Holt spent his young years at Home Hill caring for the large pack of hounds that Hinds would take on hunts and Holt would sometimes go along. 

Holt Collier

When Holt was 10, Howell Hinds took him to another family property, Plum Ridge Plantation, to help attend Hinds’ young son, Thomas. Plum Ridge, located in Washington County, was in a rugged wilderness area with huge stands of giant trees and thick cane, stinging insects, venomous snakes, alligators, wolves, panthers and bears. One of Holt’s primary duties was to provide meat for the Plum Ridge plantation workers. He hunted with a 12-gauge shotgun, became an excellent marksman and could shoot equally well from either shoulder. While still just 10, Holt shot his first bear.

When the Civil War started Holt joined the Confederacy to be with his masters Howell and Thomas Hinds.  He was only 14. He then joined Company I of the Ninth Texas Cavalry, was involved in frequent action and served successfully as a military spy.

After the war, Holt became a Texas cowboy for about one year, but returned to Mississippi and lived most of the rest of his life around Washington County and part of the original Hinds County, named for his master’s family. As the years passed, Holt became well known for his bear-hunting ability and is credited with killing over 3,000 bears – more than the number taken by Daniel Boone and Davy Crocket put together.

It was the pursuit of black bear that brought President Theodore Roosevelt to Mississippi in 1902 and teamed him together with the then 56-year-old Holt Collier. Holt’s unsurpassed expertise made the hunt a success even  though the president would not shoot the large male bear that Holt single-handedly captured and tied to a tree. Instead, the incident was nationally publicized in editorial cartoons on the front page of the Washington Post. An enterprising New York store owner, Morris Michtom, saw the cartoon and created a stuffed toy he called “Teddy’s bear.” The popularity of the stuffed bear lead to the formation of the Ideal Toy Company. And, when the Teddy bear turned 100 years old in 2002, Mississippi named it the official state toy.

Holt Collier died on August 1, 1936, at 90 years of age. Holt was buried at Live Oak Cemetery in Greenville, Mississippi near the area where he killed his first bear.

This is a later version the famous Clifford Berryman cartoon which appeared in the Washington Star

A Tribute to Donald V. Adderton

Donald V. Adderton

Donald V. Adderton, a longtime journalist and editor in New Jersey and Mississippi, died Saturday, July 24, 2010 at the age of 61.   Since 2000 Adderton had served as Executive Editor of the Delta Democrat Times in Greenville, Mississippi, becoming the first black person to hold the top editor post at a Mississippi daily newspaper.

Adderton was well known for his insightful, conservative columns which were truthful and honest, albeit sometimes politically incorrect.    Adderton was criticized by some black leaders  when he publicly opposed removing the Confederate battle emblem from the Mississippi state flag during a statewide referendum.

Below is a reprint of one of Adderton's columns which appeared in the Mississippi Sun Herald, June 19, 1998.   

Purveyors of hate circulate uncivil stories about war
By Donald V. Adderton

It always amuses me when I confront nonsensical accounts - revisionist hysteria lacking the faintest hint of fact - of the War Between the States.

Revisionists recently have been running around the Coast ranting and raving about myriad events that brought the South and North into the theater of combat in 19th century America.

They even advanced the absurd notion that the South should not be construed as losing the Civil War.

In fact, a baseless notion was tossed out that the Confederacy lost the war and not the South. At last report, the Confederacy was located in the South -- below the Mason-Dixon line, if you will -- and represented that region.

Every time there is a discussion of the American Civil War on these pages, rational thought apparently goes screaming out the window, because passions run high on both sides of the issue.


But passion does not excuse bad manners or uncivil language in an intelligent discourse of the Civil War.

Then there are some critics who go around waving so-called secession papers that are supposed to validate that the Confederate states withdrew from the Union solely because of slavery.

These revisionists would have you believe slavery was the flashpoint that ignited the hostilities -- the warfare that temporarily ripped this nation apart.


The primary causes of the war were economics and states' rights. The issue was not solely that the federal government wanted to abolish slavery.


Judge them by their actions

In fact, when you take a close look at the major players, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, commander in chief of the Union Army, remained a slave owner until after the war. His Confederate counterpart, Gen. Robert E. Lee, abhorred slavery.

The war was waged as much on economic grounds as it was military. It is for this reason that the war's impact is still being felt today, 133 years later.

Then there are these same people who would have you believe that President Lincoln freed the slaves when he signed the Emancipation Proclamation, but constitutional freedom did not come until the 13th Amendment was affirmed. And not until the ratification of the 14th Amendment were black Americans recognized as citizens.

Mississippi State Flag

During the Civil War, at least 200,000 blacks -- some 85,000 Confederate soldiers -- fought with regiments of the South and North -- many showing their valor on the field of battle.

Again, some accounts would have you believe that the legendary Louisiana Native Guard Volunteers unit of the Union Army -- who were garrisoned at Fort Massachusetts on Ship Island -- was the only heroic black unit that saw combat during the Civil War.

What you probably don't know is that, during the war, Confederate troops were more of a melting pot than the Union ranks. Along with blacks and whites, there were Scots and Indians.

"Not only did you have people of color, but people of different ancestry fought for the Confederacy," said Capt. Mike Kelley of Pascagoula, a former Marine (ed. Navy flyer!), Civil War historian and keeper of the Terrell's 34th Texas Cavalry Web site.

In fact, Gen. Stand Waite, a Cherokee, was the last Confederate officer to surrender to Union forces on June 23, 1865 -- two months after Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse.


There were Rebels of many colors

"As far as the mixture of the cultures and races, the Confederate Army was far more integrated than the Union," Kelley said.

If it is truth you seek about the role blacks played in the Civil War, I strongly suggest you browse the 34th Texas Cavalry Web site at: http://www.37thtexas.org/html/BlkHist.html

It is galling that those who shamelessly recite revisionist rhetoric completely discount the key roles people of color played in Confederate armies.

"We are not allowed to know this," Kelley said. "If this is known, then the racial polarization goes away."

Clearly, there are people who take great glee in keeping the racial pot stirred to a boil.

Nonetheless, the truth is out there, if you have the time and determination to seek it. Because truth not only will it set you free, it will make you a better informed human being.

There are some people in this world of ours who will use misinformation to wield power over an unsuspecting populace. Don't let it happen to you.

Black Confederate Troops in the War Between the States

By Bernhard Thuersam
Director, Cape Fear Historical Institute

Black abolitionist Frederick Douglas reported his concern early in the war that: “there are at the present moment many colored men in the Confederate army doing duty not only as cooks, servants and laborers, but real soldiers having muskets on their shoulders and bullets in their pockets.” Even federal General Grant knew of the black support for the Confederacy, and he instructed his officers late in the war to capture as many blacks as possible to avoid having them carry arms for the South or support it in any way.

In 1860, there were approximately 4 million blacks both free and slave in the United States and the vast majority either fought for or supported the American Confederacy, with the number of opposing US Colored Troops amounting to only a little over 186,000 men. Of the latter, it is questionable whether they were freely recruited or were impressed into service to replace Northern white soldiers who sought substitutes. Little known is the fact that Louisiana enlisted black soldiers in New Orleans nearly a year in advance of the Northern States. More on this later.

In 1861, many free black companies were formed throughout the South with a Lynchburg newspaper commenting on the enlistment of 75 free blacks to fight for the defense of the State, concluding with “three cheers for the patriotic Negroes of Lynchburg!” The “Richmond Howitzers” who saw action at First Manassas in 1861 were an integrated artillery unit and at least two regiments, one free and one slave, fought in the battle. It is estimated that between 50,000 to 65,000 blacks fought as combatants in Confederate forces and nearly all on an unofficial basis.

In March of 1865 the Confederate government officially authorized the enlistment of black soldiers when Congress passed an act that enrolled slaves into the military with a quota of 300,000 soldiers. To serve, they had to be emancipated by their owners, and as veterans were given bounty lands. With this official act, 83% of Richmond’s black male population volunteered for duty and before Richmond fell, many black Confederates were drilling in the streets. General Lee was fully behind the enlistment of black troops and in March 1865 expressed in a letter to General Ewell his regret that more owners would not release their slaves for service. Over 3000 black soldiers served with Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia in its fighting retreat from Petersburg to Appomattox.

Dr. Edward Smith, Dean of American Studies at American University, estimated that by February 1865, 1150 blacks had served in the Confederate Navy which amounts to about 20% of total naval personnel. Benjamin Gray, for example, was a 12-year old black youth who enlisted in Wilmington and saw combat as a powder boy on the CSS Albemarle.

The US Sanitary Commission inspector Dr. Louis Steiner observed in September, 1862 that over 3000 of General Jackson’s 64,000 man army was composed of armed blacks who were fully outfitted as soldiers, not servants, and were “manifestly and integral portion of the Southern Confederacy army.” At Fort Fisher’s capitulation in January, 1865, black Privates Charles & Henry Dempsey of the 36th NC Regiment and Private James Doyle and Daniel Herring of the 40th North Carolina Regiment surrendered to Northern forces. A total of nine black Southern soldiers surrendered at the battle of Fort Fisher though it is probable that many more served along their white counterparts as it was common to see integrated Southern units. Also, there were many blacks who fought with John Hunt Morgan’s Mississippi raiders and General Nathan Bedford Forrest freed black slaves fighting with his cavalry forces. President Jefferson Davis was so impressed with the service of black Southerners, he stated in his annual message in November, 1864 that the numbers should be increased and emancipation would follow their service.

Despite widespread fears in the first year of the war that the slaves were preparing for a major revolt, nothing of the kind occurred. “War…has now existed for nearly 4 years” noted Virginia Congressman Thomas S. Gholson in early 1865, “and yet,…there has been no insurrection or attempt at insurrection …our wives and children have been left on our plantations frequently with no other protection than that offered by our slaves.”

About the Author:

Bernhard Thuersam is the Executive Director of the Cape Fear Historical Institute in Wilmington, North Carolina. A native of Niagara Falls, New York, he has been a devoted student of world history since 1958. He is a former Chairman of the Cape Fear Museum Board of Trustees. Contact him at bernhard1848@att.net

The above article is an excerpt from a much longer copyrighted essay which appears on the website of the Cape Fear Historical Institute.    You may find the complete article here:  http://www.cfhi.net/BlackSoldiersinRedBlueandGrey.php

Washington Post and New York Times report on Negro Confederate Soldier

This brief article about a black Confederate soldier during the War Between the States first appeared in the Washington Post. It was re-printed in The New York Times, October 12, 1902. The article is quoted verbatim below, including the Northern newspapers' use of the racist term “Sambo” in reference to the brave black Confederate:

Negro Confederate Sharpshooter

“One of the annoying sharpshooters on the Confederate side at Yorktown was a negro. He was very clever with the rifle. Several mornings he had climbed a tree and picked off the Union sharpshooters as fast as he could get a good aim at them. He climbed into a tree one morning a little in advance of the other Confederate sharpshooters. One of the Confederate rifle pits was only about twenty rods away, but Sambo was not aware of that. A soldier secured good aim and ordered the negro out, but he refused to come, and a moment later fell dead with a bullet through his head. – Washington Post

Here is a link to the article in The New York Times archives:  http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9504E4DD1E3DEE32A25751C1A9669D946397D6CF

A Black Professor speaks out on Black Confederates

The quotes below are from Ervin L. Jordan Jr., noted author, professor and research archivist at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

"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."



"Tennessee in June 1861 became the first in the South to legislate the use of free black soldiers. The governor was authorized to enroll those between the ages of fifteen and fifty, to be paid $18 a month and the same rations and clothing as white soldiers; the black men appeared in two black regiments in Memphis by September."



"After their capture one group of white Virginia slave owners and Afro-Virginians were asked if they would take the oath of allegiance to the United States in exchange for their freedom. One free negro indignantly replied: 'I can't take no such oaf as dat. I'm a secesh nigger.' A slave from this same group, upon learning that his master had refused, proudly exclaimed, 'I can't take no oath dat Massa won't take.' A second slave agreed: 'I ain't going out here on no dishonorable terms.' On another occasion a captured Virginia planter took the oath, but slave remained faithful to the Confederacy and refused. This slave returned to Virginia by a flag of truce boat and expressed disgust at his owner's disloyalty: 'Massa had no principles.' Confederate prisoners of war paid tribute to the loyalty, ingenuity, and diligence of 'kind-hearted' blacks who attended to their needs and considered them fellow Southerners."



"The public support and activities of Afro-Confederates, a minority within a minority, received considerable prominence. A Charlottesville newspaper reported an interview with Hames Ward, a slave who fled 'Yankeedom' to warn his fellow slaves of abuse and racism in Union army camps and of blacks being forced to front lines during battles. He preferred being the slave of "the meanest masters in the South" than a free black man in the North: 'If this is freedom, give me slavery forever.'"




Follow the Amazon link above to find the source of these quotes and much more in Dr. Jordan's highly acclaimed book,  "Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia."

The photo of the author, Ervin L. Jordan, Jr., by LuAnn Williams, is from the University of Virginia website.

Black Confederates deserve to be Honored

By Walter E. Williams

DURING OUR WAR OF 1861, ex-slave Frederick Douglass observed, "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 ... and do all that soldiers may do to destroy the Federal government."

Dr. Lewis Steiner, a Union Sanitary Commission employee who lived through the Confederate occupation of Frederick, Maryland said, "Most of the Negroes ... were manifestly an integral portion of the Southern Confederacy Army." Erwin L. Jordan's book "Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia" cites eyewitness accounts of the Antietam campaign of "armed blacks in rebel columns bearing rifles, sabers, and knives and carrying knapsacks and haversacks." After the Battle of Seven Pines in June 1862, Union soldiers said that "two black Confederate regiments not only fought but showed no mercy to the Yankee dead or wounded whom they mutilated, murdered and robbed."

In April 1861, a Petersburg, Virginia newspaper proposed "three cheers for the patriotic free Negroes of Lynchburg" after 70 blacks offered "to act in whatever capacity may be assigned to them" in defense of Virginia. Erwin L. Jordan cites one case where a captured group of white slave owners and blacks were offered freedom if they would take an oath of allegiance to the United States. One free black indignantly replied, "I can't take no such oaf as dat. I'm a secesh nigger." A slave in the group upon learning that his master refused to take the oath said, "I can't take no oath dat Massa won't take." A second slave said, "I ain't going out here on no dishonorable terms." One of the slave owners took the oath but his slave, who didn't take the oath, returning to Virginia under a flag of truce, expressed disgust at his master's disloyalty saying, "Massa had no principles."

Horace Greeley, in pointing out some differences between the two warring armies said, "For more than two years, Negroes have been extensively employed in belligerent operations by the Confederacy. They have 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." General Nathan Bedford Forrest had both slaves and freemen serving in units under his command. After the war, General Forrest said of the black men who served under him "(T)hese boys stayed with me ... and better Confederates did not live."

It was not just Southern generals who owned slaves but northern generals owned them as well. General Ulysses Grant's slaves had to await the Thirteenth Amendment for freedom. When asked why he didn't free his slaves earlier, General Grant said, "Good help is so hard to come by these days."

These are but a few examples of the important role that blacks served, both as slaves and freemen in the Confederacy during the War Between the States.

The flap over the Confederate flag is not quite as simple as the nation's race experts make it. They want us to believe the flag is a symbol of racism. Yes, racists have used the Confederate flag, but racists have also used the Bible and the U.S. flag. Should we get rid of the Bible and lower the U.S. flag? Black civil rights activists and their white liberal supporters who're attacking the Confederate flag have committed a deep, despicable dishonor to our patriotic black ancestors who marched, fought and died to protect their homeland from what they saw as Northern aggression.

They don't deserve the dishonor.

Copyright by Walter E. Williams

Dr. Walter E. Williams is the John M. Olin distinguished professor of economics at George Mason University, and a nationally syndicated columnist.

An Ohio School Teacher, a Black Freeman, and the Battle of Fort Blair

Here at Historic Fort Blair, Baxter Springs, Kansas, Confederate troops lead by a former school teacher from Dover, Ohio and a free man of color from Missouri, were victorious in a battle against the Union army during the War Between the States.

On October 6, 1863, a Confederate cavalry unit of about 400 men, lead by Captain William Clarke Quantrill, a former Ohio school teacher, traveled along the Texas Road near the Missouri-Kansas border. Helping lead the way was Quantrill’s primary scout John Noland, a free man of African descent, who had joined the Confederate army because his family in Missouri was severely abused by Union soldiers. At least two other black men, John Lobb and Henry Wilson, and Cherokee Indian Adam Wilson were also members of the integrated Confederate company.

Upon approaching Fort Blair, Quantrill divided his force into two columns, one under him and the other commanded by a subordinate, David Poole. Poole and his men proceeded down the Texas Road, where they encountered Union soldiers. They chased the Union troops, killing some of them before they reached the earth and log fort.

Poole's column then attacked Fort Blair, but the garrison fought them off with the aid of a howitzer. Quantrill's column moved on the post from another direction where they encountered a Union detachment escorting Maj. Gen. James G. Blunt who was in the process of moving his command headquarters from Fort Scott to Fort Smith.

Most of this detachment, including the military band, Maj. Henry Z. Curtis (son of Maj. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis), and Johnny Fry (first official westbound rider of the Pony Express) was killed.  Blunt and a few mounted men escaped and returned to Fort Scott. Blunt was removed from command by his superiors for failing to protect his column.  However, he was later restored.

The Union troops took such heavy losses in the Battle of Fort Blair that, to this day, some people tout the Confederate victory as a massacre. They did not call it a massacre earlier when Union soliders committed numerous acts of genocide against innocent Missouri civilians simply because they were suspected of sympathising with the Confederate quest for freedom from an out of control centrailzed government.  It was these Northern attrocities that caused the Confederates to take up arms and defend themselves.

In the spring of 1865, Quantrill rode into a Union ambush near Taylorsville, Kentucky. There, on May 10, he received a gunshot wound to the chest, leading to his death in a Louisville hospital on June 6 at the age of 27.

After the war, when veterans would hold reunions, Captain Quantrill’s troops came to be known as "Quantrill's Raiders." Historic Photographs of the reunions prominently show John Noland, the African-American Confederate scout, with his comrades in the group. At the reunions, Noland enjoyed recounting the story of how the Federals once offered him $10,000 (an enormous sum at that time) to betray the Confederates.  Being a man of honor and integrity, Noland scorned the Yankee bribe.  Other soldiers reminisced that when they were in battle Noland was a true leader, shouting commands than any other of Quantrill's men.

Some Northern apologists have tried to villify Quantrill and his men as blood thirsty, opportunistic outlaws. Those who have come to Quantrill’s defense include none other than a former president of the United States from Missouri, Harry S. Truman. He said, “But Quantrill and his men were no more bandits than the men on the other side. I’ve been to reunions of Quantrill’s men two or three times. All they were trying to do was protect the property on the Missouri side of the line.”

In truth, that’s what Confederates were doing everywhere that they fought in the War for Southern Independence – defending themselves, their families, and their property against a hostile, invading Union Army.

1901 Quantrill Raider's Reunion, Blue Springs, Missouri

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.

The Passing of Richard Poplar, "A Colored Confederate Soldier"

Petersburg (Virginia)  Index-Appeal
May 23, 1886


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 rather than desert his friends and comrades in their misfortune. He was an honest, industrious man, highly esteemed by old Confederate friends and comrades.

When he was taken sick a short time ago he was given a home and kindly treated by Mr. James Muirhead. His wants were supplied and the best medical attention also provided by a gentleman whom Richard cooked for during the war who was a member of the famous Sussex Light Dragoons, and with whom Richard was imprisoned with for nineteen months.

When the Sussex Dragoons were formed at the beginning of the war, and when they became Company H, of the Thirteenth Virginia Cavalry, Richard attached himself to the command. The Sussex Dragoons were a wealthy organization, and each member of the company had his own servant along with him. From April 1861, until the retreat from Gettysburg, Richard remained faithfully attached to the regiment. On the retreat, together with many members of the command, he was captured and carried to Fort Delaware, at which place he was confined as a prisoner for five months. He was taken to Point Lookout and kept there fourteen months, making his prison life nineteen months in all.

He was a prisoner at the same time with many old comrades. During his confinement he was held in high esteem by both Confederates and the Federal troops who acted as the garrison. He extended many courtesies to the reserves who were captured on June 9, 1864, and carried to Point Lookout. He was often asked to take the oath of allegiance, release from prison being offered as an inducement. He stood firm to his convictions, however, and loyally remained with his friends, sharing their prison life.

Richard was exchanged March 1, 1865, and returned to Petersburg, where he spent the remainder of his life. His funeral will take place this (Sunday) afternoon from the Union Street Methodist Church at 4 o'clock, and six gentlemen who were Confederate soldiers will act as pall bearers, namely: Capt. E.A. Goodwyn, Capt. J.R. Patterson, Gen. Stith Bolling, Col. E.M. Field, and Mesrs. Jesse Newcomb and R.M. Dobie. The remains will be interred in Blandford Cemetery near the plot where now are buried many Confederate dead.

All acquaintances, both white and colored, especially the old Confederate soldiers who knew and esteemed him in the brave days of "auld lang syne" are invited to attend the funeral.

***

Petersburg-Index Appeal
May 24, 1886

The Funeral of the late Richard Poplar, the colored Confederate soldier, a sketch of whose life was given in the last issue of the Index-Appeal, took place from the Union Street Methodist Church, on Sunday afternoon and was very largely attended, there being a great number of white people in attendance including many ladies. The coffin was covered with beautiful flowers. The funeral service was conducted by the pastor of the church, whose remarks (quoted below), were both touching and appropriate.

A Colored Confederate Soldier

Dick Poplar had been a caterer at the Bollingbrook Hotel in Petersburg, Virginia where his cornmeal creations were said to be unequaled. He took his culinary genius to war with some Confederate fighting units and was captured at Gettysburg. Sent to Point Lookout Prisoner of War Camp, he was put under special pressure to desert the Southern Cause and take the oath of allegiance to the United States, but he treated oppressors with cold contempt. He declared himself "a Jeff Davis man" and said he didn't care who heard him say so. He endured almost twenty months of life in one of the three very worst prisoner of war camps of the war, selling his famous pones to the other prisoners. He returned to Petersburg after the war, and became a celebrated local figure and prospered. Upon his death he was buried with full Confederate honors as befitting a loyal Son of the South.


Follow this link to see my source and find more about Richard Poplar:  http://www.petersburgexpress.com/Pocahontas.html

Black Confederate, Dr. R. A. Gwynne, among the last Confederate Veterans of Alabama

This photo is of eight Confederate veterans on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, attending the last known Confederate veterans reunion in the state, September 27-28, 1944.

Standing, left to right: General William Banks of Houston, Texas; General W. W. Alexander of Rockhill, South Carolina; General J. D. Ford of Marshall, Texas; General T. H. Dowling of Atlanta, Georgia; General James W. Moore of Selma, Alabama; Colonel W. H. Culpepper of Atlanta, Georgia; and General W. M. Buck of Muskogee, Oklahoma. Seated in front is Dr. R. A. Gwynne of Birmingham, Alabama, the only African American to attend the reunion. This image was used and identified in the Alabama Historical Quarterly, Volume 6, page 6 (1944).

Here is a link to the photo in the Alabama Department of Archives and History:  http://216.226.178.196/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/photo&CISOPTR=3185&CISOBOX=1&REC=11

The Confederate Flag ... Is it Racist?

Black Confederates Proudly Wave their Flag

"Is the Confederate Flag Racist?" is a question which appeared on WikiAnswers.com. The answer read:

The Confederate flag is generally considered to be racist, because the Confederacy which it symbolizes practiced slavery based upon race; people of African descent were enslaved by people of European descent. It is frequently used by racist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and Skinheads, so many people do assocate it with racism.

I do not agree with the above answer, so I have offered an alternative, and am proud to say my version now stands as the Wiki Answer. You can read it below:

No, the Confederate flag does not and never has represented racism. It is a symbol of Southern heritage, representing freedom, states rights, individual responsibility, and resistance to an out of control federal government.

It may be true that some racists have used the Confederate flag, but racists also wave the American flag. Consider these facts:

No slave ship ever sailed from a Confederate port or under a Confederate flag. On the contrary, virtually every American slave ship was from either New York or one of the New England states and they all sailed under the United States Flag. Also, at the time of the American Civil War, slavery had been practiced in every state and colony in America and was still being practiced in several northern states, under the Stars and Stripes, even during the War Between the States.

Ulysses S. Grant, commanding general of the United States Army during the War was a slave holder. Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate Army, was against slavery. The Confederate constitution outlawed the slave trade and Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, offered a plan that would have emancipated the Southern slaves in exchange for recognition from England and France. Davis personally had an adapted black son who lived as a member of his family in the Confederate White House. There were more free blacks, and also more abolitionists, in the South than in the North. Tens of thousands of black soldiers fought for the Confederate States of America in a war which they considered a second American Revolution, a "War for Southern Independence."

Unfortunately some racist groups have used the Confederate flag in recent years, but those same groups, especially the Ku Klux Klan, have historically used the American flag for a much longer period of time.

The truth is, neither the American Flag nor the Confederate Flag is racist. If people who are racists fly either flag, that does not mean the flag itself represents racism.

The Ku Klux Klan displays their United States Flag

Eighteen Black Confederates to be Honored in Pulaski, Tennessee

A marker dedication for 18 black Confederates at Maplewood Cemetery is scheduled next weekend in Pulaski.

Members of the Gen. John C. Brown Camp #112, Sons of Confederate Veterans, raised money to buy markers. They needed $2,500 and have raised most of it.

Officials at Maplewood Cemetery offered a plot for the markers — a section with unmarked graves that would not be used for burials. It is at the start of the cemetery’s black section where five of the 18 men are buried.

A tribute will be read to each man at the dedication service. Cathy Wood with the Daughters of the Confederacy, has collected death certificates, obituaries and whatever else she could find along with the pension records. Little is known about some of them, but descendants of four have been found.

The flat granite markers will give each man’s name, date of birth, unit and where he is buried. Wood would like to enclose the plot with a wrought iron fence to call attention to the memorial markers.

The November 8th service will be a traditional UDC ritual, like a military funeral. The ceremony will be open to the public.

To see the story on the WKSR website go here:  http://www.wksr.com/wksr.php?rfc=src/article.html&id=22400

Another Black Confederate Veteran in the New York Times Archives

Here's another interesting article I've found in the archives of the New York Times which tells of a Black Confederate Veteran. One such article might be overlooked, but the large multitude of such accounts which are constantly being uncovered indicates that today's "politically correct" view of the Confederacy may not be historically accurate.

Negro Confederate Veteran Shot

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DALLAS, Tex., June 14 - Two negroes, Henson Williams and his son William, were shot dead from ambush in Brazos County, while they were plowing in a field. Officers were searching for a white man who is believed to have shot them. The elder Williams fought through the Civil War as a soldier and made such a good record that he was a full member of the Confederate Veterans' camp at Milliken. The old white Confederate soldiers are enraged at the assassination and threaten vengeance on the assassin when captured.

Here is a link to the article, which was published June 15, 1900, in the New York Times:

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9E01E0D61F3CE433A25756C1A9609C946197D6CF

New York Times Reports Rebel Negro Soliders

Here is a very interesting article from the archives of The New York Times, dated May, 12, 1863, Page 3, column 4. It concerns the Battle of Grand Gulf which was fought in Mississippi on April 29, 1863. Below, I quote the article verbatim and in full:

REBEL NEGRO SOLDIERS - The naval attack on the Rebel batteries at Grand Gulf, on the 28th ult. of which our correspondent yesterday furnished an account, seems to have been a very hard-fought affair. Our killed and wounded amount to seventy-six, and the damage to the gunboats was considerable. The Tuscumbia, a turreted iron-clad, was completely riddled in every portion not protected by plating. Her chimneys were perforated until they resembled huge graders, and her woodwork torn to splinters in every conceivable shape. Her turrets alone, in their thickest parts, were able to resist the projectiles hurled against her. She was finally disabled by a shot that cut one of her log chains, by which, in river phrase, she was "broken in two". The Lafayette proved herself the most formidable as well as invulnerable vessel of the fleet, for though struck a number of times, she was shot in the slightest degree injured.

The entire number of rebel batteries in the works was ten, each of which mounted from three to five guns. The point we wish specially to signalize, however, in connection with this affair, is one mentioned by our correspondent, that the guns in this formidable series of rebel works, which caused such casualties to our sailors, and such damage to our iron-clads, "were in the main worked by negro troops." Is it not horrible that the rebels should thus arm their slaves to slaughter white men and destroy the Union?

Here is a link to the story in the New York Times archives: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9D01EEDE163EEE34BC4A52DFB3668388679FDE

Niece of Black Confederate Veteran tells her Story

Lt. Commander for S.C. Sons of Confederate Veterans hands Alice Gallman a DVD about her great uncle John Alex Sarter, a soldier in the Confederate army who fought first as a slave and later as a free man.

From the Columbia Star

By Jessica Cross

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA - Alice Gallman has fought for what she believes her whole life. This 87- year- old Columbia woman's great uncle, a former slave and Confederate soldier, John Alex Sarter, had that same fighting spirit.

Gallman contacted Lt. Commander for S.C.'s Sons of Confederate Veterans and also the founder of radiofreedixie.com Don Gordon and asked him to investigate her great uncle's history. Gordon found Sarter fought for the Confederacy first as a slave and later as a free man. His owner, William Sarter was appointed Captain of S.C.'s 18th Infantry Regiment, Company B on August of 1862. Sarter died the following September from his war wounds. But Alex Sarter chose to enlist after William died.

Sarter was later captured by Union soldiers and forced to help dig a tunnel the army filled with explosives. The Union army used the explosion to divide Confederate forces during the Battle of the Crater at Petersburg, Virginia. The SCV gave an account of the battle in a DVD Gordon presented to Gallman on September 2, 2009. The footage chronicled a memorial service by the SCV at Sarter's gravesite.

But Gallman remembers Sarter as her wise, old uncle. When she was a girl growing up in Union, the adults would sit around the fire in the winter and have what they called "fireside chats." Gallman remembers sneaking up behind Sarter and eavesdropping on the adults' conversations. She said she learned a lot from the older generations.

Gallman's grandparents were sharecroppers. Gallman was her mother's first bi- racial child. Her father was Jewish. She said her status made growing up difficult. "There were so many days I didn't have a bite of bread," she said. But humble up bringing didn't stop Gallman from giving her time, energy, and skills to other people who needed help.

Gallman taught the poor to can vegetables, so they would have foodstuffs when times were lean. And when she was a teenager she taught people how to construct mattresses made of cotton instead of straw.

Gallman has fought for the poor and she was involved in helping African- American teachers receive adequate books instead of the damaged hand- me- downs used by white children.

Today, Gallman shares her stories and wisdom with younger generations. Gallman worked hard to send her daughter to Heathwood Hall Episcopal School. Her daughter later attended Yale University and went into the law profession. And her son worked at the Pentagon.

Alice Gallman, like her uncle, has been a fighter.

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Reprinted with permission from the Columbia Star. For the original article click here: http://www.thecolumbiastar.com/news/2009/0911/society/041.html

In Defense of His Confederate Pride

Nelson W. Winbush, 78, of Kissimmee stands in front of the Confederate battle flag that was draped over his grandfather's coffin in 1934. Times photo by Willie J. Allen Jr.

Nelson Winbush is intent on defending the flag of his grandfather. It's just surprising which flag that is.

By STEPHANIE GARRY, St. Petersburg Times Staff Writer

Nelson Winbush rotates a miniature flag holder he keeps on his mantel, imagining how the banners would appear in a Civil War battle.

The Stars and Bars, he explains, looked too much like the Union flag to prevent friendly fire. The Confederacy responded by fashioning the distinctive Southern Cross -- better known as the rebel flag.

Winbush, 78, is a retired assistant principal with a master's degree, a thoughtful man whose world view developed from listening to his grandfather's stories about serving the South in the "War Between the States."

His grandfather's casket was draped with a Confederate flag. His mother pounded out her Confederate heritage on a typewriter. He wears a rebel flag pinned to the collar of his polo shirt.

Winbush is also black.

"You've never seen nothing like me, have you?"

* * *

Winbush's nondescript white brick house near Kissimmee's quaint downtown is cluttered with the mess of a life spent hoarding history.

Under the glass of his coffee table lie family photos, all of smiling black people. On top sits Ebony magazine.

Winbush is retired and a widower who keeps a strict schedule of household chores, family visits and Confederate events. He often eats at Fat Boy's Barbecue, where his Sons of Confederate Veterans camp meets.

Winbush's words could come from the mouth of any white son of a Confederate veteran. They subscribe to a sort of religion about the war, a different version than mainstream America.

The tenets, repeated endlessly by loyalists:

The war was not about slavery. The South had the constitutional right to secede. Confederate soldiers were battling for their homes and their families. President Lincoln was a despot. Most importantly, the victors write the history.

Louis Napoleon Nelson poses with grandson Nelson W. Winbush at the Memphis train station in 1932 before leaving to attend a Confederate reunion celebration.

There's much more. Follow this link for the complete story in the St. Petersburg Times: http://www.sptimes.com/2007/10/07/State/In_defense_of_his_Con.shtml