Virginia, Guide to The Old Dominion, WPA Writers' Program, Oxford University Press, NY, 1940, p. 378 "In 1650 there were only 300 negroes in Virginia, about one percent of the population. They weren't slaves any more than the approximately 4,000 white indentured servants working out their loans for passage money to Virginia, and who were granted 50 acres each when freed from their indentures, so they could raise their own tobacco. Slavery was established in 1654 when Anthony Johnson, Northampton County, convinced the court that he was entitled to the lifetime services of John Casor, a negro. This was the first judicial approval of life servitude, except as punishment for a crime. But who was Anthony Johnson, winner of this epoch-making decision? Anthony Johnson was a negro himself, one of the original 20 brought to Jamestown (1619) and 'sold' to the colonists. By 1623 he had earned his freedom and by 1651, was prosperous enough to import five 'servants' of his own, for which he received a grant of 250 acres as 'headrights.' Anthony Johnson ought to be in a 'Book of Firsts.' As the most ambitious of the first 20, he could have been the first negro to set foot on Virginia soil. He was Virginia's first free negro and first to establish a negro community, first negro landowner, first negro slave owner and as the first, white or black, to secure slave status for a servant, he was actually the founder of slavery in Virginia. A remarkable man."

From James G. Bates' letter to his father reprinted in the 1 May 1863 "Winchester [Indiana] Journal" (the 13th IVI ["Hoosier Regiment"] was involved in operations around the Suffolk, Virginia area in April-May 1863 ): "I can assure you [Father], of a certainty, that the rebels have negro soldiers in their army. One of their best sharp shooters, and the boldest of them all here is a negro. He dug himself a rifle pit last night [16 April 1863] just across the river and has been annoying our pickets opposite him very much to-day. You can see him plain enough with the naked eye, occasionally, to make sure that he is a "wooly-head," and with a spy-glass there is no mistaking him."

After the action at Missionary Ridge, Commissary Sergeant William F. Ruby forwarded a casualty list written in camp at Ringgold, Georgia about 29 November 1863, to William S. Lingle for publication. Ruby's letter was partially reprinted in the Lafayette (Indiana) Daily Courier for 8 December 1863 as follows: From the Tenth (Indiana) We are in receipt of a delayed letter [from] W[illiam] F. Ruby, of the 10th, which sums up the casualties of that gallant regiment as follows: [Corporal] James [M.] Gerard, Co. G, slightly wounded in the face. [Private] Aaron [L.] Thompson, Co. H, flesh wound, right side of the face. Co. K, S. Brenson, [wounded] in the arm by a shell; [Private] W[illiam] Thurman, slight wound in side; [Private] Ja[me]s Williams, mortally by shell, since died: Mr. Ruby says: "You see by the above that our loss is small. The only way that we can account for it is that they [the rebels] over-shot us with their infantry and that in using the artillery they had to depress the pieces. "I heard this evening that we had taken over fifty pieces of artillery--can't say whether it is true or not; but I know [we have taken at least] thirty for I saw and counted that many when out to the front this morning. We have a huge batch of "gray-backs" here on hand, I should judge about 8,000, and the cry is still they come. The Georgians say that if "the cowardly Alabamaian's [sic] had not gave way, they would have whipped us, and the Alabamian's return the compliment." Co. E [Tippecanoe County] was in the fight, but came out as the rest--unscratched. Col[onel] [Marsh B.] Taylor, Major [Job H.] Vannatta [sic] and all the rest are well and in fine spirits. Ruby says among the rebel dead on the [Missionary] Ridge he saw a number of negroes in the Confederate uniform (emphasis ours. Ed.).

'Uncle Bob', 112 Was Illinois' Oldest Vet Elgin (Illinois) Daily Courier-News ELGIN, Ill. (Monday, April 12, 1948) - Robert (Uncle Bob) Wilson, Negro veteran of the Confederate army who observed his 112th birthday last January 13, died early yesterday morning in the veterans' hospital at the Elgin State hospital, where he had made his home for several years. Dr. Sidney Klow, who had attended him, stated that Uncle Bob had had two previous sinking spells in the last few weeks. When the third came Saturday evening, he failed to rally, and died at 12:28 a.m. Once Farmer, Preacher The aged Negro was the state's oldest war veteran. War Department records show that he was born to slavery at Richmond, Va., on Jan. 13, 1836. He was in the crowd which witnessed the hanging of John Brown, the abolitionist, at Charles Town, Va., in 1859. According to John T. Nelson, veterans' service officer, the records show that "Uncle Bob" took the name of the owner of the plantation on which he lived. He enlisted as a private in Company H of the 16th regiment of Virginia Infantry on Oct. 9, 1862 and discharged May 31, 1863. After the Emancipation Proclamation, Wilson engaged in farming and later took to preaching. He had been living in Chicago at the tine he was admitted to the Elgin State hospital Feb. 14, 1941. There he spent considerable time each day reading his Bible. When the weather permitted, he attended church services at the institution. Gift from Governor Besides a big cake and a party, the highlight of his 112th birthday last January was receiving a half-dollar from Governor Dwight Green. The 50-cent piece was sent by the governor to replace a similar coin the governor gave, "Uncle Bob" during a visit to the state hospital November, 1941. The first coin was "for tobacco" but 'Uncle bob" refused to spend it. He proudly displayed it to visitors and was very disconsolate when he lost it a few weeks before his last birthday. A private funeral is being arranged by Service Officer Nelson for either today or tomorrow. Burial will be in the state hospital's cemetery. From the 37th: Please note that Robert Wilson was verified by the Illinois Veterans' Sevice Officer as having enlisted as a private in the Confederate Army, not as a servant or slave.

"The Sable Arm: Black Troops in the Union Army, 1861-1865", written by D.T. Cornish. pp.65 -66 - on the status of the 1st Louisiana Native Guard as duly constituted and recognized soldiers of the Louisiana State Militia: "On August 22 [1862], the day after Phelp's resignation became effective, Butler published his General Orders, No. 63, calling on the free colored militiamen of Louisiana to enroll in the volunteer forces of the Union..." "Ben Butler displayed characteristic shrewdness. He issued no general invitation to all colored men of the Pelican State. His invitation specified only those free colored men who had been enrolled in Louisiana militia units by the Confederate state government..." " Butler was careful to make clear in his order of August 22 that it applied only to a "military organization, known as the 'Native Guards' (colored)", which had been "duly and legally enrolled as a part of the militia" of Louisiana in the spring of 1861..." "So successful was this piece of Butler shrewdness that even the National Intelligencer on September 5 published his order with no comment beyond the introductory statement that "Gen. Butler, having discovered that the present Governor of Louisiana had organized a body of free negroes as soldiers in the service of the Confederate States, has issued an order inviting them into the service of the United States..."

"The American Indian as Slaveholder and Secessionist" by Annie Heloise Abel, PH.D. by, The Arthur H. Clark Company, Cleveland. copyright, 1919. pp 212-214: Cherokee/Confederate Treaty, Article XL "In consideration of the common interest of the Cherokee Nation and the Confederate States, and of the protection and rights guaranteed to the said nation by this treaty, the Cherokee Nation hereby agrees that it will raise and furnish a regiment of ten companies of mounted men, with two reserve companies, if allowed, to serve in the armies of the Confederate States for twelve months; the men shall be armed by the Confederate States, receive the same pay and allowances as other mounted troops in the service, and not be moved beyond the limits of the Indian country west of Arkansas without their consent."

The American Indian as Slaveholder and Secessionist" by Annie Heloise Abel, PH.D. by, The Arthur H. Clark Company, Cleveland. copyright, 1919. pp 212-214: Article XXXVII of the Creek/Confederate Treaty "The Creek Nation hereby agrees and binds itself at any future time to raise and furnish, upon the requisition of the President, such number of troops for the defense of the Indian country, and of the frontier of the Confederate States as he may fix, not out of fair proportion to the number of its population, to be employed for such terms of service as the President may fix; and such troops shall always receive the same pay and allowances as other troops of the same class in the service of the Confederate States."

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