The only Civil War battle in Virginia in which nearly all the Union troops were Black.

May their memory be eternal. Both Union AND Confederate.

Fort Pocahontas was established by the Union in 1861 to defend Richmond from naval assault by Confederate forces. Nearly half of it has been dug up in order for researchers to reveal James Fort of historic Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the New World. Read the whole story here...


http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/civil-war-fort-at-jamestown-is-dug-up-to-get-at-1607-site/2012/05/04/gIQAWfiC8T_story.html

 

Black man identified as veteran in Texas

... was found here.

A Rascally recruit

I've been enjoying the Richmond Dispatch online. Here is an interesting article about a Black man who volunteered and then left his position.

A Rascally recruit. In our notice, a few days since, of the progress of enlistment among the negro troops, we mentioned the fact that a free negro had volunteered under Lieutenant Bossieux, alleging, at the time he did so, that he had been robbed by the Yankees of a canal boat, which he had earned by hard labor, and was determined to battle for the cause of the South till every one of the invaders was driven from the soil of the State. Since that time, the rascal has deserted his colors, taking with him a large lot of clothing, shoes, &c., which did not belong to him. - The Daily Dispatch (Richmond): March 29, 1865

First of all, he probably wasn't welcomed into the fold as a token African American. Second, this points to the fact that there were a variety of reasons someone would want to repel federal forces. And three, I've seen a number of stories like this, but rather than finding a uniquely Southern cruelty to explain Black and White AWOLs, it would be more accurate to say that'this is what happens when you put very poor, rural people in a military environment (not that the Southern army was all that regimented in the first place).

More Armed Confederate Negroes

Testimony of Colonel John W. Phelps, First Vermont Infantry...

SIR: Scouts from this post represent the enemy as having retired, they came to New Market Bridge on Wednesday, and left the next day. They -the enemy- talked of having 9,000 men. They were recalled by dispatches from Richmond. They had twenty pieces of artillery, among which was the Richmond Howitzer Battery, manned by Negroes. . . Their numbers are probably overrated; but with regard to their artillery, and its being manned in part by Negroes, I think the report is probably correct."

Federal Official Records, Series 1, Volume 4, "Report of Colonel John W. Phelps, First Vermont Infantry: CAMP BUTLER, Newport News, Va., August 11, 1861 – " p.569.

Phelps was a leading voice in the effort to allow Black men to fight in Union forces, including escaped slaves. This raised the ire of many in the South and in reaction the Confederacy would mandate execution for captured Black Union soldiers.

His grave can be seen here...

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=22672

Black men "indignant with the Lincolnites"

Dr. J. J. Lawrence, late editor of the Rough Notes, informs us that on Wednesday evening, at Rocky Mount, he saw in the hands of Mr. James Knight, of Edgecombe, the sword taken from the dead body of Capt. W. Wardrop, who fell in the late battle of Bethel Church, Va. ...

... We also learn that there were four private gentlemen from Edgecombe, present at the engagement, and they report that several negro men, on hearing the firing, rushed from the fields to the scene of action, and fired on the enemy with good effect. Of this, one of the Edgecombe gentlemen, was an eye witness, and told it to our informant. The negroes in that region are indignant with the Lincolnites, who have seized the wives of the former and carried them into camp.

- "Further Details" Hillsborough Recorder [North Carolina], June 19, 1861, Page 3.

Indiana Newspaper reports armed Confederate "Negroes"

Letter from a Union soldier, published in the Indianapolis (Indiana) Star, December 23, 1861:

Attack On Our Soldiers By Armed Negroes- A body of seven hundred Negro infantry opened fire on our men, wounding two lieutenants and two privates. The wounded men testify positively that they were shot by Negroes, and that not less than seven hundred were present, armed with muskets. This is, indeed a new feature in the war. We have heard of a regiment of [Confederate] Negroes at Manassas, and another at Memphis, and still another at New Orleans, but did not believe it till it came so near home and attacked our men.


My comments: I've learned that social engineering is real. Nowadays, historical facts that contradict popular belief are considered "revisionism"... even by academics. Instead of letting our understanding of history be shaped by eyewitness accounts and historical documents, its just more convenient to call it all "revisionism" so we don't have to change what we believe.

Despite the antiquity of the above letter, it would be called revisionism to mention it. Southern historians have been talking about this stuff for years. But we must preserve the papal primacy of Harvard and Yale scholars even if it means filtering what we learn.

I guess those of us who grew up in the South cannot really be objective. After all, those armies marched and fought on what would later become our back yards. Some of us grew up playing on Civil War battlefields. Our relationship with the War is merely intimate. We don't have the clinical detachment required to really understand.

Don't read this and casually browse to something else. I know tons of you are reading this in Tennessee, but I'm preaching to the choir here. Forward this stuff on. To anybody not in the SCV.

More Armed Confederate "Negroes"

Question. Do you know of any individual of the enemy having been killed or wounded during the siege of Harper's Ferry?

Answer. I have strong reasons to believe that there was a Negro killed, who had wounded 2 or 3 of my men. I know that an officer took deliberate aim at him, and he fell over. He was one of the skirmishers of the enemy [Confederate, ed.], and wounded 3 of my men.

Federal Official Records, "Record of the Harper's Ferry Military Commission (U.S.Army)" Vol. XIX, Chapter XXXI, pg. 617.

Armed Confederate "Negroes"

... is just "another confederate lie" according to some other bloggers who- like televangelists, don't have to know their source documents because their moral outrage gives them an intuition that trumps the expertise of historians and genealogists. The conspiracy must be widespread indeed when Northern propagandists are telling the same lies:

"...they [the Confederacy] have, by means of sweeping conscription, gathered in countless hordes, and threaten to overwhelm the armies of the Union, with blood and treason in their hearts. They flaunt the black flag of rebellion in the face of the Government, and threaten to butcher our brave and loyal armies with foreign bayonets. They arm Negroes and merciless savages in their behalf."

- July 11, 1862 - Rich D. Yates, Governor of Illinois, Federal Official Records, "Correspondence, Etc.", Vol. II, pg. 218

They [the Confederates] arm [give weapons to] Negroes and ...

Or maybe the 1862 Governor of Illinois is a neo-confederate revisionist?

Armed Black Confederates in Tennessee

Report by Lt. Col. Parkhurst, Ninth Michigan Infantry:

"The forces attacking my camp were the First Regiment Texas Rangers, Colonel Wharton, and a battalion of the First Georgia Rangers, Colonel Morrison, and a large number of citizens of Rutherford County, many of whom had recently taken the oath of allegiance to the United States Government. There were also many negroes attached to the Texas and Georgia troops, who were armed and equipped, and took part in the several engagements with my forces during the day."

Federal Official Records, Series I, Vol XVI Part I, "Lt. Col. Parkhurst's Report (Ninth Michigan Infantry) on General Forrest's attack at Murfreesboro, Tenn, July 13, 1862: pg. 805."

I like this one, not so much for armed Black men being cited in the official records- as cool as that is- but more so because the residents of the county joined in the fight, even after the Union coerced an oath of allegiance from them.

I'm glad Lt. Col. Parkhurst's personal experience confirms the fact that African Americans took up arms against the North, but I don't want my use of his quote to trivialize his role. Parkhurst was taken prisoner at Murfreesboro and spent three months in a Southern POW camp. Civil War POW camps were not nice places. He was fortunate to have survived this experience. After the war he was appointed as U.S. envoy to Belgium. Like all veterans of this war, especially POWs, his memory should be honored as well.