Black Confederates. 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 African Americans both above and below the Mason-Dixon line, but it was definitely a tendency that began around 1910." 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."

Some Interesting Facts About Black Confederate Soldiers:

• General Forrest freed all of his slaves in 1863 and put 6 of them in his personal escort. The escort was an elite group of "special forces" soldiers and a position of honor. They were the "best of the best", and responsible for his protection.
• During the Peninsula Campaign of 1862, Federal troops in McClellan's Army of the Potomac captured several Black Confederate sharpshooters. All were free men from Virginia who volunteered their services as snipers for the South.
• Many Black Confederates actually engaged in combat including the Battles of First Manassas, Chickamauga, Seven Days, Thompson's Station, Franklin, and others.
• Louisiana raised the first Black Unit for the Confederacy in 1861, two years before the North would enlist Blacks in their ranks.
• Black Confederates were known to frequent veteran reunions years after the war and many posed proudly for photographs with Confederate Battle Flags.
• Several Confederate leaders, including Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Secretary of State Judah Benjamin supported Patrick Cleburne's proposal for freeing slaves and enlisting them as soldiers in the Confederate Army.

 

 

On a cold winter night in January 1864, Patrick Cleburne put forth a controversial plan to the Confederate high command. It was a written proposal to free over 300,000 slaves and enlist them as soldiers in the Southern armies. He made few allies and many enemies, and from that moment on, his career would come to a dead halt. Cleburne was no ordinary commander. He had never lost a battle and was even called the "Stonewall Jackson of the West". None of this would matter once his revolutionary views were made known to the Confederate government and President Davis.

Ironically, Black troops had already been serving as teamsters in the Confederate ranks for years, but what Cleburne proposed was not merely service, but official military enlistment. He even went as far as to imply that the entire plan would begin the steps toward the complete emancipation of all African Americans from slavery.

Cleburne would pay a high price for his views, both in his career and his personal life, and events would transpire that would lead the Army of Tennessee to its tragic destiny at the Battle of Franklin. A bill similar to Cleburne's proposal would be signed into law only weeks before the war ended, but too late to change the fortunes of the Confederacy. Only one copy of his official proposal exists to this day.

On October 3, 2009, a 700-pound bronze statue of Patrick Cleburne will be unveiled at the site of his greatest victory at Ringgold Gap, Georgia. It is sculpted by acclaimed artist Ron Tunison, and stands in the Confederate Park on Highway 41.