FREE ESSAY ON THE FORGOTTEN SOLDIER

THE FORGOTTEN SOLDIER

In a variety of ways, ranging from the popular movie Glory, to a planned memorial in
Washington, D.C., African-American soldiers who fought for the Union during the Civil War
have begun to receive the praise and recognition they have long deserved. But there were
other African-Americans who fought in the Civil War who have been largely forgotten --
those who fought on the side of the Confederacy.
Throughout the entire war, the slaves worked as noncombatant soldiers. Working as cooks,
launders, medics, and carriers, the African-Americans were involved in the war that was
meant to make them slaves (Geary, 68-69). In addition to serving as laborers,
African-Americans fought for the South even in the beginning of the war, filling in
companies and regiments all through the country (Pohanka 74-77). Although they were not
formally recognized as were the whites. Newspapers at the time report African-American
units serving with southern militia at Charleston, South Carolina; Mobile, Alabama;
Nashville, Tennessee; New Orleans, Louisiana; Bowling Green, Kentucky; and Lynchburg,
Virginia (Coulter, 106).
While most slaves longed for the freedom the North promised, those who fought for the
South preferred the familiarity of their homes to the strange, new, and sometimes hostile
and racist world of the North (Jordan, 86-87). Also, the opportunity for the slaves to
fight meant getting away from the hardships that they were enforced to endure every day
on the plantations. Many slaves had grown accustom to their surroundings in the South,
and had no education or training to perform any other task but what they had been bought
to perform. Due to the offer of freedom by the Confederate leaders, some of the Southern
slaves looked forward to the chance of fighting in the war (Lyman, 325-327).
Nevertheless, despite all these reasons for the Southern slaves to fight for the
Confederacy, they do not prove that the slaves believed in the cause of the South. In
fact many of the Southern slaves were anti-Confederacy, and some of the slaves dwelled
upon their hatred toward the Southerners. 
For a long time, the Confederate government resisted the formal inclusion of
African-American soldiers within their army's ranks (Coulter, 101-102). The Southerners
were force to face many demoralizing decisions. For instance, the slaveowner's believed
that after forcing the slaves to fight for their racist freedom, they could never look
the slaves in the eyes again, knowing that they owed their captive slaves their freedom
(Higginson, 209-211). Also, if the Congress allowed for the enlistment of
African-Americans in the Confederate Army and it failed due to lack of participation from
the slaves, the conflict in the South would be aggravated even more, and the North would
win yet another moral victory. Many reasons not to enroll the slaves lingered in the back
of Confederate leaders' minds, and morally the whites could never ask the slaves to fight
for their captivity.
Yet, the quest for men had come full circle. The war dragged on, and the Confederacy
eventually loosened its grip on the institution of slavery, and even considered offering
the slaves their freedom in exchange for their taking up arms for the South. Possibly the
final straw that helped the leaders make their final decision to arm the African-American
slaves was a remark made by General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate Army of
Northern Virginia, My own opinion is that we should employ [African-American soldiers]
without delay (Jordan, 86). Finally on March 13th 1865, the slaves were armed for the
South by a law passed in the Confederate Congress. Still, no formal agreement of freedom
was ever made to the slaves who chose to fight (Pohanka, 76). 
Confederate Major General Patrick Cleburne wrote, By arming the African-American man and
training him and making him fight for his country, every consideration of principle and
policy demands that we shall set him and his whole race, who side with us, free
(McPherson, 117). 
Another stunning remark by a well respected Southerner, Confederate Secretary of War
Judah P. Benjamin, he wrote, The Negroes will certainly be made to fight against us if
not for our defense ... if they are to fight for our freedom, they are entitled to their
own (Rice, 36). 
These statements by beloved leaders of the South are proof that the Southerners knew that
if they were to arm the slaves and ask them to fight, the slaves deserved to be free.
However, history did not stand to show what would have really happened had South won the
war. 
After the Confederate President Jefferson Davis signed the Negro Soldier Law, authorizing
the enlistment of Southern African-Americans, a very interest decision was made. While
African-American soldiers in the North did not receive the same pay and treatment as
their white counterparts, in the South, African-American soldiers were to receive the
same ration, clothing, and compensation as allowed other troops in the same branch of
service(Lyman, 330). Quickly, a few regiments of African-American soldiers were raised in
the South, but almost before they could dirty their new uniforms. Richmond fell, and no
soldiers, white or black would fight anymore; the war was over. Ever since, many people
have asserted that, had the Confederacy enlisted African-American men earlier and
destroyed slavery, it would have won its independence (Geary, 74). 
These victimized soldiers were willing to fight in a bloody and deadly war; yet, they did
not even believe in the cause of that very same war. Courageous were these soldiers, and
even after their regiments were formed, they received no credit from the victorious North
or from the defeated South. 
Still today, the service of African-American soldiers in the Confederate army is largely
shoved under the rug, as if we are ashamed of their efforts. African-American 
historians, including Benjamin Brawley and W.E.B. DuBois, rejected the slave Confederate
soldiers, referring to them as misguided (Higginson, 213). Even a planned memorial in
Washington D.C., will honor only those African-American soldiers who fought for the Union
(McPherson, 124). These examples show that how naive more modern day men can be, never
experiencing the hard ships that plagued the slaves every hour of every day.
Perhaps the most telling example of a prejudice against the African-American Confederates
occurred at a reunion of veterans at Gettysburg, 50 years after the bloody battle.
Reunion organizers had provided accommodations for African-American Union veterans, but
none for returning African-American Confederates. Reunion organizers hastily offered the
men straw pallets in the main tent. But concerned veterans from Tennessee, upon hearing
this, assigned the African-American southerners one of their own tents, and, according to
one account, tended to their every need(Coulter, 111).
History has proven that these African-American Confederate soldiers have never received
any sort of recognition to honor or disapprove of their efforts. There is no proof that
what those soldiers committed to, was uncalled for or cowardly. No room is allowed for
either of these characteristics in war. 
Conceivably the time has come to honor these men for being brave enough to fight for
their homes and for their freedom -- while enduring harsh criticism from all sides. For
as one former slave who fought alongside his Southern master said to a Union officer, I
had as much right to fight for my Native State as you had to fight for yours (Rice
36-37).
Bibliography
Bibliography
1.Coulter, Merton E., A History of the South. Louisiana State University Press; New
Orleans, Louis., 1950, pp. 95-111.
2.Geary, James W., We Need Men. Northern Illinois University Press; DeKalb Ill. 1991, pp.
67-77.
3.Higginson, Thomas, Army Life in a Black Regiment. W.W. Norton and Co.; New York, NY,
1984, pp. 209-214.
4.Jordan, Ervin L., Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia. University
Press of Virginia: Charlottesville and London. 1995, pp. 85-89. 
5.Lyman, Darryl., Civil War Wordbook. Combined Books: Pennsylvania. 1994, pp. 322-330.
6.McPherson, James M., The Negro's Civil War: How American Blacks Felt and Acted During
the War for the Union. Ballantine Books: New York. 1991, pp. 117-124. 
7.Pohanka, Brian C., Don Troiani's Civil War. Stackpole Books: Pennsylvania. 1995, pp.
74-96.
8.Rice, Charles., America's Civil War Magazine, Commands. Nov. 1995, pp. 29-37.