It was disappointing to see the News-Sentinel devote front-page space in its Sunday perspective section on Feb. 27 to Edward Bardill's misconceived tribute to black soldiers in the Confederate army.

His claim that tens of thousands of free and slave blacks fought for the Confederacy in integrated combat units is pure fiction.

Many blacks worked in support roles. But they were not uniformed, were not soldiers, were not paid and were not given a choice: They were slaves commandeered by the Confederate government.

As for actual combatants, one can find a few stray cases. In a war that involved this many people, one can find a few stray cases of anything.

But, until the desperate last days of the war, it was not Confederate policy to recruit or even permit black soldiers, and the number who served surreptitiously was insignificantly small.

Bardill cites two recent books to support his assertions. We have no censors in this country, and people can say and publish anything they want. Plenty of books exist to show that Lyndon Johnson ordered Kennedy's assassination, that Elvis was abducted by the CIA and that the Holocaust and the moon landing never happened. The question is whether any credible evidence backs up their claims.

Sometimes actions reveal motives. If blacks viewed the war as a defense of "their homeland" against "an armed invasion," they would have shunned and hindered the invaders, as many white southerners did.

Instead, Union commanders advancing into Confederate territory reported flocks of refugees seeking the shelter of their lines. What does Bardill think these people were fleeing from?

Unfortunately, there is more at work here than a case of innocent error. In bringing the 1863 New York City riots into his article, Bardill reveals his deeper purpose: not to honor blacks but to venerate the Confederacy by insinuating that it was not a nation conceived and created for the purpose of perpetuating racial slavery.

But that is exactly what it was. The direct evidence on this point is clear and overwhelming.

DANIEL FELLER
Professor of History
Knoxville

**********************

Since you evidently have not had the time...
From: colonel@37thtexas.org
To: dfeller@utk.edu

...to do your homework concerning the service of Black Confederate combat soldiers such that you wrote to the Knoxville News I offer you the following valid research which you have evidently not had time to gather or consider.

While I have provided these materials for your information and consideration I surmise that you are not likely to take the time to read them or validate their sources since you have apparently reached your own conclusions based on an obvious personal agenda.

You wrote: "Many blacks worked in support roles. But they were not uniformed, were not soldiers..."

"Negroes in the Confederate Army," Journal of Negro History, Charles Wesle, Vol. 4, #3, (1919), 244-245 - "Seventy free blacks enlisted in the Confederate Army in Lynchburg, Virginia. Sixteen companies [1600, ed.] of free men of color marched through Augusta, Georgia on their way to fight in Virginia."

At Confederate Mound at Indianapolis, Indiana, there are 26 Black Southerners, four Hispanics, and one Cherokee at rest with their white Confederate comrades-in-arms. Although the Blacks were listed universally as "Negro Servants" through the convention of Northern mindset of the 1930s, you will find those which cannot be explained as "servants." Since the death rate at Camp Morton was about 10% we can estimate that about 250 Black Southerners passed through there or were held there:

"KENTUCKY
Christian, J. (Negro Servant), Co. D, Morgan's 2nd Cavalry, d. 11/22/63
Vance, J.W. (Negro Servant), CSA Mail Carrier, d. 3/14/64

MISSISSIPPI
Littleton, Solomon (Negro Servant), 3rd Inf., d. /3/62

VIRGINIA
Mayo, Henry (Negro Servant), Co. G 36th Inf., d. 3/23/62

UNKNOWN UNITS
Frazier, George (Capt) (Negro Servant), CSA, d. 1863*"

Considering that the other Black Southerners listed were not listed in relation to any Confederate unit or with a specific occupation such as "Mail Carrier" it is unlikely these men so uniquely listed were personal servants, cooks, or the like. As for George Frazier* it is likely that as Shelby Foote has said we will never know how or why he became listed with the rank of "Captain" following his name. None of the other Black Southerners buried there had any rank specified as if it might have been their master's rank.

You wrote: "As for actual combatants, one can find a few stray cases."

North Carolina Troops, Volume I:

"When Fort Fisher fell to the Union troops in January, 1865, the following blacks are recorded [by Union forces] as being among the captured Confederates:

Charles Dempsey, Private, Company F, 36th NC Regiment (2nd NC Artillery), Negro. Captured at Fort Fisher January 15, 1865 and confined at Point Lookout, MD, until paroled and exchanged at Coxes Landing, James River, VA, February 14-15, 1865.

Henry Dempsey, Private, Company F, 36th NC Regiment (2nd NC Artillery), Negro. Captured at Fort Fisher January 15, 1865 and confined at Point Lookout, MD, until paroled and exchanged at Coxes Landing, James River, VA, February 14-15, 1865.

J. Doyle, Private, Company E, 40th NC Regiment (3rd NC Artillery), Negro. Captured at Fort Fisher January 15, 1865 and confined at Point Lookout, MD, until paroled and exchanged at Boulware's Wharf, James River, VA, March 16, 1865.

Daniel Herring, Cook, Company F, 36th NC Regiment (2nd NC Artillery), Negro. Captured at Fort Fisher January 15, 1865 and confined at Point Lookout, MD, until released after taking Oath of Allegiance June 19, 1865"

Union forces carefully recorded three of them as soldiers ("Private") and took them as POWs, then paroled and exchanged them exactly as they did all other Confederates. They made certain to differentiate the cook from the enlisted Black soldiers.

Perhaps some of them had been stationed there a very long time:

The Daily Journal, Evansville, Indiana, November 1, 1862 : "...Now the news comes to us that seven regiments [7000, ed.] of negroes have been drilled by the rebel authorities to man their fortifications in North and South Carolina...seven regiments of negroes, armed and equipped, had arrived at Wilmington, N.C., to occupy the various rebel fortresses during the sickly season. Is any one so ignorant as to suppose that the operations of these negroes are to be confirmed to the sickly season? Not a bit of it. They will be used in all seasons..."

You wrote: "As for actual combatants, one can find a few stray cases."

Letter of Private Frank Bailey, 34th New York Infantry Regiment to his brother in Middleville, New York: - "West Point, Virginia, 12 May 1862 - I hear that the Rebels sent out a Regt. of niggers to fight our men and that they were as naked as when they were born, except the brogues on their feet, and they incited to all sorts of cruelty. It is said that they cut the throats of our wounded and then rob them of every article of any value. The soldiers are death on niggers now. If they catch a nigger in the woods, and there is no officer near, they hang them without any ceremony. Now if this is true that the Southern chivalry as they style themselves put these niggers up to such deeds as this, may the curse of good light on them. It is worse than the English were in the Revolution to hire the Indians, but their race is about run when the stoop to such barbarism as that. Yesterday there was two niggers hung close by here by our men. One of them had $20.00 government note in his pocket. There is no mistake but the Rebels have black soldiers for I have seen them brought in as prisoners of war. I saw one who had the stripes of an orderly sergeant on his coat. I don't beleive in taking them prisoner, but kill them where ever they find them, that they may never more curse the land with their hateful presence."

You wrote: "As for actual combatants, one can find a few stray cases."

Frederick Douglass, Douglass' Monthly, IV (Sept. 1861), pp 516 - "…there are at the present moment many colored men in the Confederate Army…as real soldiers, having muskets on their shoulders, and bullets in their pockets, ready to shoot down loyal troops, and do all that soldiers may do to destroy the Federal government...There were such soldiers at Manassas and they are probably there still."

You wrote: "As for actual combatants, one can find a few stray cases."

"Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle," Kenneth W. Noe, The University of Kentucky Press, Lexington, KY, 2001. (page 270) - "The part of Adams' Brigade that the 42nd Indiana was facing were the 'Louisiana Tigers.' This name was given to Colonel Gibson's 13th Louisiana Infantry, which included five companies of 'Avegno Zouaves' who still were wearing their once dashing traditional blue jackets, red caps and red baggy trousers. These five Zouaves companies were made up of Irish, Dutch, Negroes, Spaniards, Mexicans, and Italians."

You wrote: "As for actual combatants, one can find a few stray cases."

>From James G. Bates' letter to his father reprinted in the 1 May 1863 "Winchester [Indiana] Journal" (the 13th IVI ["Hoosier Regiment"] was involved in operations around the Suffolk, Virginia area in April-May 1863 ) - "I can assure you [Father], of a certainty, that the rebels have negro soldiers in their army. One of their best sharp shooters, and the boldest of them all here is a negro. He dug himself a rifle pit last night [16 April 1863] just across the river and has been annoying our pickets opposite him very much to-day. You can see him plain enough with the naked eye, occasionally, to make sure that he is a "wooly-head," and with a spy-glass there is no mistaking him."

You wrote: "As for actual combatants, one can find a few stray cases."

"Indianapolis Daily Evening Gazette" 12 March 1863 refers to the 5 March 1863 fight around Thompson's Station, near Franklin, TN The 85th Indiana Volunteer Infantry reported: "NEGRO REGIMENTS IN THE REBEL ARMY - During the fight the battery in charge of the 85th Indiana [Volunteer Infantry] was attacked by [*in italics*] two rebel negro regiments. [*end italics*] Our artillerists double-shotted their guns and cut the black regiments to pieces, and brought their battery safely off. . . . It has been stated, repeatedly, for two weeks past, that a large number, perhaps one-fourth, of Van Dorn's force were [*in italics*] negro soldiers [*end italics*], and the statement is fully confirmed by this unfortunate engagement."

You wrote: "As for actual combatants, one can find a few stray cases."

After the action at Missionary Ridge, Commissary Sergeant William F. Ruby forwarded a casualty list written in camp at Ringgold, Georgia about 29 November 1863, to William S. Lingle for publication. Ruby's letter was partially reprinted in the Lafayette (Missouri) Daily Courier for 8 December 1863: "Ruby says among the rebel dead on the [Missionary] Ridge he saw a number of negroes in the Confederate uniform."

You wrote: "As for actual combatants, one can find a few stray cases."

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

You wrote: "As for actual combatants, one can find a few stray cases."

Federal Official Records Series 1, Volume 15, Part 1, Pages 137-138, report of the Union commander: "Pickets were thrown out that night, and Captain Hennessy, Company E, of the Ninth Connecticut, having been sent out with his company, captured a colored rebel scout, well mounted, who had been sent out to watch our movements."

Federal Official Records, Series I, Vol. XLIX, Part II, pg. 253 - April 6, 1865: "The rebels [Forrest] are recruiting negro troops at Enterprise, Miss., and the negroes are all enrolled in the State."

You wrote: "As for actual combatants, one can find a few stray cases."

Federal Official Records, Series I, Vol. XIV, pg. 24, second paragraph, Colonel B. C. Christ, 50th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, official report of May 30, 1862, Pocotaligo, SC., "It is also difficult to state the force of the enemy, but it could not have been less than from 600 to 800. There were six companies of mounted riflemen, besides infantry, among which were a considerable number of colored men."

You wrote: "As for actual combatants, one can find a few stray cases."

>From the diary of James Miles, 185th N.Y.V.I., entry dated January 8, 1865 - "Sargt said war is close to being over. saw several negros fighting for those rebels."

Miami Weekly News of Miami, Missouri, September 01, 1905 - "The following is an account of the Eighth Annual [Quantrill's Raiders] Reunion at Independence on August 25-26,1905 : "Among those registered Friday morning were Captain Ben Morrow of Lake City, Lieutenant Lee Miller of Knobnoster, Hi George of Grain Valley, Sylvester Akers of Levasy, William Greer of Lexington, John A. Workman of Wellington, George (Jim) Holand of Kansas City (this the Negro spy Quantrill sent to Lawrence)..."

You wrote: "As for actual combatants, one can find a few stray cases."

THE PICTORIAL BOOK OF ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS OF THE REBELLION (p. 319) by Frazer Kirkland, 1889. A collection of Grand Army of the Republic -

"NEGRO RIFLEMAN BROUGHT DOWN AT YORKTOWN

One of the best morning's work done at Yorktown was that of reducing to a state of perfect inutility in this mundane sphere, a rebel negro rifleman, who, through his skill as a marksman, had done more injury to our men than any dozen of his white compeers, in the attempted labor of trimming off the complement of Union sharpshooters. The latter had known him a long time, had kept an eye on him, and lain in wait to pick him off. His habit was to perch himself in a big tree, and, keeping himself hid behind the body, annoy the Union men by firing upon them. He climbed the tree as usual one morning, but in advance of the others coming out, and, smuggling himself into his position, was anticipating his usual day of quietude. The Union men might have killed him as he came out, but purposely avoided shooting, so as not to alarm the others. His tree was about twenty rods from one of the Union pits. When our men fired on the advancing rebel pickets, he of course saw the fix he was in--that he was indeed and decidedly up a tree.

'I say, big nigger,' called out one of the Union soldiers, 'you better come down from there.'

'What for?' returned the big nigger.

"I want you as prisoner,"

'Not as this chile knows of,' replied the concealed Ethiop.

'Just as you say,' replied our sharpshooter.

In about an hour the nigger poked his head out. Our man was on the lookout for him; he had his rifle on the bead-line ready--pulled the trigger--whiz-z went the bullet, down came the nigger. He was shot through the head."

You wrote: "As for actual combatants, one can find a few stray cases."

Federal Official Records: Series 2, vol 6, Part 1 (Prisoners of War) p. 17-18 - "...before one single negro or mulatto was mustered into the U.S. service you had them organized in arms in Louisiana. You had Indians and half-breed negroes and Indians organized in arms under Albert Pike, in Arkansas. Subsequently negroes were captured on the battle-field at Antietam and delivered as prisoners of war at Aiken's Landing to the Confederate authorities, and receipted for and counted in exchange."

Federal Official Records, Vol. XIII, Chapter XXV, pg. 688, September, 1862 -"...We are not likely to use one negro where the rebels have used a thousand. When I left Arkansas they were still enrolling negroes to fortify the rebellion."

You wrote: "As for actual combatants, one can find a few stray cases."

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

You wrote: "As for actual combatants, one can find a few stray cases."

Federal Official Records, Vol. XIX, Chapter XXXI, pg. 617 - Record of the Harper's Ferry Military Commission (U.S.Army)
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. I know there must have been some of the enemy killed.
Question. How do you know the negro was killed?
Answer. The officer saw him fall."

You wrote: "As for actual combatants, one can find a few stray cases."

Federal Official Records, Vol. XLI, Chapter LIII, pg. 670 - PATTERSON, [November] 24, 1864 - "Colonel MAUPIN: I have arrived with my squad on return. Captain McClanahan has gone on the upper road for Pilot Knob; will all arrive there to-morrow. No rebel force below. We have turned up eleven bushwhackers to dry and one rebel negro. No man hurt on our side. The men are generally well."

You wrote: "As for actual combatants, one can find a few stray cases."

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

You wrote: "As for actual combatants, one can find a few stray cases."

Federal Official Records, Series 1, vol 35, Part 1 (Olustee), Page 442-443, S.C., FLA., AND ON THE GA. COAST. Chapter XLVII - Report of Bgen Asboth, USA - "...when I proceeded to Milton, Fla., a distance of 9 miles, and after rebuilding the destroyed bridge on the Arcadia Creek, I came upon the enemy, about 100 strong, and consisting of Captain Goldsby's (Alabama) cavalry company and a new militia infantry company, mounted...Having received early information of the arrival of two army steamers at Bayou Mulatte, the enemy had sent his stores on seven wagons in time toward Pollard, and seemed prepared and decided to accept a fight in the camp at the upper end of the town, but fled, upon our impetuous charge, in all directions. We pursued them closely for 7 miles, and captured 4 privates of Goldsby's company and 3 colored men, mounted and armed, with 7 horses and 5 mules with equipments, and 20 Austrian rifles."

You wrote: "As for actual combatants, one can find a few stray cases."

Federal Official Records, Series I, Vol. XVII, Chapter XXIX, Pg. 635-637 - December 28, 1863 - "...It had to be prosecuted under the fire of the enemy's sharpshooters, protected as well as the men might be by our skirmishers on the bank, who were ordered to keep up so vigorous a fire that the enemy should not dare to lift their heads above their rifle-pits; but the enemy, and especially their armed negroes, did dare to rise and fire, and did serious execution upon our men...The casualties in the brigade were 11 killed, 40 wounded, and 4 missing; aggregate, 55. - Very respectfully, your obedient servant, D. STUART, Brigadier-General, Commanding"

You wrote: "As for actual combatants, one can find a few stray cases."

Federal Official Records, Series I, Vol. III, Correspondence, etc., pg 767-768 - "CAMBRIDGE, September 4, 1863. His Excellency A. LINCOLN, President of the United States: ...excitement here growing out of the recruiting of colored troops, and as some of the recruiting officers are acting rather indiscreetly, I fear, by taking slaves in their recruits, and the slaves of loyal as well as disloyal persons...to enlist slaves as well as free people is creating a great deal of anxiety among the people...we ought to use the colored people, after the rebels commenced to use them against us. "

You wrote: "As for actual combatants, one can find a few stray cases."

"The Negro as a Soldier" - Written by Christian A. Fleetwood, Sergeant-Major 4th U.S. Colored Troops, for the Negro Congress at the Cotton States and International Exposition, Atlanta, Ga., November 11 to November 23, 1895 - "It seems a little singular that in the tremendous struggle between the States in 1861-1865, the south should have been the first to take steps toward the enlistment of Negroes. Yet such is the fact. Two weeks after the fall of Fort Sumter, the 'Charleston Mercury' records the passing through Augusta of several companies of the 3rd and 4th Georgia Regt., and of sixteen well-drilled companies and one Negro company from Nashville, Tenn. 'The Memphis Avalanche' and 'The Memphis Appeal' of May 9, 10, and 11, 1861, give notice of the appointment by the 'Committee of Safety' of a committee of three persons 'to organize a volunteer company composed of our patriotic freemen of color of the city of Memphis, for the service of our common defense.'"

You wrote: "As for actual combatants, one can find a few stray cases."

Slave Narratives - July, 1937, interview with James Cape, former slave and by his own words Black Confederate combat soldier wounded in action:

"One day Marster Bob comes to me and says, 'Jim, how you like to jine de army? You see, de war had started. I says to him 'What does I have to?' And he says, "Tend hosses and ride 'em' So de first thing I knows, I's in de army away off east from here [Southest Texas].' . . . After I gits in de army, it wasn' so much fun 'cause tendin' horses and ridin' wasn' all I does. No, sar, I has to do shootin' and git shooted at! . . . You's heard of de battle of Independence [Missouri]? Dat's whar we fights for three days and nights. I'se not tendin horses that time. Dey gives me a rifle and sends me up front fightin' , when we wasn' runnin! . . . I gits shot in de shoulder in dat fight . . . 'nother time we fights two days and nights . . ."

You wrote: "As for actual combatants, one can find a few stray cases."

Slave Narratives, June 5, 1937 - Alexander B. Johnson, Birmingham, Alabama - “They is all gone, scattered, and old massa and missus have died....Then de war came and we all went to fight the Yankees. I was a body servant t! o the master, and once a bullet took off his hat. We all thought he was shot but he wasn’t, and I was standin’ by his side all the time...I remember Stonewall Jackson. He was a big man with long whiskers, and very brave. We all fought wid him until his death. We wa’n’t beaten, we was starved out! Sometimes we had perched corn to eat and sometimes we didn’t have a bite o’ nothin’, because the Union mens come and tuk all de food for theirselves. I can still remember part of my ninety years. I remembers dey fought all de way from Virginia and winded up in Manassah’s Gap...In all de years since de war I cannot forget old massa. He was good and kind. He never believed in slavery but his money was tied up in slaves and he didn’t want to lose all he had...I knows I will see him in heaven and even though I have to walk ten miles for a bite of bread I can still be happy to think about the good times we had then. I am a Confederate veteran but my house burned up wid de medals and I don’t get a pension."

You wrote: "As for actual combatants, one can find a few stray cases."

Reprinted in the Memphis Daily Avalanche, May 3rd 1861, pg. 3, col. 3 - "Free Colored Men. – A List of thirty-two worthy free negroes of this city, who have offered their services in the work of defense, or in any other capacity required, has been sent in to the Captain of the Woodis Rifles...They express an earnest desire to meet their Yankee enemies, or miserable sable brothers of the North, in a regular hand-to-hand fight. Some of those who have offered to serve in the cause of Southern honor have fought under the old flag...A large number of free negroes of Petersburg have expressed a desire to fight for the South, and we learn that 500 will come down as soon as the word is given...We noticed yesterday several colored men in uniform. They came as musicians with the gallant Georgia troops."

Memphis Daily Avalanche, April 23rd 1861, pg. 3, col. 2. - "An Enthusiastic Negro. – Jim Moore, a negro barber of Bolivar, Hardiman county, in this State, a slave of Dr. Thomas Moore, subscribed $50 for a military company to fight against Lincoln. He also visited Montgomery to see Jeff Davis inaugurated. With few exceptions such is the feeling of all our slaves, who are loyal to a degree that would astonish the fanatics of the North."

You wrote: "As for actual combatants, one can find a few stray cases." How many "stray cases" do you consider it takes to constitute proof?

Irish-born Confederate Major General Patrick Cleburne in his January, 1864, letter which proposed mass emancipation and enlistment of Black Southerners into the Confederate Army predicted precisely what has happened and how you have reached your conclusions:

"Every man should endeavor to understand the meaning of subjugation before it is too late...It means the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy; that our youth will be trained by Northern schoolteachers; will learn from Northern school books their version of the war; will be impressed by the influences of history and education to regard our gallant dead as traitors, and our maimed veterans as fit objects for derision...The conqueror's policy is to divide the conquered into factions and stir up animosity among them..."

The simple fact is that in what you wrote "...there is more at work here than a case of innocent error." Whether it is through neglect to perform proper research, or failure to disclose such research, or even the possibility of a "deeper purpose," you have not stated the case accurately. You have allowed your preconceived and foregone conclusions - your personal prejudices - to be presented as fact despite available contradictory evidence.

I can only assume that you believe that the laughable "conspiracy theory" to which you allude must have begun with Frederick Douglass and the Union in 1861 and been continued throughout the War and the later 19th and early 20th Centuries when these vile conspirators such as the "Journal of Negro History" and the Slave Narratives added to the "conspiracy."

I shudder to think what you might promulgate about the 13,000 Indians, 6500 Hispanics, 5500 Jews, tens of thousands of foreign-born, the handful of Louisiana Filipinos, and even the two Amerasian sons of Chang and Eng (the original "Siamese Twins") who served and fought for the Confederacy.

You should measure yourself against the litmus test for historians: "The first law of the historian is that he shall never dare utter an untruth. The second is that he shall suppress nothing that is true. Moreover, there shall be no suspicion of partiality in his writing, or of malice." - Cicero (106-43 B.C.)

For your information I often confer with two gentlemen who help me sift the wheat from the chaff of the reference materials found - Shelby Foote and Brian Pohanka. These gentlemen are genuine historians and Brian Pohanka has evolved his position concerning Black Confederates over the years as more evidence has been presented - exactly what a real historian is supposed to do.

We simply ask that all act upon the facts of history. I will be at the Volunteer Horse Fair in Murfreesboro, TN, March 18th-20th and I invite you to stop by and chat with me or 1st SGT Bob Harrison, one of 37th Texas Cavalry's three Black Confederate sergeants.

Your Obedient Servant,

Colonel Michael Kelley, CSA
Commanding, 37th Texas Cavalry (Terrell's)
http://www.37thtexas.org
http://thewargallery.com/html/acw.html
"We are a band of brothers!"

"I came here as a friend...let us stand together. Although we differ in color, we should not differ in sentiment." - LT Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, CSA, Memphis, Tennessee - July, 1875

"There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil. It is idle to expatiate on its disadvantages. I think it is a greater evil to the white than to the colored race." - Col. Robert E. Lee, United States Army, December 27, 1856

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