black Confederates

“No Hired Hessians or Negroes in the Southern Army”

by Kevin Levin on June 18, 2013 · 14 comments · Follow me on

In 1909 Philip K. Fall, Commander of the Dick Dowling Camp in Houston, welcomed the United Daughters of the Confederacy to their annual meeting. His brief welcome acknowledged the UDC’s crucial role in preserving and protecting the memory of the men who fought under the Confederate flag. Fall’s address also reflects the “limits of reconciliation” [...]

The Georgia Civil War Commission’s Black Confederates

by Kevin Levin on June 13, 2013 · 27 comments · Follow me on

Update: Once again, thanks to Andy Hall for doing the leg work of looking into the documentation behind the claim that Clark Lee was a Confederate soldier. No surprise by what he did not find to support such a claim nor that what is available points to a very different picture of Lee’s presence in [...]

Why Historians Should Care About Black Confederates

by Kevin Levin on June 7, 2013 · 25 comments · Follow me on

Over the past few years, Leslie Madsen-Brooks has been working on an essay that explores the implications of the controversy surrounding black Confederates on our understanding of history in the digital age. It’s been available online as part of an open peer-review project and will soon be available, along with other essays, in Writing History [...]

The Esprit de Corps of Confederate Camp Servants

by Kevin Levin on May 22, 2013 · 7 comments · Follow me on

Glad to see that so many of you found this morning’s post to be of interest. There is so much to unpack in the Caffey book regarding the presence of camp servants with the Army of Northern Virginia.  This passage is of particular interest to me. Did you ever remark our servants on a march? [...]

Slavery Traveled With the Army of Northern Virginia

by Kevin Levin on May 22, 2013 · 17 comments · Follow me on

Included in Allen Guelzo’s new book, Gettysburg: The Last Invasion, is a brief examination of the size of both armies.  In looking at the Army of Northern Virginia Guelzo includes a few sources that estimate the number of slaves, who performed various roles as personal servants and impressed workers.  One particular account by English-born Confederate [...]

Don Troiani’s Black Confederate Soldier

by Kevin Levin on May 14, 2013 · 46 comments · Follow me on

I do enjoy perusing the Confederate Heritage Facebook pages.  The topic of black Confederates is a favorite among these folks. Many of the images and other references are new to me, but more importantly their handling of this “evidence” serves as a reminder of just how incapable some people are in applying even the most [...]

Weary Clyburn Redux

by Kevin Levin on May 6, 2013 · 3 comments · Follow me on

Dear Mr. Vanderburg, Thanks for taking the time to read yesterday’s post and for your comments. As I stated in my response this is a subject that I’ve written and lectured on extensively over the past five years.  The popularity of the black Confederate narrative highlights both the extent to which history has become democratized [...]

What Happens When Your USCT Unit Disbands

by Kevin Levin on May 5, 2013 · 16 comments · Follow me on

Today Cleveland.com [associated with the Cleveland Plain Dealer] is running a textbook example of how the myth of the Black Confederate soldier is spread.  Start off with what appears to be an unusual story of two black individuals who play Confederate soldiers.  Treat them as authorities in the relevant history and fail to do any [...]

The current Confederate heritage fetish with black Confederate soldiers and the confidence with which many assert the existence of these loyal and brave men in arms stands in sharp contrast with the fact that you are hard pressed to find anyone in Confederate ranks or on the home front who acknowledged the existence of these [...]

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