BLACK CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS

A most interesting website tells something of the story of the blacks who fought for the Confederacy. Sections of the website of particular interest are:
On Black Confederates
Confederates of Color
The Black and the Gray
Songs of the 37th (midis)

An extimated 65000 black troops fought for the Confederacy, about 13000 "seeing the elephant" (engaging in combat". Dr. Leonard Haynes, a black professor at Southern University, stated "when you eliminate the black Confederate soldier, you've eliminated the history of the South."
Dr. Lewis Steiner, with the Union troops at Frederick, MD, said that some 3000 Negro troops were with Stonewall Jackson, armed with rifles, muskets, sabers... "and were manifestly an integral portion of the "Southern Confederate Army."
Frederick Douglas reported..."Many colored men in the Confederate Army, doing duty not only as cooks, servants and laborers, but real soldiers, having muskets on their shoulders and bullets in their pockets, ready to shoot down any loyal troops and to do all that any soldier may do to destroy the Federal government and build up that of the rebels.

Although not agreeing with the cast of the website, it is true that the roll of the black Confederate soldier has been ignored and suppressed for too long.

Another story, also little known, is that of the tens of thousands of Irishmen, who landed at southern ports, who fought in the Confederate army.

The story is here: Black Confederates