Documentation of Black Confederate Officers Louisiana Native Guard, CSA

"Like Men of War" by Noah Andre Trudeau Little,Brown and Company 1998 pp. 24: "Two months before the fight at Baton Rouge, Butler [Maj. Gen. Ben Butler] had been visited by the black officers of the now-disbanded Native Guards, Louisiana Militia (CSA). They and their men had refused to evacuate the city when the Union troops arrived, most instead choosing to return to their homes to see what the Federal occupation would bring. "The officers of that company," Butler later related to the Secretary of War, "called upon...the question of the continuance of their organization and to learn what disposition they would be required to make of their arms; and in color,nay,also in conduct, they had more the appearance of white gentlemen than some of those who have favored me with their presence claiming to be the 'chivarly of the South.'"

"The Negro in the Civil War," by Benjamin Quarles, (1953) 1989, Da Capo Press, pp 116-117 (Ed. - boldface emphasis ours): Butler (Gen. Benjamin "Beast" Butler of New Orleans) thereupon sent for twenty of the colored officers who had been enrolled under the Confederate flag as recently as the preceding April [1861]. The ensuing discussion was frank and to the point. Butler asked the free Negroes if they would like to be organized as part of the United States Army. There was a unanimous chorus of "yes." Butler has reconstructed his conversation with their spokesman, "a Negro nearly as dark," said he, "as the ace of spades.": "General," he asked, "shall we be officers as we were before?"

"Forged in Battle: The Civil War Alliance of Black Soldiers and White Officers" by Joseph T. Glatthaar, The Free Press 1990 pg. 36 "As a result of this policy decision, the Federal government avoided the elevation of blacks to officer's rank. With hesitation, the War Department assented to the commissioning of some black chaplains and surgeons, but in the early stages of black units the federal government made it clear that only white men would serve as combat officers. Those free black militia officers of New Orleans whom Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler had accepted into federal service in September 1862 were rapidly weeded out for purposes of racial purity by his successor Maj. Gen. N.P. Banks."

Addressing the oft-quoted rumor of "war crimes" committed by Confederate General Wheeler

ORUCA, series 1, vol. 47, part 2, pp. 36-7, regarding the supposed "massacre" by forces of Confederate General Wheeler of "Contraband" Blacks left behind when the Union Army removed a pontoon bridge before they could cross: "Don't military success imply the safety of Sambo and vice versa? Of course that cock-and-bull story of my turning back negroes that Wheeler might kill them is all humbug. I turned nobody back. Jeff C. Davis did at Evenezer Creek forbid certain plantation slaves -- old men, women, and children -- to follow his column but they would come along and he took up his pontoon bridge, not because he wanted to leave them, but because he wanted his bridge. He and Slocum both tell me that they don't believe Wheeler killed one of them. W. T. Sherman"

Colored Soldier/Slave impressment by Federal troops (Various Union and Federal Records sources)

Testimony taken during the court martial of Colonel Augustus W. Benedict, Corps d'Afrique, for cruelty to Negro soldiers in his command at Fort Jackson. LA, that resulted in a mutiny there on Dec 9, 1862: "The soldiers whipped on Dec. 9 were] the two drummer boys, named Harry Williams and Munroe Miller with a mule whip, such as is used on carts; a whip with a stock and a lash..I have seen [Col. Benedict] spread a man [negro] out on his back, drive stakes down, and spread out his hands and legs, take off his shoes, and take molasses and spread it over his face, hands, and feet [to bring the fire ants - editor's note]."

Gen Robert A. Cameron to Gen Thomas W Sherman on Nov 30th, 1864, New Orleans: "...where I found a mulatto girl, about 12 or 13 years old, lying dead in a field. She had been killed by a pistol ball, which had entered the forehead and passed entirely through the head. I learned from the negro man, who was near, that the girl had been shot by a drunken soldier, who had at first shot at one of the men"...[testimony of Sgt. John Sims] "I heard a rumor that Captain Moore, his officers and men, had seized a quantity of Louisiana rum and were on a drunken spree, committing various depredations, and that one of his men had attempted to rape a mulatto girl and had shot and killed her for resisting."

President Lincoln, on Feb 7th, to Col. John Glenn, 120th Colored Infantry, Henderson Kentucky: "Complaint is made to me that you are forcing negroes into the military service, and even torturing them.riding them on rails, and the like...to extort their consent."

Major Gen John A Logan, 15th Corps, AOT, Feb 26, from Huntsville, AL, reporting to U.S, Grant in Nashville: "A major of colored troops is here with his party capturing negroes, with or without their consent....They are being conscripted."

Maj. Gen. Lovell H. Rousseau, District of Nahville, on Jan 20th reporting to Gen. G. H. Thomas: "Officers in command of colored troops are in constant habit of pressing all able-bodied slaves into the military service of the U.S."

G. W. Cozzens, Superintendent of Plantations, New Orleans, on Sept. 26th 1863, to Benjamin F. Flanders, Treasury Dept, New Orleans: "...other Government places have suffered severely from having the able-bodied hands forced at the point of the bayonet from the plantations for conscription."

BG Charles P. Stone, chief of staff to Gen N. P. Banks, Dept. of the Gulf: "...the oppression of these negro recruiting office...These cases of cruelty are reported daily."

Gen. B.F. Butler, 18th Army Corp, Fort Monroe, on Jan 10th, to Elizabeth T. Upshur of Franktown, VA: "The negro soldiers [at Elizabeth City] did nothing but what they were ordered to do..That we had to burn houses and carry away the families of the guerrillas is most true..It was done under orders."

Edward L. Pierce, special agent, Treasury Dept., Port Royal, on May 12th, 1862, to Sec. Chase: "This has been a sad day in these islands. Some 500 men were hurried from Ladies and Saint Helena to Beaufort and the carried to Hilton Head. The negroes were sad. Sometimes whole plantations, learning what was going on, ran off to the woods for refuge. This mode of [enlistment by] violent seizure and transportation. spreading dismay and fright, is repugnant."

Order issued by BG Isaac I. Stevens, commanding post at Beaufort, Port Royal, on May 11th, 1862 "In accordance with.orders of MG Hunter the several agents or overseers of plantations will send to Beaufort tomorrow morning every able bodied negro between the ages of 18 and forty five, capable of bearings arms."

Treasury agent Edward Pierce, at Pope's Plantation, Saint Helena Island, on May 13th, to MG David Hunter: "They were taken from the fields without being allowed to go to their houses even to get a jacket. On some plantations the wailing and screaming were loud and the women threw themselves in despair on the ground. On some plantations the people took to the woods and were hunted up by the soldiers. I doubt if the recruiting service in this country has ever been attended with such scenes before."

G.M. Wells, superintendent of Plantations, Mrs. Jenkins' Plantation, Saint Helena Island, to Edward Pierce: "This conscription, together with the manner of its execution, has created suspicion that the Government has not the interest in the negroes that it professed, and many of them sighed yesterday for the 'old fetters' as being better than the new liberty."

L.D. Phillips at Dr. Pope's Plantation, on May 13th, to Pierce "The whole village, old men, women, and boys, in tears [were] following at our heels. The wives and mothers of the conscripts, giving way to their feelings, break into the loudest lamentations and rush upon the men, clinging to them with the agony of separation.Some of them, setting up such a shrieking as only this people could, throw themselves on the ground and abandon themselves to the wildest expressions of grief. The old foreman [at Indian Hill]. said it reminded him of what his master said we should do.I have heard several contrast the present state of things with their former condition to our disadvantage. This rude separation of husband and wife, children and parents, must needs remind them of what we have always stigmatized as the worst feature of slavery. Never, in my judgment, did major general fall into a sadder blunder and rarely has humanity been outraged by an act of more unfeeling barbarity."

BG Rufus Saxton in Beaufort, Oct 29th, 1862: "When the colored regiment was first organized by General Hunter no provision was made for its payment, and the men were discharged after several months' service, receiving nothing for it. In the meantime their families suffered. This failure to pay them for their service has weakened their confidence in our promises for the future and makes them slow to enlist."

MG Don C. Buell, on Aug 6th, 1862, in testimony published from the court martial of Russian-born Colonel John B. Turchin(ov), 19th Illinois, regarding his command's war crimes in the vicinity of Athens, AL. Turchin was found guilty of allowing the burning of the town and other outrages and dismissed from the service. As a result, President Lincoln pardoned Turchin, promoted him, and appointed him BGen of U.S. Volunteers. Turchin accepted on Sept. 1, and remained in the service until Oct. 4, 1864. All Turchin's subordinates were acquitted as "just following orders"- a defense later used unsuccessfully at the Nuremburg War Crimes trials after WWII: "A part of this brigade went to the plantation of John F. Malone and quartered in the negro huts for weeks, debauching the females and roaming with the males over the surrounding country to plunder and pillage. Several soldiers came to the house of Mrs. Charlotte Hine and committed rape on the person of a colored girl and then entered the house and plundered it."

Gen. Buell, admonishing Colonel Douglas A. Murray, 32rd Ohio Cavalry in Woodville, AL "Not only is property taken.but property is wantonly destroyed, negro women are debauched, and ladies insulted."

MG John A. Dix, Fort Monroe on Nov 26th, 1862, to BG Michael Corcoran, commanding at Newport News: "A complaint has been made to me that the colored people who are to go to Craney Island have been forced to remain all night on the wharf without shelter and without food; that one has died, and that others are suffering with disease, and that your men have turned them out of their houses, which they have built themselves, and have robbed some of them of their money and personal effects."

Gen. Innis N. Plamer, New Bern, on Sept 1, 1864, reporting to B.F. Butler, Fort Munroe: "The negroes [on Roanoke Island] will not go [to be laborers at Fort Monroe] voluntarily, so I am obliged to force them. I have sent seventy one and will send this afternoon about 150.I expect to get a large lot tomorrow. The matter of collecting the colored men for laborers has been one of some difficulty. I am aware that this may be considered a harsh measure, but..we must not stop at trifles."

BG Rufus Saxton, Military Governor, US Forces at Beaufort, on Dec 30, 1864, reporting to Sec of War Stanton: "I found the prejudice of color and race here in full force, and the general feeling of the army of occupation was unfriendly to the blacks. It was manifested in various forms of personal insult and abuse, in depredations on their plantations, stealing and destroying their crops and domestic animals, and robbing them of their money. The women were held as the legitimate prey of lust.....Licentiousness was widespread.... the influences of too many (officers and soldiers) was demoralizing to the negro, and has greatly hindered the efforts for their improvement and elevation. There was a general disposition among the soldiers and civilian spectators here to defraud the negroes in their private traffic, to take the commodities which they offered for sale by force, or to pay for them with worthless money."

MANDY LESLIE OF FAIRHOPE, AL (The Slave Narratives - 1940): "When the Yankees came through here, dey took my mammy off in de wagon, an' lef' me right side de road, an' when she try to get out de wagon to fetch me, dey hit her on de head and she fell back in de wagon and didn't hollar no more. Dey jes' driv' off up de big road. She mighta been dead, 'cause I aint never seed her no more."

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