Small comment here - and yes, thanks Azizi, I should go and sign in again; when Mudcat boots my cookie I often don't bother to reset it (it's Thompson, by the way).

I haven't personally come across many race-related comments from Azizi; it was ages before I knew that she was a) black/coloured/** and b) female.

Americans seem kind of bats on the question of colour generally. Barack Obama, who is 50:50 black African and white American, is referred to as 'black' - why not 'white'? He's half and half!

But getting back to the point, I'd love to know if anyone has any personal, family stories about these particular people, the slave or ex-slave soldiers who fought for the South.