March 13, 1865---The Negro Soldier Act

MARCH 13, 1865:     

After months of vituperative wrangling, the Confederate Congress passes The Negro Soldier Act authorizing the induction of slaves as combat soldiers into the Confederate armies: 

The Myth of the Black Confederate is of relatively recent vintage

AN ACT to increase the military force of the Confederate States.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, 

SEC 1. That, in order to provide additional forces to repel invasion, maintain the rightful possession of the Confederate States, secure their independence, and preserve their institutions, the President be, and he is hereby, authorized to ask for and accept from the owners of slaves, the services of such number of able-bodied negro men as he may deem expedient, for and during the war, to perform military service in whatever capacity he may direct.

SEC 2. That the General-in-Chief be authorized to organize the said slaves into companies, battalions, regiments, and brigades, under such rules and regulations as the Secretary of War may prescribe, and to be commanded by such officers as the President may appoint.

SEC 3. That while employed in the service the said troops shall receive the same rations, clothing, and compensation as are allowed to other troops in the same branch of the service.

SEC 4. That if, under the previous sections of this act, the President shall not be able to raise a sufficient number of troops to prosecute the war successfully and maintain the sovereignty of the States and the independence of the Confederate States, then he is hereby authorized to call on each State, whenever he thinks it expedient, for her quota of 300,000 troops, in addition to those subject to military service under existing laws, or so many thereof as the President may deem necessary to be raised from such classes of the population, irrespective of color, in each State, as the proper authorities thereof may determine: 

Provided, 

That not more than twenty-five per cent. of the male slaves between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, in any State, shall be called for under the provisions of this act.

SEC 5. That nothing in this act shall be construed to authorize a change in the relation which the said slaves shall bear toward their owners, except by consent of the owners and of the States in which they may reside, and in pursuance of the laws thereof.

Approved March 13, 1865.

African-American Confederates taking the Oath of Allegiance, March 1865

This is not the law that Robert E. Lee wanted or Jefferson Davis wanted. They wanted emancipation as a concomitant of faithful service under arms, but in the end, the Confederate Congress failed to meet the challenge. This is not, as Confederate apologists and revisionists would make it, “a Confederate Emancipation Proclamation.” Nor is it, as some more responsible historians have said, “understood” anywhere in the law that manumission of the fighting slave was implied. If anything, Section 5 of the law should put paid to such illusions. The Confederate leadership did not, in the end, as some have written, choose their own freedom over the bondage of their slaves. 

Yet, the myth of “Confederate Emancipation,” though recent, has taken on a life of its own. There are those who discuss the existence of thousands of slaves as soldiers under Confederate service during the war. There are those who claim the existence of “negro” combat units. There are documented sightings of negro “soldiers” manning cannons. There are those who state that “thousands” of blacks were put under arms by the Negro Soldier Act. 

All of these assertions are distortions of truths:

A photo, often used by Confederate revisionists to "prove" the existence of African-American combat troops in the Confederacy.

However, the original uncropped photo clearly shows the unit under the command of a white  Union officer.

In 1861 at the outset of the Civil War, a group of freeborn New Orleans blacks, some of whom were slaveholders (and at least one of whom was a dark-skinned Moroccan Jew by the name of Moses Carvalho who had been denied enlistment in the Confederate army), formed their own fighting unit, the Louisiana Native Guards, sometimes called the Corps d’Afrique. The Corps d’Afrique did indeed fight for the Southern cause until objections from other Confederate units led the Confederate Congress to inform the Native Guards that their services were no longer needed. Rather than disbanding, the Corps d’Afrique crossed the battle line en masse on September 27, 1862, becoming a unit in the Union Army. So ended the history of the only black Confederate combat unit to see action before April 1865.  

Likewise in 1861, Frederick Douglass, the former slave and Emancipationist, argued that blacks should be permitted to fight for the Union. He argued,

It is now pretty well established, that 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. 

Douglass, of course, spent the war years in the North; had he gotten close enough to combat to see for himself the truth of the existence of fighting black Confederates he would have likely been killed or captured and returned to slavery. He had no doubt heard of the Louisiana Native Guards, and these very men may have been the “many” with “bullets in their pockets” to which he referred. Douglass’ published comments were designed for a Northern audience, a goad to the North to push for the creation of black combat units, the United States Colored Troops. In this, he was successful. In perpetuating the self-congratulatory myths of white supremacists, he would have undoubtedly been satisfied to be less so. 

There were in fact many thousands of Southern black men in combat zones. They were slaves, not soldiers. In the Confederate Army it was not at all unusual for officers and men to bring along a slave or two to act as body servants, doing the mundane tasks of darning their masters’ socks, polishing their boots, perhaps cooking a meal, or drawing a bath. Slaves were also purchased by the government or by the army, or were appropriated as need be, in emergencies. All blacks were routinely assigned to heavy labor details, digging ditches and trenches, unloading boxcars and wagons and caissons, pushing batteries into position, and loading cannons with powder and shell. They distributed supplies, and took over the customary roles of “support troops,” allowing more whites to bear arms. They routinely came under Union fire. There is no record of how many of these men died in service to the Confederacy. 

A young Confederate officer and his "servant." Note that the slave is unarmed.

To call these men “soldiers” is to give undeserved credence to the policies of the South, to ironically, paper over the backbreaking effort with which these slaves served an unthankful Master. These men, enforced into service, were not soldiers. They had no rank, and they were not members of the army. In the eyes of the Confederacy, despite their bravery and effort they had essentially the same status as draught animals. 

Master Andrew and "servant" Silas Chandler posed for this photograph in a studio. Despite the quasi-uniform which some slaveowners provided as an affectation, African-Americans were not legally permitted to serve in combat roles in the C.S.A. until March 25, 1865, when the Negro Soldier Act took effect. The gun and combat knife on Silas' person were certainly unloaded and dull, and belonged to Andrew, who could have been arrested or even hanged for providing weapons to Silas.

Given that there was large available black population slaving (literally) beside white fighting men, it would appear to have been logical to allow black men to bear arms long before March 1865. But historically, blacks were legally forbidden to carry any weapons at all (even tools were routinely locked away when not in immediate use). Arming blacks was a hanging offense, as John Brown had discovered in 1859. Only in deep rural Florida and on the Texas frontier could slaves carry rifles for hunting and for protection. Had a slave at Gettysburg or Antietam picked up a gun even to defend his master, he would likely have been in just as much danger from Johnny Reb as from Billy Yank.

More "proof" of black military units in the C.S.A., this sketch is of the U.S. Corps d'Afrique in 1863 honoring a fallen comrade  

Given the vast sweep and complexity (and weirdness, it must be admitted) of the Civil War, it would be foolish to state that no Southern black anywhere at any time ever hefted a rifle for self-defense, for defense of his family, for defense of his owners (if he was a slave) or in defense of what was, after all, for better or worse, the only homeland he knew. But that is a far cry from claiming that there were standing and officially-sanctioned Confederate black combat units.  The white South’s blind adherence to its traditions and to its peculiar institution forbade even bolstering its army of independence with black strength.

Slaves worked as stevedores and heavy laborers in combat zones. After the Negro Soldier Act took effect, a score of African-American soldiers evacuated Richmond with Robert E. Lee. By the time the A.N.V. reached Amelia Court House, only one man, the unit's color sergeant, was still in the ranks. The rest had fled across Union lines

In the event, Lee and Davis both took steps that their Congress would not take --- but they still stopped short: 

Lee issued a General Orders that stated that “no slave may be taken into combat service against his own will” (though in practice this would have required a slave to challenge his owner’s decisions at the risk of punishment). Lee added that fighting slaves, “shall be afforded, as far as possible, the rights of free men”; that squirrelly phrase, “as far as possible” was a breeding ground of sins.  

Davis issued an Executive Order stating that all black men who served “honorably” shall be “subject to eventual manumission,” though Davis’ eventuality would have undoubtedly come only “with all deliberate speed.”

At all rates, the Negro Soldier Law made no difference to the war effort once it became effective on the 25^th of March.  The Union had already chewed through the South, tearing great rents in its territory and social fabric. Millions of slaves had already been freed by Proclamation and by military action. Others ran away. An unknown number were beyond the reach of Confederate legislation, isolated with their owners in pockets of Confederate resistance and receiving no news from Richmond. Delay spelled doom. It was too late for the South.

The Negro Soldier Law, which may have well swelled Confederate ranks by the hundreds of thousands had it been passed in the Fall of 1864, barely raised a full regiment of men in the Spring of 1865. 

The Congress in Richmond successfully accomplished just one thing in its short history: In its bloviating intransigence, it talked the Confederacy to death.