The Myth of an Integrated Confederate Army

Did black solders wear gray? Rarely. Very rarely.
So rarely that you could say that they really didn't.

(I will admit that I’m publishing this just as interest in the matter in hand appears to be waning. The research took a while, as did the writing—it’s one of the longest blog posts I’ve written—and then I sat on it for more than a day trying to decide whether to delete it or not. If you’re reading this, then obviously I decided to publish it. If you don’t want to read any more about this, then don’t freakin’ read it!)

One argument I keep hearing in support of the continued display of the Confederate flag goes something like this: “It CAN’T be a racist flag, because there were blacks fighting for the Confederacy!” The argument claims that as many as 30,000 African-Americans might have fought for the Confederacy...a number that, according to my research, is a wild and grotesque exaggeration based on speculation, innuendo, and/or fantasy.

I had originally intended to write an article refuting this argument, but in researching the matter I discovered that there were many articles covering this same issue, and my writing another would be redundant. So instead of writing yet another article on a well-covered subject, I’m just going to provide links to the best such articles that I found on-line, and anyone who wishes to find articles of the other opinion is welcome to use Google, same as I did.

But be warned, you’re going to have a bit of trouble finding anything that qualifies as evidence in support of this pro-Rebel Flag allegation. (Unless you’re willing to count anecdotal evidence, which no serious academic would; myself, I feel that any argument that begins, “Well, I heard...” or “They say...” isn’t worth a damn, and is so close to being an admission of failure to find or even look for evidence that said argument can be given no credence.)

But if you want to make such an argument, go ahead. If you think you can find some authoritative evidence in support of it, I’d love to see some.  But I recommend that you read these articles first, if for no other reason than to see what you’re up against. Please be aware that you’re going to be arguing against (as far as I could determine from my own research) nearly the entire body of evidence and serious scholarship on this subject.

Good luck. I mean that...good luck. If you find any actual evidence or serious scholarship that I missed, I would love to see it.

(I should also note that this is intended to be my last word on the subject, save for responses to any public comments on this article or my research for it. Please see the note at the end of this article.)


Articles on the Near Myth of African-American Confederate Solders:

These links each go to a selected article on the subject. Each listing includes a brief extract from the article.

I’ve selected three links from the first page of results of a Google search; (I Googled, did african americans serve as confederate soldiers? and restricted myself to the first page of 14.5 million results) these pages are representative of what I found. If you question my conclusions or my research, please feel free to do your own and reach you own conclusions. And please let me know what they are, and be prepared to defend them.

The Civil War Gazette – “Did blacks fight in combat for the Confederacy?” March 2008

From the article: “In short, if one sticks solely to the historical record for primary evidence of the black soldier picking up arms and fighting for the South, one can only conclude that the support for such a claim is scanty at best – merely anecdotal – and entirely unsubstantiated at worst. Instead of the widely claimed and purported number of 30,000 fighting black soldiers for the Confederacy, an honest look at the historical record leads one to the conclusion that as little as under a hundred to as many as several hundred blacks may have actually engaged in combat for the South during the Civil War by actually carrying and discharging a weapon. How to interpret that evidence – or lack thereof – is left to the professional and armchair historians to debate.”

Military History Now – “Black in Gray – Did Some African Americans Really Fight for the Confederacy?” June 2012

From the article: “‘But, where’s the proof?’ academics invariably ask. Professional historians maintain that despite the persistent claims, there is virtually zero compelling evidence showing that thousands of blacks took up arms against the very people who fought to set them free, willingly or otherwise.”

The Washington Post – “The myth of the black Confederates” October 2010

From the article: “As a matter of fact, one of Jefferson Davis’s generals did advise him to emancipate and arm slaves at the start of the war. But Davis vehemently rejected that advice. It ‘would revolt and disgust the whole South,’ he snapped. During the first few years of the war, some others repeated this suggestion. Each time, Richmond slapped it down. Not only would no slaves be enlisted; no one who was not certifiably white, whether slave or free, would be permitted to become a Confederate soldier.”

Teachinghistory.org – “Black Confederates” (undated)

From the article: “...the acute resistance of Confederates to arming blacks is understandable. Putting muskets in the hands of enslaved African Americans presented more than simply a concrete threat—embracing the notion that blacks could serve as soldiers in the same fashion as whites threatened deeply-held Southern ideas of race-based honor and masculinity. As Confederate Secretary of State Robert Toombs put it, ‘The day the army of Virginia allows a negro regiment to enter their lines as soldiers, they will be degraded, ruined, and disgraced.’”


“But there was that one article...”

The closest I came to a scholarly dissent came from Harvard historian John Stauffer, who concluded that as least 3,000 Negro troops may have carried arms for the South. This is the highest number I have found in anything approaching a properly researched paper, but how closely it approaches actual scholarship is somewhat debatable. Much of the evidence he cites crosses the line into “anecdotal evidence” territory. For example, he cites a quote from Frederic Douglas as evidence in support of his conclusions, a quote in which Douglas claimed to have heard that some people had seen armed, black Confederate solders at First Bull Run. It should be noted that Douglass never claimed to have seen these himself, and that such testimony is presented entirely without supporting evidence. Stauffer may see this as proper evidence, but no other scholar whose works I have consulted seems to think so; indeed, where the other cited articles mention Stauffer at all it is to refute his claims and/or contest his evidence.

Still, in the interest of fairness:

Harvard Gazette – “Black Confederates” September 2011

(I could not find a direct link to Stauffer’s paper—this link goes to an article on Stauffer’s paper at the Harvard Gazette—and for that reason I am not posting a quote.)


In Conclusion...

I am not a scholar or an academic, nor do I pretend to be, and I really don’t have much of an education. (College dropout, me.) But I respect academics, both the study and the student, and I wish everyone would approach this sort of discussion in a scholarly fashion. I have tried to do that here, and please note that I did not try to author a paper on the subject (though that was originally my intention) but have instead laid out my research and it is up to you, the reader (as it always is, ultimately) to judge its value.

If you’re miffed that I haven’t included many articles of an opposing viewpoint, it’s because (and I do regret this) I wasn’t able to find more than a single dissenting article that met even the most basic evidentiary standards (Stauffer), and even that one had evidentiary problems. Perhaps some of you will fare better.

In any case, my work here is done so now it’s time for me to ride off into the sunset. Happy trails.

The Blues Viking
The opinions expresses here are mine and if you don’t like them you can get your own damn blog.


PLEASE NOTE: Articles like this have gotten me into trouble in the past, and I don’t expect that this one will be any different. In particular, they have spawned angry responses from people on the right (some of them old and valued friends) via private email, which limits my responses to private email. Frankly, I find the necessity of defending my reasoning or my writing privately to be tedious, and I’m not willing to do it again; I’m going to ask that any response you wish to make be made publicly, either through my Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/michael.rosecrans.5) or through the "Post a Comment" link below. I am no longer wiling to provide responses by private email; in fact, I am not even going to read your comments unless they are made on a public forum. I have gone to the trouble of posting my thoughts publicly...please do me the courtesy of responding in the same fashion. - MSR