‘BETTER CONFEDERATES DID NOT LIVE’

          The topic of black Confederate soldiers is rarely talked about, nowadays, because it's not ‘politically correct’, but the truth of the matter is that quite a number of black Southerners served in the Confederate Army, and way before Mr. Lincoln ever let the first black man fight for his beloved Union. The contributions that Black Southerners made to support the South in its struggle for independence should not be denigrated.

Why would a black man fight to protect slavery, you ask. It wasn’t for slavery that he fought. Black Southerners fought for the same reason that they defended the United States colonies during the Revolutionary War; they fought because their homes were being invaded. This was their country. They fought to protect their homes, their families, their neighbors, and, quite frankly, the only life they knew.

          It is impossible to know exactly how many black soldiers served the Confederacy during the War for Southern Independence, but it has been estimated that between 50,000 - 90,000 Southern Negroes, both slave and free black, served in the Confederate ranks, with over 13,000 of these men having seen actual combat.

          Although it was late in the War before the Confederate Government finally approved for blacks to be officially enlisted as soldiers, in ‘the ranks’ it was a much different story. Many Confederate officers frequently enlisted blacks with the simple criteria of “Will you fight?” And fight, they did!



‘Uncle’ Jeff Shields, General Thomas

‘Stonewall’ Jackson's Negro bodyguard

          During the first major battle of the War, the 1^st Battle of Manassas (that’s 1^st Battle of Bull Run to any Yankees readin’ this), Black Confederates were in the thickest of the fightin’, shocking the Northern soldiers who went up against them, and later, 3,000+ Black Confederates were serving under General ‘Stonewall’ Jackson, during his famous Valley Campaign of 1862.

And when the folks down around Macon, Georgia, heard that the Yankee Army had burned Atlanta and was now comin' out the other side destroying everything in its path, some of the colored men there asked their white mistresses for permission to form what the white folks called a militia, as they had heard that General Sherman was killin' and burnin' everything in his path - killin women and children, colored and white alike. As most of their men were off fightin’ in the War, the ladies readily gave their consent, and preparations were hurriedly made.

Armed with such weapons as could be rounded up, from old revolutionary muskets left behind to machetes, pitchforks, and even clubs, and flying a Confederate Battle Flag made up of old rags dyed and sewn together, the 300-colored men marched out to meet the Yankee devils.

Under General Pleasant J. Phillips, they and other militia troops met the Union Army, approximately seven miles east of Macon, near the small hamlet of Griswoldville, where there was a Confederate pistol factory and other mills. A day-long battle ensued, and the relatively inexperienced Confederate militia made seven ill-fated charges, through withering fire, upon a fortified position manned by veteran Union soldiers armed with the new Spencer repeating rifle. The battle ended at sundown when the Southerners retired from the battlefield. The Confederates lost more than 1100-men dead, wounded, or captured.



Louis Napoleon Winbush, seen here @ the
1932 Confederate Reunion, rode with Gen. Forrest
during the War Between the States



Of the 300-Black Confederates that marched off that day to meet the Yankee invader, only three of those men made it back. Theirs was the only major opposition to General Sherman's infamous March to the Sea.

          Even General Nathan Bedford Forrest, ex-slave trader and plantation owner, had 65-Black Confederates voluntarily serving in his legendary cavalry troop, bedeviling the Yankees all across Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. After the war, he said of the black men who served under him, "These boys stayed with me… and better Confederates did not live."

          And when General Robert E. Lee finally surrendered at Appomattox, in April of 1865, dozens of Black Confederates were present amongst the ranks of the infamous ‘Army of Northern Virginia’.

          So, don’t think for a minute that the storied battlefield successes of any of the above-mentioned Confederate units would have been possible without the support of these loyal black Southerners.

          Now, some folks want to point out that more black soldiers fought for the North than did for the South, which is true. But, what they don’t tell you is how the North forcibly conscripted blacks, both free blacks and slaves, as they came upon them in occupied territories, giving them no choice whatsoever.

            In February of 1865, Union General Ulysses S. Grant (a slave owner, himself) ordered the capture of “all the Negro men… before the enemy can put them in their ranks.” He feared that black Southerners would take up arms for the Confederacy.

The order spread universal confusion and terror among the Negroes, and they fled to the woods and swamps. They were hunted to their hiding places by the Yankee soldiers, and the men and young boys were seized and forced to enlist. Many of the men had large families of young children dependent upon them for support. Their crops and domestic animals were stolen or destroyed, and their women were held as the legitimate prey of lust. Husbands and wives, children and parents, were separated; some to never see one another again. So much for the Union Army being the emancipators of the enslaved and oppressed black man.

More than 40 black Southern men attended the 1890 Alabama Confederate Veterans Reunion



After the War ended, the Southern people did not forget their black comrades-in-arms, either. For 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 that there were enough accommodations for the black Union veterans, but was completely surprised when unexpected Black Confederates arrived. The white Confederate veterans immediately welcomed their old comrades, gave them one of their own tents, and saw to their every need. Nearly every Confederate Reunion held after the War included those blacks that served with them, still proudly wearing the gray.

The descendants of those Black Confederates now live all across the United States – north, south, east, and west - and have a right to be proud of their ancestor's service to the South. Truly…“better Confederates did not live."