Battle Of The Crater Research:
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The
first black unit, including black line officers, in the War Between the
States was the Louisiana Native Guards of New Orleans, accepted into
State militia service by Governor Thomas D. Moore on May 2, 1861. The
Daily Crescent assured its readers that “They will fight the Black
Republicans with as much determination and gallantry as any body of
white men in the service of the Confederate States.” The Northern States
used black troops to allow their white men to avoid service in the
unpopular war.
Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
"Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty"
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
Black Soldiers on Both Sides
“Chapter
XX: In Which is Recalled the Fact Negroes Served on Both Sides In That
War and Yankee Recruiters Fished a Long Way From Home and Hardly Got
Their Bait Back.
The
Civil War wasn’t entirely a white man’s fight. Negroes served in both
the Federal and Confederate forces. Soon after Edmund Ruffin pulled the
trigger at Charleston, Negroes tried to enlist in both the Northern and
Southern armies but their services, as was the case in the Revolution,
were at first declined.
This
attitude changed rather quickly in the North. The Federal Congress, in
July of 1862, passed a law permitting the enlistment of Negro troops.
Their pay at first was fixed at $10 a month compared to $16.50 for white
troops. Fred Douglas protested to Lincoln and Old Abe told him that if
he were a Negro he’d be glad to fight for his freedom free of charge.
Douglas and the other Negro leaders continued to protest and the pay
differential was wiped out.
Negro
troops were used in the main by the North for garrison duty and labor
forces and, after Appomattox, for occupation duty in the South; but they
saw action in 250 battles and skirmishes, including the Battle of the
Crater at Petersburg in which Negro troops were scheduled to have led
the charge after that mine was exploded. They missed the assignment due
to a foul-up in orders.
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Northern
governors sent 1,405 agents into captured areas of the South in an
attempt to recruit Negro slaves to help fill their State draft quotas
but business was mighty poor. They worked for several months but got
only 5,052 recruits. When the war ended there were 178,975 Negroes in
the Yankee armies, comprising 116 regiments.
In
the South, free Negroes came forward at first in large numbers to offer
their services to the Confederacy. Richard Kennard of Petersburg gave
$100. Jordan Chase, of Vicksburg, gave a horse and authorized the
government to draw on him for $500. Down in New Orleans, Thomy Lafon
gave $500. An Alabama Negro gave 100 bushels of sweet potatoes. At
Charleston a little Negro girl gave twenty-five cents. Confederate war
bonds found many Negro subscribers (The Negro in the Civil War,
Quarles).
Negroes
by the thousands were employed in Southern war factories. Free Negroes
were paid the prevailing wage. Slaves impressed into service were given
food, shelter and clothing and their owners paid $25 a month. If a
slave ran away or died, the owner was paid $354.
Negroes
in the South rendered their greatest service to the Confederacy by
tilling the farms and taking care of the folks at home while the white
men were at the front. The slaves could have ended the War overnight had
they chosen to rise in rebellion. Southern armies would have headed
back home en masse at even the rumor of such a development.
As
the War dragged on, the need for men became finally so desperate the
Confederate Congress, acting on the recommendation of General Lee and
the governors of North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama and
Mississippi, passed a law in March of 1865 authorizing enlistment of
Negroes, both slave and free.
They
were to be paid the same as white troops; and slaves, if they remained
loyal through the War, were to be set free. President Davis signed the
law on March 13. It was less than a month before Lee’s surrender.”
(Then My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night!, W.E. Debnam, The Graphic Press, 1955, pp. 49-50)
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