Role of Slaves in the Civil War

**Slaves in the war**  \n

Serving as Servants

 

•     In the early days of 1861, some soldiers from slave owning families took along slaves to serve as body servants.

•     Some men hired blacks nearby instead.

•     Duties usually consisted of washing, cooking, and cleaning the quarters of 1-4 soldiers, and in cavalry units, also looked after the horses.

First Responders

 

•     Following a battle, the servants would go looking for the master, loaded with supplies if the master was wounded and needed help.

•     They would also make arrangements if necessary to ship bodies home.

•     When masters were sick, it was the servant who ministered to them until they were well, and vice versa

Taking Shots

 

•     There were some servants who felt inclined to grab a gun and fight

•     There are records of some servants killing and capturing Yankees

•     Another unique incident took place when servants captured Black servants of Union soldiers as PoWs.

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The End of Servants

 

•     By 1862/63, the difficulty of feeding the troops was bad enough, but food was not readily available for their servants.

•     The labor of the servants was also needed worse at home, and so most servants were sent back home, unless kept by senior officers of the government

Other Work

 

•     Slaves were used early on to build some of the Confederacy’s strongest defenses, including those seen in the Peninsular Campaign.

•     Planters at first happily agreed to loan the use of their slaves, but as the war dragged on, the fervor lessened.

Difficulties Getting Help

 

•     By 1862, impressment was sometimes used to force owners into providing help; later levies were used to insure the labor needed was supplied.

•     20,000 Negroes were ordered conscripted by a Feb. 1864 law passed in Richmond

Why Owners Balked

 

•     Slaves used in many of the impressment projects were given less food and treated worse than by their masters in most cases

•     Exposure and disease claimed many lives in the more difficult areas.

 

Desertion and Missing Men

 

•     The *Richmond Enquirer* reported on October 6, 1864 that President Davis had announced that 2/3 of the army was absent.

•     1 in 7 men deserted overall, and some came back after pardons were offered.

•     Some were dishonorably discharged, others were branded with a D or C on the hip, hand, chest, or forehead; some were shot

Radical Ideas or Crazy Talk?

 

•     A regiment of black soldiers was organized in New Orleans in 1863, but it was not accepted for us by the Confederacy.

•     In Jan. 1864 one Confed. General proposed enlisting African-American troops with a promise of freedom in return for service. Jefferson Davis vetoed that idea.

Opposing Viewpoints

 

•     Robert E. Lee, in favor: if the South did not arm its slaves, then the North would

•     Georgia general, opposed: “If slaves will make good soldiers, our whole theory of slavery is wrong.”

A Little Late, But Confederate Soldiers Now

 

•     A law passed in Feb. 1864 allowed 20,000 blacks to be conscripted for military service, but not to serve as combatants

•     Further manpower shortages resulted in the need to recruit 300,000 black soldiers, passed into law on March 13, 1865.

•     This law was also known as the “Negro Soldier Law.”

The “Negro Soldier Law”

 

•     The law allowed the new soldiers the opportunity to remain slaves, or be freed with the consent of their owners.

•     A few companies were formed, but not in time to do anything significant.

Camp Followers

 

•     As Union armies passed through formerly slave territory, African-Americans took advantage to use their new freedom to join behind the army and perhaps gain a little work to do.

•     The former slaves, sometimes officially, sometimes not, a part of the army, were referred to as “contraband.”

Overview- Soldiers

 

•     Over 180,000 emancipated former slaves served in the Union army or as laborers for the war effort during the Civil War.

•     This made up 10% of the overall Union Army

•     In all, 1/3 of the black troops who joined would die in the Civil War

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More Overview

 

•     Black units had fewer doctors and frequently received inadequate equipment

•     By 1865, no black officers above a captain existed