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 25th
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.
