African-American Confederates

Some African-Americans fought for the Confederacy. There is debate over the actual numbers and how many were in combat. Consider, however, the following report by Thomas Knox, correspondent of the New York Herald, with the Union army at Chickasaw Bayou, Mississippi, December, 1862:

"On our right a Negro sharpshooter has been observed whose exploits are deserving of notice. He mounts a breastwork regardless of danger, and getting sight of a Federal soldier, draws up his musket at arm's length and fires, never failing of hitting his mark.... It is certain that Negroes are fighting here, though probably only as sharpshooters."

This description is of an African-American exposing himself to fire by mounting the breastwork to sight on his opponents, not content to fire from the safety of the trench but showing personal courage and initiative in his cause.

Yet there are those for whom this image is an anathema, because it destroys the simplistic, politically correct view of African-Americans in the war. When confronted with evidence such as this war correspondence's report, they dismiss its significance by various means, but the truth remains - there are today, in America, African-Americans who are Sons of Confederate Veterans.
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See also Vern Padgett’s excellent series of articles on Black Confederates.

See the following books:
Barrow, Charles. K.; Segars, J. H., & Rosenburg, R. B. (2001). Black Confederates. Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing Company. (Originally published as Forgotten Confederates.)

Durden, Robert F. (1972). The Gray and the Black: The Confederate Debate on Emancipation. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. Jordan, Ervin. L. Jr. (1995). Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia. University Press of Virginia.

Koger, Larry. (1985; 1995). Black Slaveowners: Free Black Slaveowners in South Carolina, 1790-1860.
Miller, Edward. A., Jr. (1995). Gullah Statesman: Robert Smalls: From Slavery to Congressman, 1839-1915. Rollins, Richard (1994). Black Southerners in Gray: Essays on Afro-Americans in Confederate Armies. Redondo Beach: Rank and File Publications.

Segars, J. H. & Barrow, C. K., Eds. (2001). Black Southerners in Confederate Armies. Southern Lion Books, Atlanta, Georgia.