10 little known facts about the Confederacy; 1. By the latter part of 1864 the CSA was moving toward ending slavery. In fact, there are indications that the Confederacy would have ended slavery even if it had survived the war, as prominent historians like J. G. Randall and David Donald have acknowledged (see Randall and Donald, The Civil War and Reconstruction, Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath and Company, 1969, p. 522). Critics will reply that the CSA only began to move toward emancipation as an act of desperation in the face of imminent defeat. If so, this proves that Southern independence was more important to Confederate leaders than was the continuation of slavery, that when push came to shove they were willing to abandon slavery in order to achieve independence. However, this being duly noted, it should be pointed out that it was by no means clear in late 1864 that Southern defeat was imminent. Historians Herman Hattaway and Richard Beringer note that even in February 1865, just two months before the war ended, a considerable degree of determination and high morale did still persist in the South (Jefferson Davis, Confederate President, University Press of Kansas, 2002, p. 357). Militarily speaking, the situation was far from hopeless in late 1864. Even when the Army of Northern Virginia surrendered in April 1865, the situation was not completely hopeless. At the end of the war, fewer than one-third of Confederate troops on active duty were deployed against either of the two main Union armies. One of the arguments made by Southern leaders who opposed the arming and freeing of slaves was that the Souths situation did not yet require such a measure. There is certainly room for debate about the CSA’s military prospects after the fall of Atlanta in September 1864. It’s also true that Confederate leaders felt that using slaves as soldiers was a matter of urgent military necessity. However, few if any Confederate leaders believed the South would be defeated by April if they didn’t arm and emancipate the slaves. George Rable noted that even after the fall of Richmond a belief that somehow independence could yet be won persisted (in Hattaway and Beringer, Jefferson Davis, Confederate President, p. 357). Historian Robert F. Durden of Duke University echoed the observations of Hattaway, Beringer, and Rable: Wracked though the Southerners were with the agony of a war they were losing, most Confederates, contrary to those persons who prefer to read history backward, did not know in November 1864 that they were beaten. (The Gray and the Black: The Confederate Debate on Emancipation, Louisiana Paperback Edition, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2000, reprint of 1972 edition, p. 101) One could correctly observe that the only reason the Union started using black troops was that Union casualties were mounting and that Northern resistance to the draft was increasing. One could also point out that Lincoln strongly resisted using black troops until intense pressure from the Radical Republicans coupled with mounting Union casualties caused him to change his mind. Even after Lincoln agreed to the use of free blacks and ex-slaves as troops, he refused to give them equal pay until forced to do so by Congress. In his book Forced Into Glory: Abraham Lincoln’s White Dream (Chicago: Johnson Publishing Company, 2000), African-American author Lerone Bennett presents evidence that Lincoln only issued the Emancipation Proclamation in response to increasing pressure from the Radicals and in order to blunt the effect of a more drastic confiscation measure that Congress had already passed. Bennett also discusses evidence that Lincoln worked to minimize the effects of the proclamation almost as soon as he issued it. In the American Revolution, the Continental Army only began to use black troops as an act of desperation because the army was running short of soldiers and because the British had offered freedom to American slaves who would fight in the British army (Henry Wiencick, An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America, New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2003, pp. 196-22; James and Lois Horton, In Hope of Liberty: Culture, Community and Protest Among Northern Free Blacks, 1700-1860, New York: Oxford University Press, 1997, pp. 55-71). George Washington initially barred blacks from enlisting in the army. He relented because he was desperate for more soldiers, because white enlistment was falling dramatically. (Wiencick, An Imperfect God, pp. 196-227). Even then, some New England militias continued to bar blacks from enlistment. It took the Continental Congress two years to formally agree to black enlistment. Another factor that influenced the decision to use slaves and free blacks as soldiers in the Continental Army was the fact that thousands of American slaves were flocking to British lines in response to the British offer of emancipation. I might add that after the Revolutionary War, American negotiators insisted on a provision in the treaty that ended the war, the Treaty of Paris, that the British return any American slaves who had fled to British lines during the war. One of those negotiators was none other than John Adams. In fact, Adams warmly endorsed the provision (Wiencick, An Imperfect God, p. 254). To their credit, the British later violated this provision and evacuated thousands of slaves with them when they left America. I might also add that when it began to appear that the British werent going to return the runaway American slaves, George Washington demanded a meeting with the British general who was in charge of enforcing the Treaty of Paris during the evacuation from New York, General Guy Carleton. Washington tried to persuade Carleton to honor the treaty provision on the return of runaway slaves. To his credit, Carleton stood his ground and refused to hand over the slaves. Carleton said the Americans could apply for compensation for the slaves, but that he would not return them. Carleton insisted the slaves were now free and that it would bring dishonor on England to return them after promising them safe refuge. Lord North, the British prime minister, called Carletons stand an act of justice. King George III himself voiced support for Carletons action in the fullest and most ample manner. One very rarely finds any mention of these facts in American history books. The American colonies’ policies on black troops during the Revolutionary War and their insistence on the return of American slaves after the war are admittedly embarrassing and contrary to the spirit of the Declaration of Independence. However, to my knowledge, no American historian has expressed regret that the Americans won the war. 2. The Confederate president himself, Jefferson Davis, came to strongly support ending slavery. So did CSA Secretary of State Judah Benjamin, Governor William Smith of Virginia, and leading CSA Congressmen Ethelbert Barksdale and Duncan Kenner (who was one of the largest slaveholders in the South). 3. The CSAs two highest ranking generals, Robert E. Lee and Joseph E. Johnston, both disliked slavery and supported emancipation in various forms. Lee called slavery a moral and political evil. Johnston called it a curse. (Johnston initially opposed using slaves as soldiers only because he feared it would be disruptive and ineffective, not because he had any sympathy for slavery. He later came to support the proposal.) Other Confederate generals who supported emancipation included General Daniel Govan, General John Kelly, and General Mark Lowrey. 4. The majority of Confederate generals did not own slaves and did not come from slaveholding families (Hattaway and Beringer, Jefferson Davis, Confederate President, p. 37). 5. Thousands of African Americans, Hispanics, and Indians fought for the Confederacy. Many of the slaves who served in the Confederate army did so because they hoped that by doing so they would be granted freedom after the war or because they were specifically promised freedom if they would serve. The same was true of most of the slaves who fought for the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. The chief inspector of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, Dr. Lewis Steiner, reported that he saw about 3,000 well-armed black Confederate soldiers in Stonewall Jackson’s army--he added that those soldiers were manifestly an integral portion of the Southern Confederate Army (Issac W. Heysinger, Antietam and the Maryland and Virginia Campaigns of 1862, New York: Neale Publishing Company, 1912, pp. 122-123; cf. John J. Dwyer, general editor, The War Between the States: America’s Uncivil War, Denton, Texas: Bluebonnet Press, 2005, p. 409). Three Confederate states authorized free blacks to enlist in state militia units. The first to do so was Tennessee, which passed a law on June 21, 1861, authorizing the recruitment of state militia units composed of free persons of color between the ages of 15 and 50. In 1862, Louisiana assembled the all-black 1st Louisiana Native Guard, and Alabama authorized the enlistment of creoles for a state militia unit in Mobile. 6. The Confederate Congress specified that black soldiers in the Confederate army were to receive the same pay, rations, and clothing that white soldiers received. In contrast, black soldiers in the Union army were paid much less than white soldiers were paid for over a year. The Union army began using former slaves and free blacks as soldiers in September 1862. They were paid $7 per month. Technically, they were paid $10 a month, but they were forced to pay a clothing allowance of $3, which meant their net monthly pay was only $7. White soldiers, on the other hand, received $13 per month and were not forced to pay a clothing allowance. Thus, in the Union army white soldiers were paid nearly twice as much as black soldiers were paid. Black Union soldiers didn’t start receiving equal pay until June 1864. When the Confederate Congress authorized the recruitment of slaves as soldiers, it stipulated that they were to receive “the same rations, clothing and compensation as are allowed to other troops” (An Act to Increase the Military Force of the Confederate States, March 13, 1865, Section 3). In addition, when the Confederate Congress authorized salaries for black musicians in the Confederate army in 1862, it specified that they were to receive the same pay as white army musicians, stating whenever colored persons are employed as musicians in any regiment or company, they shall be entitled to the same pay now allowed by law to musicians regularly enlisted. 7. According to the 1860 census, only 31 percent of Southern families owned slaves. Seventy-five percent of the families that owned slaves, owned less than ten and often worked side by side with them in the fields. Approximately half of the free blacks in America lived in the South. The percentage of Southern citizens who held slaves was probably no more than 25 percent (some scholars put the percentage as low as 10 percent). 8. The Confederate Constitution allowed for the admission of free states to the Confederacy, banned the overseas slave trade, and permitted Confederate states to abolish slavery within their borders if they wanted to do so. During the Confederate debate on emancipation, both sides readily acknowledged that under the Confederate Constitution each state had the absolute right to abolish slavery within its borders (see, for example, Durden, The Gray and the Black, pp. 98, 115, 170,195). 9. The Confederate Constitution protected every right for its citizens that the U.S. Constitution protected for U.S. citizens, if not more (Charles Roland, The Confederacy, University of Chicago Press, 1960, pp. 25-27; see also below). Even during the war, the Confederacy held free elections and enjoyed a vibrant free press (William J. Cooper, Jefferson Davis, American, Vintage Books Edition, New York: Vintage Books, 2001, pp. 349-519; see also below). 10. The Confederate Constitution contained added protections against runaway government spending, excessive taxation, and harmful protective tariffs. Historian Allan Nevins said the following about the Confederate Constitution: It differed from the old national model chiefly in its emphasis on State rights. . . . The general welfare clauses were omitted. Any Confederate official acting within the limits of a State might be impeached by the State legislature, though the Constitution, laws made under it, and treaties were declared “the supreme law of the land”. . . . The most remarkable features of the new instrument sprang from the purifying and reforming zeal of the delegates, who hoped to create a more guarded and virtuous government than that of Washington. The President was to hold office six years, and be ineligible for reelection. Expenditures were to be limited by a variety of careful provisions, and the President was given budgetary control over appropriations which Congress could break only by a two-thirds vote. {Michael T. Griffith}
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 16:16:56 +0000
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