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I. Black Leadership During the Civil War
- Southern Illinois University Press
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CHAPTER I Black Leadership During the Civil War Part ofthe dramaofthe Civil War experience for southern blacks was their own participation in the fight for theirfreedom. For the first timein Louisiana's history, blacks servedinlarge numbers as soldiers, and in serving they helped to preserve the Union. The war was also an experience in political education for blacks. Many who would later serve as leaders in Reconstruction emerged during the war. At the outbreak of the war the white population of Louisiana was apprehensive about the presence in their midst of a large black population, slave and free. Whites naturally wondered if blacks, especially thefree blacksin New Orleans, would bedocile during the conflict or attempt to sabotage the war efforts. Initially, free blacks expressed a sentiment to fight for the Confederate cause. As early as January 20, 1861, a smallgroup of them petitioned GovernorThomas O. Moore, offering their service to the state. The petition affirmed their faithfulness to the government and asserted that they "formed part of our best population" and had "attained the highest position in art, commerce and science." They recalled their ancestors' service with General Andrew Jackson in 1814-1815 as the Battalion of Ffee Men of Color. According to newspaper reports, these free Negroes held a meeting to discuss possible participation in the Confederate war effort on April 22, 1861. Their announced purI 2 Black Legislators in Louisiana posewas to organize military companies and to volunteerforstate service in c(~se of any enemy attack.1 In late April, 1861, Jordan Noble and approximately fifteen hundred men of the creole free Negro class assembled at this downtown meeting. On May 12, 1861, the governor issued a proClamation providing for the enrollment of as many free Negroes as were necessary to form a regiment, staffed by black officers;this unitwas to aidinprotecting New Orleans intheevent of Union attack. Immediately, in early 1862, these companies were organized. They were called the Native Guards, Louisiana Militia, Confederate States. Most companies armed and uniformed themselves at their own expense, and captains' commissions were given to the black organizers. These units were soon making appearances at local ceremonial parades because the commanding general of Confederate forces, Major General Mansfield Lovell, was reluctant to recognize them in other capacities and refused to issue them arms and supplies.2 When the Union capture ofNew Orleans ended inthe retreat of the Confederate forces on April 28, 1862, the Native Guards refused to leave the city. They did not desire to leave their homes to fight with the Confederate forces elsewhere, and it is doubtful that they had wanted to join the Confederate service in the first place. I. "Appeal in Behalf of the Colored People of N[ew] O[rleans] & Offering Their Services," January 20, r861, in Rebel Archives, Record Division, War Department, Louisiana State Archives, Baton Rouge; Roland C. McConnell, Negro Ti'oops ofAntebellum Louisiana: A HistOlY ofthe Battalion ofFree Men ofColor (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, I968), 52-53;NewOrleansTrueDelta,April 23, r86r ,citedinMary F. Berry, "Negro Troops in Blue and Gray: The Louisiana Native Guards, 186I-1863," Louisiana HistO/y, VIII (Spring, 1967), 167; Donald E. Everett, "Ben Butler and the Louisiana Native Guards, r86r-1862," Journal ofSouthern HistOlY, XXIV (May, 1958), 202. See also David C. Rankin, "The Origins ofBlack Leadership in New Orleans During Reconstruction," Journal of Southern HistOlY, XL (August, r974), 433-34. 2. Noble owned real estate valued at $1,500and personal property worth $500. U. S. Census Reports, cited in Donald E. Everett, "Demands of New Orleans Free Colored Population for Political Equality, r862-r865," Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXXVIII (April, r955), 48; Alice Dunbar-Nelson, "PeopleofColorin Louisiana, PmtII,"Journalof Negro History, II (January, r9I7), 67. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation ofthe OfficialRecords ofthe Union and Confederate Armies (Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 188G-1901), Ser. I, Vol. XV, 556, hereinafter cited as Official Records; Everett, "Ben Butler," 204-205; Berry, "Negro Troops," r67. [34.201.37.128] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 20:12 GMT) Black Leadership During the Civil War 3 Their complex motives are difficult to appraise. Apparently, many free men of color had been forced to join the Confederate cause, and this brief show of sympathy, for most of them, was simply an effort to save their lives and property. Testimony given to the Select Commission on the New Orleans Riot of 1866lends support to this conclusion. Charles W. Gibbons, an educated free black man who had lived his entire...