[S# 3] CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS, RELATING SPECIALLY TO OPERATIONS IN ARKANSAS, THE INDIAN TERRITORY, KANSAS, AND MISSOURI, FROM MAY 10 TO NOVEMBER 19, 1861. CONFEDERATE CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.–#1
Official Records (War of the Rebellion)-SERIES I–VOLUME 3 [S# 3] CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS, RELATING SPECIALLY TO OPERATIONS IN ARKANSAS, THE INDIAN TERRITORY, KANSAS, AND MISSOURI, FROM MAY 10 TO NOVEMBER 19, 1861. CONFEDERATE CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.–#3.
Official Records (War of the Rebellion)– SERIES I–VOLUME XXXIV/3 [S# 63] CONFEDERATE CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS RELATING TO OPERATIONS IN LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI STATES AND TERRITORIES, FROM APRIL 1, 1864, TO MAY 22, 1864.–#4.
Official Records (War of the Rebellion)–SERIES I–VOLUME XLVIII/2 [S# 102] UNION CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS RELATING TO OPERATIONS IN LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI STATES AND TERRITORIES, FROM APRIL 1, 1865, TO JUNE 30, 1865.–#45 GENERAL ORDERS No. 6.

B. The Trent Incident

The Trent incident was the diplomatic crisis that potentially brought Great Britain and the United States to war. In October of 1861, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, seeking support and recognition of the Confederacy, sent diplomats James M. Mason of Virginia as minister to Britain and John Slidell of Louisiana as minister to France. Eluding the Union blockade, the Southerners reached Havana Cuba, where they boarded a British mail steamer, the Trent, for passage across the Atlantic Ocean. On November 8, 1861, Captain Charles Wilkes of the USS San Jacinto, halted the Trent in international waters 300 miles east of Havana with two shots across the bow. A boarding party from the San Jacinto seized the Confederate diplomats and their secretaries, and carried them as prisoners to Fort Warren in the Boston Harbor, but then allowed the Trent to resume its voyage. This decision became a source of controversy, with the British many claiming that the San Jacinto had violated international law by removing persons from a ship without taking the ship to a prize court for adjudication. (Artist Isodor Rocca’s depiction of the ‘Trent affair. U.S. Naval Academy Museum pictured below)

The San Jacinto met with acclaim when it landed in Boston on November 23, 1861 to deposit the Confederate diplomats as prisoners at Fort Warren. The war had been going badly for the Union, and this was a bright spot in an otherwise dismal year. Northern newspapers vied with one another to praise Wilkes’ conduct. The U.S. House of Representatives, with Lincolns approval passed a resolution to honor him and issued a special gold medal to him.

Reaction to the news in Great Britain, although equally passionate, could hardly have been more different. News of the capture arrived in London on November 27, where many perceived it as an outrageous insult to British honor. Lord Palmerston, Britain’s Prime Minister, commenced an emergency cabinet meeting by throwing his hat on the table and declaring, “I don’t know whether you are going to stand this, but I’ll be damned if I do.” The British Government composed an ultimatum that demanded an apology and the return of the Confederate diplomats. A message was sent to Lord Lyons, the British minister in Washington. Lyons presented it to Secretary of State Seward on December 19. Meanwhile, the Government of France declared its willingness to support Britain in a conflict against the United States.

Lincoln and Seward had given themselves time for political maneuver by waiting to hear the British reply before they decided the fate of the Confederates. In a role reversal, the outrage felt by England over the Trent affair arose from the same issue- freedom of the seas- that led the United States to declare war on England in 1812. Lincoln claimed that the British were relying on principles which the United States had gone to war to defend in 1812. More importantly, Lincoln realized that in 1861 the Union could not push the issue and become involved in a second simultaneous war. England, with troops already on standby in Canada, had the opportunity to open a second theater of war involving the United States. The United States, even with the industry they had, could not have held out in a two front war. Had England invaded the United States from Canada and with the Confederacy battling Yankee invasion troops in the South, the outcome would have been much different. Lincoln’s administration would surely have been forced to sue for peace and allow the Confederacy their independence.

The question remained how to accept British demands while maintaining U.S. popular support. The conflict ended on December 27th with Seward issuing an apology to the British government, which restored relations between the U.S. and England. On January 1, 1862, Mason and Slidell were released to continue their diplomatic mission to Europe. However the crafty Lincoln administration and neutralized their efforts before they could begin. The delays and saber rattling reduced the potential support sought by the Confederacy just months ago.

References and Details:

“The Lost Cause: The Standard Southern History of the War of the Confederates”, by Edward A. Pollard, Chapter 11
“The Story of the Confederate States” by Joseph T. Derry, Part II, Section 1, Chapter 4
“Fountain of Discontent: The Trent Affair and Freedom of the Seas”, by Gordon H. Warren
“The Story of the Confederacy” by Robert S. Henry, Chapter 7
“Hon. James Murray Mason” Southern Historical Society Papers. Vol. XXV. Richmond, Va., January-December. 1897
“Judah P. Benjamin” Southern Historical Society Papers. Vol. XXV. Richmond, Va., January-December. 1897
“Confederate States State Department” Southern Historical Society Papers. Vol. XXIX. Richmond, Va., January-December. 1901
“Confederate Diplomacy. Mason and Slidell” Southern Historical Society Papers. Vol. XXXII. Richmond, Va., January-December. 1904
” Lectures Of Charles Francis Adams On Our American Civil War.” Southern Historical Society Papers. Richmond, Va., April, 1914. New Series, Vol. 1, Old Series, Vol. XXXIX
“Federal Reliance On Physical Force” Confederate Military History, Vol. 1 The Civil History Of The Confederate States Chapter XV
Official Records (War of the Rebellion)– SERIES I–VOLUME 8 [S# 8] CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS. AND RETURNS RELATING TO OPERATIONS IN MISSOURI, ARKANSAS. KANSAS, AND THE INDIAN TERRITORY FROM NOVEMBER 19, 1861, TO APRIL 10, 1862. UNION CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. –6.
Official Records (War of the Rebellion)–SERIES II–VOLUME III [S# 116] SERIES II.–VOLUME III. CONFEDERATE CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, ETC., RELATING TO PRISONERS OF WAR AND STATE FROM FEBRUARY 19, 1861, TO JUNE 12, 1862.–#6.
Official Records (War of the Rebellion)–SERIES II–VOLUME III [S# 116] SERIES II.–VOLUME III. CONFEDERATE CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, ETC., RELATING TO PRISONERS OF WAR AND STATE FROM FEBRUARY 19, 1861, TO JUNE 12, 1862.–#6.
Official Records (War of the Rebellion)–SERIES II–VOLUME III [S# 116] SERIES II.–VOLUME III. CONFEDERATE CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, ETC., RELATING TO PRISONERS OF WAR AND STATE FROM FEBRUARY 19, 1861, TO JUNE 12, 1862.–#7.
Official Records (War of the Rebellion)–SERIES II–VOLUME III [S# 116] SERIES II.–VOLUME III. UNION CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, ETC., RELATING TO PRISONERS OF WAR AND STATE FROM FEBRUARY 19, 1861, TO JUNE 12, 1862.–#15.
Official Records (War of the Rebellion)–SERIES II–VOLUME III [S# 116] SERIES II.–VOLUME III. UNION CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, ETC., RELATING TO PRISONERS OF WAR AND STATE FROM FEBRUARY 19, 1861, TO JUNE 12, 1862.–#23.
Official Records (War of the Rebellion)–SERIES IV–VOLUME I [S# 127] CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, REPORTS, AND RETURNS OF THE CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES, DECEMBER 20, 1860-JUNE 30, 1862.–#36.
Official Records (War of the Rebellion)–SERIES II–VOLUME II [S# 115] Suspected and Disloyal Persons Case of Mason, Slidell, Macfarland and Eustis.

C. Lincoln Attempts To Compensate Northern Slave-owners

In the spring of 1862, Lincoln offered to representatives of the states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri and West Virginia, compensation to the slave -owners of those states for the emancipation of their slaves. Lincoln sent the following special message to Congress urging a joint resolution on compensated emancipation on March 6, 1862. “Resolved, that the United States ought to cooperate with any state which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such state pecuniary aid, to be used by such state, in its discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such change of system. If the proposition contained in the resolution does not meet the approval of Congress and the country, there is the end; but if it does command such approval, I deem it of importance that the states and people immediately interested should be at once distinctly notified of the fact, so that they may begin to consider whether to accept or reject it. The Federal government would find its highest interest in such a measure as one of the most efficient means of self-preservation. The leaders of the existing insurrection entertain the hope that this government will ultimately be forced to acknowledge the independence of some part of the disaffected region, and that all the slave states north of such part will then say, The Union for which we have struggled being already gone, we now choose to go with the Southern section.”

Congress approved the resolution, but the border states failed to support it. The only result of this offer was the abolition, by Congress, of slavery in the District of Columbia with compensation to the “loyal owners.” One million dollars was appropriated for the compensation. Lincoln’s September 22, 1862 proclamation warning the South to return to the Union within 100 days or face the loss of their slaves went unheeded.

Those boarder states did not accept Lincoln’s offer for, at that time, they believed that it was impossible for the United States to defeat the Confederacy. They also did not feel that Lincoln’s offer was sincere in view of the enormous expenditures of the United States government, the recent military situation, its losses on the battlefield and the present strength of the Confederate States of America. This supposed compensation would have been made in the form of bonds, which added to the doubt of the sincerity of the offer and the United States federal government’s ability to pay for the compensation.

Some felt that this offer was an attempt by Lincoln to appease the European governments and keep those governments from giving the Confederate States full recognition as a nation. Full recognition by European countries could have brought alliances, increased financial support, possibly even military support against the North. In 1861 when the avowed object of the war was the restoration of the Union, it was said by some English leaders in Parliament, “Make your war one against slavery and you will have the warm sympathy of the British public”. However when William E. Forster said in the House of Commons that he believed it that slavery was the cause of the war, he was answered with jeers and shouts of “No, no!” and “The Tariff.” Lincoln’s plan of compensated emancipation of 1862 was pronounced chimerical and its proposal insincere, as being for the purpose of affecting European opinion by those same leaders. Lincoln politically had to maneuver to keep European countries at length from the conflict on this continent.
In his Second Annual Message to Congress December 1, 1862, Lincoln proposed a constitutional amendment in which each state should have its own plan of gradual, compensated emancipation to be completed before 1900. He also supported colonization of freed blacks so as not to concern the Northern Labor interests. Lincoln said in this address “With deportation, even to a limited extent, enhanced wages to white labor is mathematically certain. Labor is like any other commodity in the market–increase the demand for it and you increase the price of it. Reduce the supply of black labor by colonizing the black laborer out of the country, and by precisely so much you increase the demand for and wages of white labor.”

Once again the man labeled as “The Great Emancipator” was more concerned about politics and economics and not humanitarian causes. As public opinion in the North and abroad continued to go against the Lincoln government, another bold move was calculated to try to turn the tide of support against the South. Lincoln would abandon the save the union theme for one of free the slaves in 1863 in order to secure a chance at reelection in the coming year.

References and Details:

“The South Was Right” by James R. Kennedy and Walter D. Kennedy, Chapter 2
“The Lost Cause: The Standard Southern History of the War of the Confederates”, by Edward A. Pollard, Chapter 7 & 21
“Truths of History” by Mildred L. Rutherford, Chapter 4, 14, 16
“War for What?” by Francis Springer, Chapter 20
“A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897”, by James D. Richardson Vol.
“America’s Caesar: Abraham Lincoln and the Birth of a Modern Empire” by Greg Loren Durand
“The Real Lincoln” by Charles L.C. Minor
“A True Estimate of Abraham Lincoln and Vindication of the South”, by Mildred L. Rutherford
“Causes Of The War.” Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. XXII. Richmond, Va., January-December. 1894
“President Lincoln” Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. XXVII. Richmond, Va, January-December. 1899
“President Lincoln Further Arraigned”, Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. XXVII. Richmond, Va, January-December. 1899
“History of the Civil War”, by John Ford Rhodes

D. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation

On September 22, 1862, Lincoln drafted a paper the Emancipation Proclamation and issued it on January 1, 1863. This document was a pure political and strategic tool as it freed, absolutely, no slaves. It did not apply to slaves in border states fighting on the Union side; nor did it affect slaves in southern areas already under Union control. Naturally, the states no longer in the union who formed the Confederate States of America did not act on Lincoln’s order, because his government had no authority, other than bayonet rule on the Southern people. But the proclamation did show Americans and the world that Mr. Lincolns War to save the Union was now being fought to end slavery.

The proclamation stated that “all persons held as slaves within any state, or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free…”

The document then listed the following as “states and parts of states wherein the people thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States…Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are, for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.”

What Lincoln was saying was that in territories that he had absolutely no governing power he was declaring slavery to be abolished immediately. In territories in which he had governing power, the areas of the United States and areas of the Confederacy which were presently under U.S. military occupation, were “left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued” or simply put slavery would remain untouched. The proclamation intent was politics, not principles. Issued at a time when the Confederacy seemed to be winning the war, Lincoln hoped to transform a disagreement over secession into a crusade against slavery, thus preventing Great Britain and France from intervening on the side of the South and also bolstering his political impact for the upcoming election in 1864. The constitution would be subverted in order to “declare” slavery ended. If the emancipation proclamation was such a law to set the slaves free, why did it not follow the flow of governmental checks and balances and why did it not cover the slaves of the North?

Lincoln’s past historical comments regarding slavery speak for themselves. This proclamation was political, an effort to accelerate support for the war and had no humanitarian inspiration. Lincoln has gone down through history with these quotes on slavery:

“If all earthy power was given to me, I would not know what to do as to the existing institution of slavery”, 1854 speech in Peoria, IL.
“I am not in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office…”, campaign speech September 15 1858
“I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery….”, First Inaugural Address March 4, 1861
“I am a little uneasy about the abolishment of slavery in this District of Columbia….”, letter to Horace Greeley March 24 1862
“If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it….” letter to Horace Greeley August 22, 1862

Another aspect that is often forgotten is that supporters of this proclamation predicted that the Southern slaves would rise up in violent revote murdering their former owners, neighbors and anyone in their path. This stress and fear would not only impact the wives and children at home, but the men in arms fighting for the Confederacy. It was intended to be a cruel psychological and terrorizing tactic on the Southern Army and their families. According to Rhodes, in his “History of the United States,” Vol. IV., page 344, he says; “Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was not issued from a humane standpoint. Lincoln hoped it would incite the Negroes to rise against the women and children.” and “His Emancipation Proclamation was intended only as a punishment for the seceding states. It was with no thought of freeing the slaves of more than 300,000 slaveholders then in the Northern army.” and “His Emancipation Proclamation was issued for a fourfold purpose and it was issued with fear and trepidation lest he should offend his Northern constituents.” He did it: “First: Because of an oath – that if Lee should be driven from Maryland he would free the slaves.” “Second: The time of enlistment had expired for many men in the army and he hoped this would encourage their re-enlistment.” “Third: Trusting that Southern men would be forced to return home to protect their wives and children from Negro insurrection.” “Fourth: Above all he issued it to prevent foreign nations from recognizing the Confederacy.”

This document was such a hypocrisy that many foreign nations would publicly rebuke it. Earl Russell, Britain’s Foreign Secretary, said “The Proclamation… professes to emancipate all slaves in places where the United States authorities cannot exercise any jurisdiction… but it does not decree emancipation… in any states occupied by federal troops.”

The New York World editorialized that the President has “proclaimed emancipation only where he has notoriously no power to execute it. The exemption of the accessible parts of Louisiana, Tennessee and Virginia renders the Proclamation not merely futile, but ridiculous.”

The London (England) Spectator said “the Union government liberates the enemy’s slaves as it would the enemy’s cattle, simply to weaken them in the conflict. The principle is not that a human being cannot justly own another, but that he cannot own him unless he is loyal to the United States.”

Lincoln admitted that he thought that the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation might “result in the massacre of women and children in the South.” No mass insurrection ever took place. The violence that did occur as result of Lincoln’s document took place in the North. In New York, the most violent riot ever in the United States took place as citizens protested against Lincoln’s political maneuver coupled with his initiation of the draft. On July 13, 1863, in New York City, a riot broke out and raged for three days in what historian Burke Davis called “the nearest approach to revolution” during the entire war ( at left The Illustrated London News, August 15, 1863

Collection of The New-York Historical Society

Mobs surged through the streets, burned buildings, and destroyed the drum from which the names of 1,200 New Yorkers had been drawn for military service. There were no soldiers to check the violence, due to the concentration of all available troops at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, so policemen and militia units had to face the rioters alone. (at right From The New York Illustrated News August 8, 1863 Collection of The New-York Historical Society)

The angry mob burned fine homes, business buildings, the draft office, a Methodist church, a Negro orphanage, and many other buildings. In July 1863, the introduction of military conscription touched off a four-day riot in New York City.

Angry mobs attacked draft offices, industrial establishments, and the city’s free black population. Their actions included the lynching of many African Americans and burning down the Colored Orphan Asylum. A Negro was hung, then burned as people danced around the burning body. More than thirty Negroes were killed – shot, hung, or trampled to death. It had been reported that Negroes were hung from the lamp posts along the streets.

The mobs grew to an estimated strength of between 50,000 and 70,000. For three days they swarmed through the streets, setting up barricades on First, Second, and Eighth Avenues, where sometimes a force of only 300 policemen would have to face 10,000 attackers at a time.

Some troops filtered into town, and the crowds took to alleys and rooftops where they killed soldiers with bricks and guns. The gangs caught the colonel of a militia unit, stomping and beating him to death. After dragging him to his home, men, women, and children danced around his body. Eventually, enough troops arrived to put an end to the rioting. Casualties were heavy -nearly 2,000 people were dead from the melee.
(at left From The New York Illustrated News August 8, 1863, Below August 1, 1863
Collection of The New-York Historical Society)

Chaotic conditions in the North were in sharp contrast to those in the beleaguered Southland where one might have expected that the exigencies of war would necessitate curtailment of basic privileges, yet never was the writ of habeas corpus suspended during the lifetime of the Confederate States of America. Many soldiers in the U.S. Army, especially in the Western theater, laid down their arms due to Lincoln’s issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation. They refused to fight after finding that the federal government had implied that the war was, from that point, to be fought over the issue of slavery.

U.S. General Ulysses S. Grant said “Should I become convinced that the object of the government is to execute the wishes of the abolitionists, I pledge you my honor as a man and a soldier I would resign my commission and carry my sword to the other side.”

Governor William Sprague, of Rhode Island, said “We had to take a lot of abuse in return for an endorsement of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. We were hissed in the streets and denounced as traitors.”

In “Short History of the United States” Channing says “The Union Army showed the greatest sympathy with McClellan for the bold protest against emancipation. Five states, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York went against Lincoln on this account.”

References and Details:

“The South Was Right” by James R. Kennedy and Walter D. Kennedy, Chapter 1 & 2
“The Lost Cause: The Standard Southern History of the War of the Confederates”, by Edward A. Pollard, Chapter 21
“Truths of History” by Mildred L. Rutherford, Chapter 4, 14, 16
“History of the Civil War”, by John Ford Rhodes
“War for What?” by Francis Springer, Chapter 20
“America’s Caesar: Abraham Lincoln and the Birth of a Modern Empire” by Greg Loren Durand
“The Real Lincoln” by Charles L.C. Minor
“A Short History of the United States”, by Edward Channing
“A True Estimate of Abraham Lincoln and Vindication of the South”, by Mildred L. Rutherford
“The Story of the Confederate States” by Joseph T. Derry, Part 3, Section 3, Chapter 1
The New York Draft Riots (1990) Iver Bernstein.
“African Slavery” Southern Historical Society Papers. Vol. XVII. Richmond, Va., January-December. 1889.
“Career Of The Shenandoah. the only Confederate Cruiser Afloat” Southern Historical Society Papers. Vol. XXV. Richmond, Va., January-December. 1897
“President Lincoln” Southern Historical Society Papers. Vol. XXVII. Richmond, Va., January-December. 1899
“President Lincoln Further Arraigned”, Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. XXVII. Richmond, Va, January-December. 1899
“Official Report Of The History Committee Of The Grand Camp C. V., Department Of Virginia. Southern Historical Society Papers. Vol. XXVIII. Richmond, Va., January-December. 1900
“The Peace Conference In Hampton Roads” and “Not Posted on History” Southern Historical Society Papers. Vol. XXIX. Richmond, Va., January-December. 1901
“Treatment And Exchange Of Prisoners” Southern Historical Society Papers. Vol. XXX. Richmond, Va., January-December. 1902
“The Imboden Raid And Its Effects” Southern Historical Society Papers. Vol. XXXIV Richmond, Va., January-December. 1906
“Address Of Hon. John Lamb” Southern Historical Society Papers. Vol. XXXVIII. Richmond, Va., January-December. 1910.
“Lectures Of Charles Francis Adams On Our American Civil War” Southern Historical Society Papers. Richmond, Va., April, 1914. New Series, Vol. 1, Old Series, Vol. XXXIX.
“Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation” Southern Historical Society Papers December, 1930. New Series, Vol. 9, Old Series, Vol. XLVI. 1st Confederate Congress–(Third Session)–Thursday, January 15, 1863
“The Confederate States’ Policies” Confederate Military History, Vol. 1 The Civil History Of The Confederate States Chapter XVII
“United States Measures, Civil And Military” Confederate Military History, Vol. 1 The Civil History Of The Confederate States Chapter XVIII “The Politics Of 1864 As A Factor In The War”, Confederate Military History, Vol. 1 The Civil History Of The Confederate States Chapter XXI “The Last Great Peace Efforts” Confederate Military History, Vol. 1 The Civil History Of The Confederate States Chapter XXV
“History of the United States,” by Rhodes, Volume 4, page 344

E. The South’s Support By Black Confederates
(Thanks to Kelly Barrow and to Elijah Coleman’s Southern Messenger for use of photographs in this section)

An important fact of the War Between The States is that black Southerners fought and died for the Confederate cause. As a matter of fact, black soldiers were fighting for the Confederacy before the United States allowed black soldiers to enlist in the U.S. Army. The question often asked then is, “Why haven’t we heard more about them?” National Park Service historian, Ed Bearrs, stated: “I don’t want to call it a conspiracy to ignore the role of Blacks both above and below the Mason-Dixon line, but it was definitely a tendency that began around 1910”.

“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 musket on their shoulders, and bullets in their pockets, ready to shoot down any loyal troops and do all that soldiers may do to destroy the Federal government and build up that of the…rebels.” Frederick Douglas, former slave & abolitionist (Fall, 1861)

How many? Easily tens of thousands of blacks served the Confederacy as laborers, teamsters, cooks and even as soldiers. Some estimates indicate 25% of free blacks and 15% of slaves actively supported the South during the war. Why? Blacks served the South because it was their home, and because they hoped for the reward of patriotism; for these reasons they fought in every war through Korea, even though it meant defending a segregated United States.

The Charleston Mercury of January 3, 1861 said: “We learn that 150 able-bodied free colored men, of Charleston, yesterday offered their services gratuitously to the Governor, to hasten forward the important work of throwing up redoubts wherever needed along our coast.”

The Tennessee Legislature on 28 June 1861, passed an act authorizing Governor Isham G. Harris to receive into the military service of the State all male free persons of color, between the ages of 15 and 50. The Memphis Avalanche stated: “A procession of several hundred stout Negro men, of the domestic institution, marched through our streets yesterday in military order, under command of Confederate officers. A merrier set were never seen. They were brimful of patriotism, shouting for Jeff. Davis and singing war-songs.”

A telegram sent to the newspapers of the South: “New Orleans, November 23, 1861. Over 28,000 troops were reviewed today by Gov. Moore, Major. Gen. Lovell, and Brig.-Gen. Ruggles. The line was over seven miles long. One regiment comprised 1,400 free colored men.”
Historian, Erwin L. Jordan, Jr., calls it a cover-up which started back in 1865. He writes, “During my research, I came across instances where Black men stated they were soldiers, but you can plainly see where ‘soldier’ is crossed out and ‘body servant’ inserted, or ‘teamster’ on pension applications.”

A black historian, Roland Young, says he is not surprised that blacks fought. He explains that, “…some, if not most, Black southerners would support their country” and that by doing so they were “demonstrating it’s possible to hate the system of slavery and love one’s country.” This is the very same reaction that most black Americans showed during the American Revolution, where they fought for the colonies, even though the British offered them freedom if they fought for them. It has been estimated that over 65,000 Southern blacks were in the Confederate ranks. Over 13,000 of these, meet the enemy in some sort of combat. These Black Confederates included both slave and free. Some try to discount their role as being only cooks and labors, yet their duties performed are similar to duties performed by today’s Army personnel and certainly no one questions the current day cook who wears the United States Army green as being a “real soldier.”
There is overwhelming evidence of the black soldier’s contribution to the Confederate cause. In 1862 Dr. Lewis Steiner, chief inspector of the United States Army Sanitary Commission, was an eyewitness to the occupation of Frederick, Maryland, by General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s army. Steiner makes this statement about the makeup of that army: “Over 3,000 Negroes must be included in this number (Confederate troops). These were clad in all kinds of uniforms, not only in cast-off or captured United States uniforms, but in coats with Southern buttons, State buttons, etc. These were shabby, but not shabbier or seedier than those worn by white men in the rebel ranks. Most of the Negroes had arms, rifles, muskets, sabers, bowie-knives, dirks, etc….and were manifestly an integral portion of the Southern Confederacy Army.”

Private John W. Haley, Seventeenth Maine Infantry, gives this account of a black Confederate sharpshooter: “There seemed to be a fatality lurking in certain spots….It wasn’t long before Mr. Reb made his whereabouts known, but he was so covered with leaves that no eye could discern him. Our sharpshooter drew a bead on him and something dropped, that something being a six-foot Negro whose weight wasn’t less than 300
pounds.”

Captain Arthur L. Fremantle was a British observer attached to General Robert E. Lee’s army. In 1863 Captain Fremantle went with Lee’s army on the Gettysburg campaign. During this time he witnessed many accounts of black loyalty to the Southern cause, including one case in which a black soldier was in charge of white Yankee prisoners. These acts by the loyal blacks prompted the following remarks by the Englishman: “This little episode of a Southern slave leading a white Yankee soldier through a Northern village, alone and of his own accord, would not have been gratifying to an abolitionist,…Nor would the sympathizers both in England and in the North feel encouraged if they could hear the language of detestation and contempt with which the numerous Negroes with Southern armies speak of their liberators.”

Dick Poplar was a free black man from Petersburg, Virginia. He was well known before the war as a cook. He took that specialty with him when he entered the Confederate army. However, being a cook did not prevent him from being taken prisoner after the Battle of Gettysburg. At Point Lookout Prison, Maryland, the Negro guards tried their best to make this black man turn against his people. Dick Poplar maintained during this time that he was a loyal “Jeff Davis man.” He stayed in this hellish prison camp for twenty months. A word from him against the southern government at any time would have set him free, but he never turned his back on the South.

Famed bridge engineer and former slave Horace King received naval contracts for building Confederate warships. A black servant named Sam Ashe killed the first Union officer during the war, abolitionist Major Theodore Winthrop. John W. Buckner, a black private, was wounded at Ft. Wagner repulsing the U.S. (Colored) 54th Massachusetts Regiment. George Wallace, a servant who surrendered with General Lee at Appomattox, later served in the Georgia Senate. Jim Lewis served General Stonewall Jackson, and was honored to hold his horse “Little Sorrel” at the general’s funeral.

In St. Louis, General John Fremont freed slaves of “disloyal” Missouri Confederates; an angry Lincoln fired him. Encouraged by General Lee, the CSA eventually freed slaves who would join the army, and did recruit and arm black regiments. The “Richmond Howitzers” were partially manned by black militiamen. They saw action at First Manassas where they operated Battery number 2. In addition two black regiments, one free and one slave, participated in the battle on behalf of the South. “Many colored people were killed in the action”, recorded John Parker, a former slave.

At least one Black Confederate was a non-commissioned officer. James Washington, Company D, 34th Texas Cavalry, “Terrell’s Texas Cavalry” became it’s 3rd Sergeant. Free black musicians, cooks, soldiers and teamsters earned the same pay as white confederate privates. This was not the case in the Union army where blacks did not receive equal pay. At the Confederate Buffalo Forge in Rockbridge County, Virginia, skilled black workers earned on average three times the wages of white Confederate soldiers and more than most Confederate army officers ($350- $600 a year).

Black and white militiamen returned heavy fire on Union troops at the Battle of Griswoldsville, near Macon, GA. Approximately 600 boys and elderly men were killed in this skirmish. In 1864, President Jefferson Davis approved a plan that proposed the emancipation of slaves, in return for the official recognition of the Confederacy by Britain and France. France showed interest but Britain refused. The Jackson Battalion included two companies of black soldiers. They saw combat at Petersburg under Col. Shipp. “My men acted with utmost promptness and goodwill. ….Allow me to state sir that they behaved in an extraordinary acceptable manner.”

Recently the National Park Service, with a recent discovery, recognized that blacks were asked to help defend the city of Petersburg, Virginia and were offered their freedom if they did so. Regardless of their official classification, black Americans performed support functions that in today’s army many would be classified as official military service. The successes of white Confederate troops in battle, could only have been achieved with the support these loyal black Southerners.

Confederate General John B. Gordon, Army of Northern Virginia, reported that all of his troops were in favor of Colored troops and that it’s adoption would have “greatly encouraged the army”. General Lee was anxious to receive regiments of black soldiers. The Richmond Sentinel reported on 24 Mar 1864, “None will deny that our servants are more worthy of respect than the motley hordes which come against us. Bad faith to black Confederates must be avoided as an indelible dishonor.”

Black Confederates served in state and militia units throughout the war. Many black Southerners also served the Confederate army in the ordinance department, as cooks and as mule skinners (drivers of mules). They also built bridges and forts, dug trenches, performed scouting duties and drove wagons as did white Confederate soldiers. The Tennessee legislature in the first autumn of the war had empowered Governor Harris to enlist free Negroes for military service. Governor Moore, of Louisiana, had paraded 1,400 Negro militia. Black Confederate by law, received the same pay as whites, while black soldiers in the U.S. army were paid less than their white counterparts. It is interesting to note that famed black abolitionist Frederick Douglass said that if the South gave the slaves their freedom, they would mostly fight for the South.

Some argue that the black soldier was a desperate measure of a losing Confederate government. While it is true that the Confederate Congress did not approve blacks to be officially enlisted as soldiers, except as musicians, until late in the war, but in the ranks, in day to day operations in the field it was a different story. Many Confederate officers did not obey the mandates of politicians, they frequently enlisted blacks with the simple criteria, “Will you fight?” Historian Ervin Jordan, explains that bi-racial units were frequently organized by local Confederate and State militia Commanders in response to immediate threats in the form of Union raids. Dr. Leonard Haynes, a African-American professor at Southern University, stated, “When you eliminate the black Confederate soldier, you’ve eliminated the history of the South.”

As the war came to an end, the Confederacy took progressive measures to build back up it’s army. The creation of the Confederate States Colored Troops came too late to be successful. Had the Confederacy been successful, it would have created the world’s largest armies at the time consisting of black soldiers, even larger than that of the North. Not only did Jefferson Davis envision black Confederate veterans receiving bounty lands for their service, there would have been no future for slavery after the goal of 300,000 armed black CSA veterans came home after the war.

In March 1865, Judah P. Benjamin, Confederate Secretary Of State, promised freedom for blacks who served from the State of Virginia. Authority for this was finally received from the State of Virginia and on 1 April 1865. $100 bounties were offered to black soldiers. Benjamin exclaimed, “Let us say to every Negro who wants to go into the ranks, go and fight, and you are free…Fight for your masters and you shall have your freedom.” Confederate Officers were ordered to treat them humanely and protect them from “injustice and oppression”.

A quota was set for 300,000 black soldiers for the Confederate States Colored Troops. 83% of Richmond’s male slave population volunteered for duty. A special ball was held in Richmond to raise money for uniforms for these men. Before Richmond fell, black Confederates in gray uniforms drilled in the streets. Due to the war ending, it is believed only companies or squads of these troops ever saw any action.

Union General U.S. Grant in Feb 1865, ordered the capture of “all the Negro men… before the enemy can put them in their ranks.” On April 4, 1865 in Amelia County, VA, a Confederate supply train was exclusively manned and guarded by black Infantry. When attacked by Federal Cavalry, they stood their ground and fought off the charge, but on the second charge they were overwhelmed. These soldiers are believed to be from “Major Turner’s” Confederate command.

A Black Confederate, named George, when captured by Federal troops was bribed to desert to the other side. He defiantly spoke, “Sir, you want me to desert, and I ain’t no deserter. Down South, deserters disgrace their families and I am never going to do that.” Horace King, a former slave, accumulated great wealth as a contractor to the Confederate Navy. He was also an expert engineer and became known as the “Bridge builder of the Confederacy.” One of his bridges was burned in a Yankee raid. His home was pillaged by Union troops, as his wife pleaded for mercy. As of February 1865 1,150 black seamen served in the Confederate Navy. One of these was among the last Confederates to surrender, aboard the CSS Shenandoah, six months after the war ended. This surrender took place in England.

Nearly 180,000 Black Southerners from Virginia alone, provided logistical support for the Confederate military. Many were highly skilled workers. These included a wide range of jobs: nurses, military engineers, teamsters, ordnance department workers, brakemen, firemen, harness makers, blacksmiths, wagon makers, boatmen, mechanics, wheelwrights. In the 1920’S Confederate pensions were finally allowed to some of those workers that were still living. Many thousands more served in other Confederate States.

Mr. Adam Miller Moore, born a slave to the Roberts family of Lincoln County North Carolina, grew up with his master’s son Adam Miller Roberts. Young Mr. Roberts joined the Confederate Army, while Mr. Moore remained at home. Mr. Roberts fought with Company “M” of the 16th. North Carolina Regiment and came home after recuperating from wounds received in battle. When he returned to the fighting in Virginia, Mr. Roberts asked Mr. Moore to go with him. The men left the Cherryville, North Carolina railroad station and arrived at Chancellorsville, Virginia on 30 April 1863. Mr. Roberts was killed in action the next day. Mr. Moore stayed with Company “M” of the 16th North Carolina until the unit surrendered at Appomattox in 1865.

John Price was a slave and followed his master John T. Price and joined Company “B” of the 4th Texas Infantry, also known as The Tom Green Rifles. After the war John Price joined and was accepted into the United Confederate Veterans organization. Henderson Howard can be seen setting between two of his white compatriots in a photograph of the 28th reunion of Hood’s Texas Brigade in 1900.

During the early 1900’s, many members of the United Confederate Veterans (UCV) advocated awarding former slaves rural acreage and a home. There was hope that justice could be given those slaves that were once promised “forty acres and a mule” but never received any. In the 1913 Confederate Veteran magazine published by the UCV, it was printed that this plan “If not Democratic, it is the Confederate” thing to do. There was much gratitude toward former slaves, which “thousands were loyal, to the last degree”, now living with total poverty of the big cities. Unfortunately, their proposal fell on deaf ears on Capitol Hill.

During the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1913, arrangements were made for a joint reunion of Union and Confederate veterans. The commission in charge of the event made sure they had enough accommodations for the black Union veterans, but were completely surprised when unexpected black Confederates arrived. The white Confederates immediately welcomed their old comrades, gave them one of their tents, and “saw to their every need”. Nearly every Confederate reunion including those blacks that served with them, wearing the gray.

In Mississippi, on February 11, 1890, an appropriation for a monument to the Confederate dead was being considered. A delegate had just spoken against the bill, when John F. Harris, a Negro Republican delegate from Washington County, rose to speak: “Mr. Speaker! I have arisen here in my place to offer a few words on the bill. I have come from a sick bed…Perhaps it was not prudent for me to come. But, Sir, I could not rest quietly in my room without…contributing…a few remarks of my own. I was sorry to hear the speech of the young gentleman from Marshall County. I am sorry that any son of a soldier should go on record as opposed to the erection of a monument in honor of the brave dead. And, Sir, I am convinced that had he seen what I saw at Seven Pines and in the Seven Days’ fighting around Richmond, the battlefield covered with the mangled forms of those who fought for their country and for their country’s honor, he would not have made that speech. When the news came that the South had been invaded, those men went forth to fight for what they believed, and they made no requests for monuments…But they died, and their virtues should be remembered. Sir, I went with them. I too, wore the gray, the same color my master wore. We stayed four long years, and if that war had gone on till now I would have been there yet… I want to honor those brave men who died for their convictions. When my mother died I was a boy. Who, Sir, then acted the part of a mother to the orphaned slave boy, but my ‘old missus’? Were she living now, or could speak to me from those high realms where are gathered the sainted dead, she would tell me to vote for this bill. And, Sir, I shall vote for it. I want it known to all the world that my vote is given in favor of the bill to erect a monument in honor of the Confederate dead.” When the applause died down, the measure passed overwhelmingly, and every Negro member voted “aye.”

The first military monument in the US Capitol that honors an African-American soldier is the Confederate monument at Arlington National cemetery. The monument was designed in 1914 by Moses Ezekiel, a Jewish Confederate, who wanted to correctly portray the racial makeup in the Confederate Army. A black Confederate soldier is depicted marching in step with white Confederate soldiers. Also shown is one “white soldier giving his child to a black woman for protection”.

Black Confederate heritage is beginning to receive the attention it deserves. For instance, Terri Williams, a black journalist for the Suffolk “Virginia Pilot” newspaper, writes: “I’ve had to re-examine my feelings toward the [Confederate] flag…It started when I read a newspaper article about an elderly black man whose ancestor worked with the Confederate forces. The man spoke with pride about his family member’s contribution to the cause, was photographed with the [Confederate] flag draped over his lap…that’s why I now have no definite stand on just what the flag symbolizes, because it no longer is their history, or my history, but our history.”

Nelson W. Winbush, a retired educator and SCV member, lectured on his black Confederate ancestor, private Louis N. Nelson. A black Chicago funeral home owner, Ernest A. Griffin, flies the CSA battle flag and erected at his own expense a $20,000 monument to the 6,000 Confederate soldiers who are buried on his property, once site of the Union prison Camp Douglas. Black professor Lloyd Haynes (recently deceased) of Southeastern Louisiana University spoke regularly on black Confederates. American University’s professor Edward Smith also lectures on the truth of black Confederate history and, with Nelson W. Winbush, has prepared an educational videotape entitled “Black Southern Heritage.” Black Confederates, Why haven’t we heard of them before? Good question!

References and Details:
“Black Confederates Fact Page”, By Scott Williams
“Forgotten Confederates: An Anthology about Black Southerners” by Charles Kelly Barrow
“Black Southerners in Confederate Armies”, by Charles Kelly Barrow
“Black Southerners in Gray”, by Richard Rollins.
“Black Southern Heritage-video”, by Dr. Edward Smith & Nelson Winbush
“Black Confederates”, Sons of Confederate Veterans Education Committee Report
Library of Congress Black History Resource Guide
“Black Slave-owners: Free Black Slave-owners in South Carolina,1790-1860”, by Larry Koger.
‘Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia’, by Ervin L. Jordan, Jr
“Confederate Negro Enlistments”, by Edward Spencer
“Black Confederates”, by Phillip Thomas Tucker
“The Negro Soldier Question” Southern Historical Society Papers 1959. New Series, Vol. 14, Old Series, Vol. LII. 2d Confederate Congress–(2d Session)–Tuesday, March 7, 1865
“Negroes for Cooks, teamsters and Laborers in the Army” Southern Historical Society Papers 1953. New Series, Vol. 12, Old Series, Vol. L. 1st Confederate Congress–(Fourth Session)–Monday, January 18, 1864.
“The Negro Soldier Bill Passed” Southern Historical Society Papers 1959. New Series, Vol. 14, Old Series, Vol. LII. 2d Confederate Congress–(2d Session)–Wednesday, March 8, 1865.
Official Records (War of the Rebellion)–SERIES I–VOLUME XXXIX/1 [S# 77] SEPTEMBER 29-NOVEMBER 13, 1864.–Operations in North Georgia and North Alabama. No. 56.–Report of Col. Charles C. Doolittle, Eighteenth Michigan Infantry, commanding post of Decatur, Ala. Official Records (War of the Rebellion)–SERIES I–VOLUME XLVI/2 [S# 96] CONFEDERATE CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS RELATING TO OPERATIONS IN NORTHERN AND SOUTHEASTERN VIRGINIA, NORTH CAROLINA (JANUARY 1-31), WEST VIRGINIA, MARYLAND, AND PENNSYLVANIA, FROM JANUARY 1, 1865, TO MARCH 15, 1865.–#13.
Official Records (War of the Rebellion)–SERIES I–VOLUME XLVI/2 [S# 96] UNION CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS RELATING TO OPERATIONS IN NORTHERN AND SOUTHEASTERN VIRGINIA, NORTH CAROLINA (JANUARY 1-31), WEST VIRGINIA, MARYLAND, AND PENNSYLVANIA, FROM JANUARY 1, 1865, TO MARCH 15, 1865.–#26 the Negro Soldier Bill.
Official Records (War of the Rebellion)–SERIES I–VOLUME XLVI/2 [S# 96] UNION CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS RELATING TO OPERATIONS IN NORTHERN AND SOUTHEASTERN VIRGINIA, NORTH CAROLINA (JANUARY 1-31), WEST VIRGINIA, MARYLAND, AND PENNSYLVANIA, FROM JANUARY 1, 1865, TO MARCH 15, 1865.–#26.
Official Records (War of the Rebellion)–SERIES I–VOLUME XLVII/2 [S# 99] UNION CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS RELATING TO OPERATIONS IN NORTH CAROLINA (FROM FEBRUARY 1), SOUTH CAROLINA, SOUTHERN GEORGIA, AND EAST FLORIDA, FROM JANUARY 1, 1865, TO MARCH 23, 1865.–#21 From North Carolina–Raids on Tarborough and Goldsborough
Official Records (War of the Rebellion)–SERIES II–VOLUME VI [S# 119] UNION AND CONFEDERATE CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, ETC., RELATING TO PRISONERS OF WAR AND STATE FROM JUNE 11, 1863, TO MARCH 31, 1864.–#41
Official Records (War of the Rebellion)–SERIES III–VOLUME V [S# 126] CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, REPORTS, AND RETURNS OF THE UNION AUTHORITIES FROM MAY 1, 1865, TO THE END.–#26. REBEL LEGISLATION RELATIVE TO THE EMPLOYMENT OF NEGROES FOR MILITARY PURPOSES.
Official Records (War of the Rebellion)–SERIES IV–VOLUME II [S# 128] Correspondence, Orders, Reports, And Returns Of The Confederate Authorities, July 1, 1862-December 31, 1863.–#31.
Official Records (War of the Rebellion)–SERIES IV–VOLUME III [S# 129]. CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, REPORTS, AND RETURNS OF THE CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES FROM JANUARY 1, 1864, TO THE END.–#31.
Official Records (War of the Rebellion)–SERIES IV–VOLUME III [S# 129]. CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, REPORTS, AND RETURNS OF THE CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES FROM JANUARY 1, 1864, TO THE END.–#41.
Official Records (War of the Rebellion)–SERIES IV–VOLUME III [S# 129]. CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, REPORTS, AND RETURNS OF THE CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES FROM JANUARY 1, 1864, TO THE END.–#41.
Official Records (War of the Rebellion)–SERIES IV–VOLUME III [S# 129] CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, REPORTS, AND RETURNS OF THE CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES FROM JANUARY 1, 1864, TO THE END.–#46. Official Records (War of the Rebellion)–SERIES IV–VOLUME III [S# 129] CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, REPORTS, AND RETURNS OF THE CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES FROM JANUARY 1, 1864, TO THE END.–#47.

F. The South’s Support By Hispanics

It is estimated that nearly 15,000 Mexican-Americans/ Hispanics fought in the War Between the States in the ranks of the Confederacy. As a result of the Spanish colonial settlement of the Gulf Coast states and, during the 19th century, Mexican control of the territories that were to become Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, a significant number of Hispanic-Americans were affected by the outbreak of the war. Colonel Santos Benavides lead the 33rd Texas Cavalry, totaling almost ten thousand Tejanos (Mexican Americans) throughout the War. How many men from the Southwest, had Hispanic blood in their heritage, yet were not documented other than simply Confederate Soldier? Researchers state thousands. Some individuals of note included:

José Agustín Quintero, a Cuban poet and revolutionary, ably served Confederate President Jefferson Davis as the Confederate States Commissioner to Northern Mexico, ensuring critical supplies from Europe flowed through Mexican ports to the CSA.

Santiago Vidaurri, governor of the border states of Coahuila and Nuevo León, offered to secede northern Mexico and join the Confederacy; Jefferson Davis declined, afraid the valuable “neutral” Mexican ports would be then blockaded.

The Spanish inventor Narciso Monturiol offered the Confederacy his advanced submarine Ictineo to smash the Federal blockade. Never purchased, Jules Verne apparently based the Nautilus on this, the world’s most advanced vessel of the day.

Ambrosio José González, a famous Cuban revolutionary, served Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard as his artillery officer in Charleston; earlier, in New York, he helped design the modern Cuban and (inversed) Puerto Rican flags.

Thomas Jordan, a Confederate general responsible for early codes used in spying on Washington, after the war led the Cuban revolutionary army as Commander-in-Chief, training its generals and in 1870 routing the Spaniards at two-to-one odds.

Lola Sanchez, of a Cuban family living near St. Augustine, had her sisters serve dinner to visiting Federals, while she raced out at night and warned the nearest Confederate camp. The Yankees thus lost a general, his unit and a gunboat the next day.

Loretta Janeta Velasquez a Cuban woman, disguised her self as a man. She named herself Harry T. Buford and raised a full regiment to fight for the Confederacy. She was wounded several times, one of these was in the battle of Pittsburgh Landing (Shiloh). Because of these wounds she was forced to retire from active service. Loretta continued to work for the Confederacy as a spy. She chronicled her amazing and harrowing adventures in an account called The Woman in Battle.

John O’Donnell-Rosales explains in the introduction to his list of Hispanic Confederate soldiers, many of these individuals, including businessmen and sailors lived in cities like New Orleans, St. Louis, Natchez, Biloxi, and Mobile, Included among the soldiers are persons of Jewish descent whose ancestors were expelled from Spain in 1492, as well as a short list of Hispanic Confederate naval personnel. He has documented 3600 Mexican troops for the Confederacy.

Santos Benavides, a former Texas ranger, commanded the Confederate 33rd Texas Cavalry, a Mexican- American unit which defeated the Union in the 1864 Battle of Laredo, Texas. He became the only Mexican Confederate States colonel. As a young man Benavides fought for the Federalists. Frustrated with the Mexican government, he cooperated with the forces of Mirabeau B. Lamar, which occupied Laredo during the Mexican War. When Texas seceded, Benavides and his brothers supported the Confederacy, whose states’-rights principles were so close to their regionalism.

Commissioned a captain in the Thirty-Third Texas Cavalry (or Benavides’ Regiment) and assigned to the Rio Grande Military District, Benavides quickly won accolades as a fighter. He drove Juan Cortinas back into Mexico in the battle of Carrizo on May 22, 1861, and quelled other local revolts against Confederate authority. In November 1863 Benavides was promoted to colonel and authorized to raise his own regiment of “Partisan Rangers,” for which he used the remnants of the Thirty-Third. His greatest military triumph was his defense of Laredo on March l9, 1864, with forty-two troops against 200 soldiers of the Union First Texas Cavalry, commanded by Col. Edmund J. Davis, who had, ironically, offered Benavides a Union generalship earlier.

Marching through one of the worst South Texas droughts in memory with dried-up water holes, parched earth, and little trail grass Major Alfred E. Holt led a small Union force of 200 men upriver to seize or destroy 5,000 bales of cotton neatly stacked in Laredo’s San Agustín Plaza. On March 19, 1864, Major Holt found the seriously ill Colonel Santos Benavides waiting with 42 men along the banks of Zacate Creek just east of Laredo. The Federals dismounted and charged the Rebels. Three times the Federals advanced on the Rebel position and were driven off. After several hours of fighting, darkness silenced the combatants, the sniping slackened, and Major Holt ordered a retreat. The next day, the Federals began the long march back to Brownsville. No Confederate fatalities were recorded.

Perhaps Benavides’s most significant contribution to the South came when he arranged for safe passage of Texas cotton along the Rio Grande to Matamoros during the Union occupation of Brownsville in l864.Col. Benavides is the only Confederate officer to have fought against Federal forces, Mexican forces and hostile Native American.

References and Details:

“Vaqueros in Blue & Gray”, by Jerry Don Thompson
“Hispanic Confederates”, by John O’Donnell-Rosales
“Hispanics in Gray”, Sons of Confederate Veterans Education Committee Report
“Foreigners in the Confederacy, by Ella Lonn,
“The Lost Cause: The Confederate Exodus to Mexico”, by Andrew Rolle,
“Santiago Vidaurri and the Southern Confederacy”, by Ronnie C. Tyler,
“Hispanic Presence in the United States: Historical Beginnings”, by Frank de Varona

Part 9 Questions:

In short essay format give and support an opinion for at least eight of these questions:

1. Why did the Indian Nations choose the Confederacy over the Union?

2. Why is the role of the Indian Nations rarely found in textbooks on American History?

3. What were the legal issues that Great Brittan and the Confederate States held against the USA regarding the Trent Incident?

4. Explain the stronger motivation, international law and opinion or war with a second nation behind Lincoln’s handling of the Trent Affair.

5. Why were the boarder states suspicious of Lincoln’s 1862 proposal for compensated emancipation?

6. Why was no offer of compensated emancipation offered prior to any state from 1850-1860 as the crisis in the Union was building?

7. What was the purpose of the Emancipation Proclamation since in effect freed no slaves?

8. Why did Lincoln and the Republicans switch the purported reason for fighting the war from “preservation of the Union” to “fighting to free
slaves”?

9. If you were a senator in the late 1850’s, what kind of legislation do you feel could have averted the war of 1861-65 and kept the nation in tact?

10. How do the New York draft riots of 1863 reflect the mood and sentiment of the Northern people about the war and towards the Lincoln administration?

11. What motivations might a black Southern slave or free, have for fighting for the Confederacy?

12. Why do we so seldom hear of the black soldiers contribution to the Confederate States?

13. How did the need to keep neutral ports in Mexico open compare to the advantage of having Mexican providences secede to join the Confederate States?

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