By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 -- Confederate Maj. Gen. Patrick 
Cleburne was a born fighter. A division commander in the 
Army of Tennessee, Cleburne hated to lose. 
In 1864, Union forces, with their virtually unlimited 
resources of men and materiel, were grinding the Confederacy 
toward defeat. Cleburne saw an untapped Southern resource he 
wanted to use before it was too late.
Cleburne made a revolutionary proposal to Army 
Commander Gen. Braxton Bragg: Arm Southern slaves and have 
them fight for their freedom with the Confederate army. 
What mattered to Cleburne was not the institution of 
slavery, but the establishment of the Confederate States of 
America. He believed logical men would see the only way to 
overcome the tremendous Union advantages in men and materiel 
was to arm the slaves.
But there was nothing logical about slavery. Bragg, his 
corps commanders and selected division commanders in the 
Army of Tennessee listened to Cleburne’s proposal in shocked 
silence. The whole idea was repugnant to them. Still, Bragg 
forwarded Cleburne’s proposal to Confederate President 
Jefferson Davis.
Davis killed the idea and in fact was so worried about 
the effect of such a proposal on morale that he suppressed 
any mention of it. Cleburne’s novel idea did not see the 
light of day until 40 years after the war.
But African Americans did serve with Confederate 
armies. And eventually they even bore arms for the 
Confederacy. 
Early in the war, "Free Negroes" tried to enlist in the 
Confederate army. Black militia units, most notably in 
Louisiana, rushed to join in the war. The Confederate 
government did not accept the black militia units for army 
duty. None of the units appear to have been in combat, but 
many may have performed what is called combat service 
support today.
Thousands of African Americans marched off to war for 
the Confederacy. Many accompanied their masters, and there 
were isolated instances throughout the war of these "body 
servants" -- as these slaves were called -- taking up arms 
when their masters went into combat. 
Many other slaves served as laborers for the 
Confederate army. During the Atlanta campaign of 1864, for 
instance, Confederate Gen. Joseph Johnston used thousands of 
slaves to prepare fortifications as his army sparred with 
that of Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman.
Thousands more slaves served the Confederate army 
driving horse-drawn supply wagons. The Confederate fighting 
force was white, but much of its support was black.
But sheer Union numbers facing the Confederacy meant 
arming the slaves and giving them freedom was almost 
inevitable. The Northern population was 20 million. Of the 
South’s 9 million people, one-third were African American.
By late 1864, it was becoming apparent to even the most 
optimistic Southerner that the North was winning. The fall 
of Atlanta and Sherman's subsequent March to the Sea, Union 
victories in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley and Lt. Gen. 
Ulysses S. Grant’s death grip on Richmond and Petersburg, 
Va., meant time was running out for the Confederacy. The 
last hope expired when Northern voters re-elected Abraham 
Lincoln president.
Now desperate, Jefferson Davis embraced an idea he 
thought revolting a year earlier. The Confederate Congress 
began looking at bills allowing the enlistment of African 
Americans into the army in early 1865. Confederate Secretary 
of State Judah P. Benjamin spoke at rallies around Richmond. 
He said 680,000 African-American males were ready to fight 
for the Confederacy: "Let us say to every Negro who wants to 
go into the ranks, 'Go and fight, and you are free ... Fight 
for your masters, and you shall have your freedom.'"
Representatives from the Deep South were especially 
keen on getting blacks to enlist -- theirs was the land 
Sherman was laying to waste. Some in the Confederate 
government saw the measure as an admission the Confederacy 
was wrong about slavery from the beginning. 
"If we are right in passing this measure we were wrong 
in denying to the old government [the United States] the 
right to interfere with the institution of slavery and to 
emancipate slaves,� Virginia Sen. Robert M.T. Hunter said. 
“Besides, if we offer slaves their freedom ... we confess 
that we were insincere, were hypocritical, in asserting that 
slavery was the best state for the Negroes themselves."
In February 1865, the Confederate Congress, after 
months of stalling, passed an act allowing black 
enlistments. Immediately, Virginia started enlisting slaves 
to fight for the Confederacy. 
White officers commanded these battalions. They drilled 
and marched in downtown Richmond. Recruiters hit the areas 
around Richmond and Petersburg, but they moved too slowly 
for Rebel Gen. Robert E. Lee. He took officers from the Army 
of Northern Virginia and started recruiting blacks 
immediately.
But time ran out. On March 31, Union forces broke the 
Confederate lines at Petersburg. Lee was compelled to 
evacuate Richmond and Petersburg. His only hope of carrying 
on the fight was to escape to North Carolina and link up 
with Confederate forces there. 
Records from the time are incomplete, but several 
thousand African Americans may have served as soldiers for 
the Confederacy. Anecdotal evidence implies at least some 
went into combat against Union forces. 
On April 4, a Confederate courier observed black 
Confederates defending a wagon train near Amelia Court 
House, Va. When Union cavalry approached, the black soldiers 
formed up, fired and drove them off. The cavalry re-formed, 
charged and took the wagon train.
Later, near Farmville, Va., white refugees saw black 
Confederates building and preparing to man fortifications.
Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, Va., on April 
9. The enlistment of black Confederate soldiers was the 
dying gasp of the South.