Black Southerners in Confederate Armies: A Collection of Historical Accounts

by J.H. Segars (Editor)

Little has been written about the military role of African Americans in military campaigns of the United States despite the fact that men and women of color were involved in all national conflicts beginning with the Revolutionary War. Indeed, the thought of black men and women serving the Confederacy during the Civil War is difficult for some to believe because it appears to be a paradox. Yet the surviving narratives, writings of Civil War veterans and their family members, county histories, newspaper articles, personal correspondence, and recorded tributes to black Confederates, offer heartfelt sentiments and historical information that cannot be ignored--and demonstrate that they did serve the Confederacy as soldiers, bodyguards, sailors, construction workers, cooks, and teamsters.

Since his 1995 publication of Forgotten Confederates: An Anthology about Black Southerners, author Charles Kelly Barrow has continued to collect source material for this second volume. Subscribers of Confederate Veteran magazine responded to Barrow's classified ads, and excerpts from other publications such as the Journal of Negro History (Vol. IV, July 1919) and Smithsonian Magazine (March 1979) are included here. One excerpt includes the surprising testimony by black Confederate Eddie Brown Page III for the U.S. District Court that helped determine if the Confederate battle emblem should be removed from the Georgia state flag. After Sergeant Page's testimony, the case was later dismissed.

Full of surprising anecdotes, eloquent statements, tragic testaments, and admirable accounts of those blacks who fought for and with the South, this collection deserves a place on the shelf of anyone interested in the Civil War's lesser known aspects.

224 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2001

Reviews

[Roxanne Hayes · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried to be open as I read this book. Tried not to read it only with my 2019 lenses, but it was just awful. Too many references to Sambo. Too many cliche justifications for “of course my slave/servant who is pressured by beatings, imprisonment, and/or death wants to follow me into war so we can keep this whole bloody system going”.

When I got to the part where dialog from Gone With the Wind was inserted, Scarlett runs into slaves from Tara, as more proof that there really were blacks who supported and fought for the Confederacy, I closed the book. Stupid.

[EJ Daniels · Rating 5 out of 5]

This expansive reader collects historical accounts from eyewitness testimony, battlefield reports, correspondence, government acts, contemporary and modern newspaper stories, pension applications, graves, and more to shed light on the tens of thousands of blacks who participated in some way with the Confederate war effort during the War Between the States, the overwhelming majority of which as enslaved laborers who filled the roles of sappers, teamsters, personal servants, and cooks.

The book is not interested in the modern debate over the idea of "Black Confederates," and instead seeks only to offer as much material as possible for the reader to draw his own conclusions.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another good book with primary sources