quote:
Unlike the US Army, white Southerners now marched, patrolled and fought with Negroes side by side, as opposed to their own segregated units commanded by white officers like the Union colored troops did. IIRC, the US forces didn't accomplish integration like this until well into WWII. More importantly, American Industrialization with electricity and the gas engine is just a decade and one half away. In comparison to the cost of ownership of slave labor, a tractor is mighty cheap.

As much as I'd like to believe this, I can't find any credible source that can back this up. Blacks made up quite a few of the camp followers for any Southern army, but there are no stories I can find of any blacks serving in combat with whites, or serving (armed) in combat vs Yankee forces at all. Perhaps there was one, but the proof eludes.

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Posted by JustGetItRight

Member since Jan 2012

15715 posts

Posted on 3/10/15 at 11:04 am to cokebottleag

quote:
As much as I'd like to believe this, I can't find any credible source that can back this up. Blacks made up quite a few of the camp followers for any Southern army, but there are no stories I can find of any blacks serving in combat with whites, or serving (armed) in combat vs Yankee forces at all. Perhaps there was one, but the proof eludes.

I know the New York Times isn't very credible, but here's a first person account of a black confederate soldier serving in combat at the first Bull Run.

Here's a short paper with examples. It is on the sons of confederate veteran's website but the paper has a bibliography so the info should be verifiable.

Harvard University has a guy that says it happened too.

The number is quite small and nowhere near what some people would have you believe, but there's no doubt at all that black soldiers served (some willingly, many not) alongside whites and in combat for the Confederacy.

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