Negro Soldier Bill

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The ambrotype , made in the 1860s, shows an African American in the uniform of the Confederate Army. The person is the slave of a captain who died in the battle of Trevilian Station in 1864 and who brought the officer's body to his home.

On February 10, 1865, the Confederate States Congress passed a law by a three-vote majority authorizing its President Jefferson Davis to conscript up to 200,000 slaves as soldiers. The Senate initially rejected the law. With an amendment to the law on February 14, the so-called Amendment To the Negro Soldier Bill , the Senators from Virginia finally approved the law because a similar law had probably been passed in their Confederate state.

Law and Authority

On March 13, 1865 Jefferson Davis signed in Richmond , Virginia, the law that the staff responsible for carrying Adjutant and Inspector General Samuel Cooper on March 23, with the Order No. General 14 implemented for the army. The law gave the president the authority to raise slaves for military service. From 1865 onwards, if the quota of 300,000 soldiers required by the federal states was not met, the president was allowed to request up to 25 percent of the slaves who were fit for defense from each state in order to achieve this level, in order to use them as regular combatants in addition to other uses in the armed forces . The recruitment of black soldiers was highly controversial among the senators of the southern states and did not meet with broad approval. Only the change in voting behavior of the Virginia senators, which sparked protests from other MPs, allowed the federal law to be passed and put into effect with the signature of the president.

Legal history

Mayor General Patrick Ronayne Cleburne campaigned strongly for the recruitment of black soldiers into the Confederate Army
Secretary of War James Alexander Seddon was generally reluctant to recruit black soldiers

The military and economic situation of the Confederation was already so desolate at the beginning of 1865 that Congress was only now able to bring itself up to convene slaves. Before the relevant law was ratified, there had been serious efforts in previous years to legalize the use of black soldiers.

Military intervention

High-ranking military of the southern states recognized the seriousness of the situation regarding the lack of soldiers as early as 1863/1864 and intervened in this matter. As early as November 1863, the War Department received an application from Confederate General Dabney Herndon Maury from Mobile, Alabama , who asked for permission to recruit dark-skinned Creoles into the army. Secretary of War James Alexander Seddon raised constitutional concerns about possible national and international reservations about the dark-skinned Creoles and recommended that they only be recruited as non-combat auxiliaries into the army.

The respected Major General Patrick Ronayne Cleburne had written a memorandum in January 1864, which was carried by 12 or 13 other officers of his unit, and addressed to General Joseph E. Johnston . The appeal contained a strong recommendation to emancipate African American slaves and take them into the army. The petition served on the President and James A. Seddon was previously denied and not submitted for debate in Congress. Cleburne and the other supporters were prohibited by the highest authorities from pursuing the matter.

In November 1864, the War Department responded to an application from a Georgia officer. Major EB Briggs asked for permission to form a regiment of black soldiers. The reason for the rejection was the expected, most likely negative decision of the Congress of the Confederate States. The Minister of War also pointed out that he was not ready to support such a request.

In January 1865, General Robert Edward Lee wrote to Senator Andrew Hunter of Virginia urgently recommending the recruitment of black soldiers. The Confederate Congress initially did not respond to the proposal. Only after the general emphasized the existential necessity of the urgent measure in a further letter in February could the law be passed with the support of the Virginia senators and the approval of the president.

Effect of Federal Law

In the further course of the Civil War , the situation of the Confederate Army deteriorated to such an extent that the idea of ​​slave recruitment was resorted to. After the law came into effect in March 1865, the newspapers in the southern and northern states publicized the general drafting of African Americans . The recruiting of those who were still unfree was subject to the condition that the relationship between the slaves and their owners did not change unless the owners agreed to a release. In March and early April 1865, recruiting officers were appointed in all southern states who were charged by the War Department with the drafting of Negro Troops . From a military point of view, the efforts came too late and therefore remained meaningless. The federal law thus no longer had any effect on the course of the war.

In the state of Virginia, shortly before or after federal law went into effect, the only two companies made up of slaves were set up in Richmond. One was used in the field hospital to supplement the medical staff, and the other was no longer involved in combat. In addition to the lack of uniforms and weapons, there was a lack of training and, above all, the motivation of the Confederate officers, who were suspicious or even negative of the black soldiers.

As early as February 1862, the Virginia government had already given its own authority to consider employing free and fit blacks from their state in the army. This idea, which was also seriously considered by some other southern states, found no political approval at the federal level or in the military leadership. Only Virginia presumably single-handedly formally enacted its own law, which was not applied until the spring of 1865 with the drafting of the two aforementioned companies.

literature

  • Charles H. Wesley: The Employment of Negroes as Soldiers in the Confederate Army. In: The Journal of Negro History. Vol. 4, No. 3, Jul 1919, pp. 239-253, Published by: Association for the Study of African American Life and History. (PDF)

Web links

  • Confederacy approves black soldiers. (on-line)
  • Jaime Amanda Martinez: Black Confederates. In: Encyclopedia Virginia. (on-line)
  • Civil War Daily Gazette: Davis Signs Bill Authorizing Slaves in the Confederate Army. (on-line)

Remarks

  1. ↑ A bill to be entitled An act to increase the military force of the Confederate States, Confederate States of America, 1865 (online)
  2. ^ Amendment To the Negro Soldier Bill, Confederate States of America, 1865 (online)
  3. ↑ James M. McPherson : Battle Cry of Freedom. Oxford University Press, New York 2003, ISBN 0-19-516895-X , p. 837 (Googlebook excerpt)
  4. ↑ a b c Confederate Law Authorizing the Enlistment of Black Soldiers, as Promulgated in a Military Order, GENERAL ORDERS, No. 14. (online)
  5. ^ Confederate Congress: Second Congress, Second Session, Senate, March 7, 1865: The Negro Soldier Question (online)
  6. ↑ Creoles in the armed forces. Cornell University Library, 2018, accessed May 3, 2019 (Official Records, Series IV, Vol. 2, p. 941).
  7. ↑ Irving A. Buck (Irving Ashby): Cleburne and his command. Neale Pub. Co., New York 1908, pp. 227-238. (on-line)
  8. ↑ James M. McPherson: Battle Cry of Freedom. Oxford University Press, New York 2003, ISBN 0-19-516895-X , pp. 832-833. (Googlebook excerpt)
  9. ↑ No colored people. Cornell University Library, 2018, accessed May 3, 2019 (Official Records, Series IV, Vol. 2, p. 846).
  10. ^ Charles H. Wesley: The Employment of Negroes as Soldiers in the Confederate Army. In: The Journal of Negro History. Vol. 4, No. 3, Jul 1919, pp. 248-249.
  11. ↑ James M. McPherson: Battle Cry of Freedom. Oxford University Press, New York 2003, ISBN 0-19-516895-X , p. 836. (Googlebook excerpt)
  12. ^ The Daily Dispatch: March 22, 1865, Colored troops, An Appeal to the People of Virginia. (on-line)
  13. ↑ International New York Times, NEGRO SOLDIERS, March 24, 1865 PARADE OF THE FIRST COMPANY OF SLAVE TROOPS. (on-line)
  14. ↑ Recruiting officers. Cornell University Library, 2018, accessed May 4, 2019 (Official Records, Series I, Vol. 46, Part 3/2, p. 1367).
  15. ↑ Recruiting officers. Cornell University Library, 2018, accessed May 4, 2019 (Official Records, Series I, Vol. 46, Part 2, p. 1318).
  16. ^ Horace Greeley : The American Conflict . Volume II, OD Case, Hartford 1864, p. 522. (online)
  17. ^ Formation of negro troops in Virginia. Cornell University Library, 2018, accessed May 4, 2019 (Official Records, Series I, Vol. 46, Part 3/2, p. 1366).