The leaders at the South in preparing for hostilities showed the people of the North, and the authorities at Washington, that they intended to carry on the war with no want of spirit; that every energy, every nerve, was to be taxed to its utmost tension, and that not only every white man, but, if necessary, every black man should be made to contribute to the success of the cause for which the war was inaugurated. Consequently, with the enrollment of the whites began the employment of the blacks.

Prejudice against the negro at the North was so strong that it required the arm of public authority to protect him from assault, though he declared in favor of the Union. Not so at the South, for as early as April, 1861, the free negroes of New Orleans, La., held a public meeting and began the organization of a battalion, with officers of their own race, with the approval of the State government, which commissioned their negro officers. When the Louisiana militia was reviewed, the Native Guards (negro) made up, in part, the first division of the State troops. Elated at the success of being first to place negroes in the field together with white troops, the commanding general sent the news over the wires to the jubilant confederacy:

The population of the city of New Orleans differs materially from that of any other city on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. It has several classes of colored people: the English, French, Portuguese and Spanish,—all a mixture of the African,—and the American Negro,—mulatto,—numerically stronger than either of the others, but socially and politically less considered and privileged; the former enjoyed distinctive rights, somewhat as did the mulattoes in the West Indies before slavery was abolished there. Of these foreign classes many were planters, and not a few merchants, all owning slaves. It was from these classes that the 1,400 colored men, forming the Native Guard regiment, came, and which recruited to 3,000 before the city was captured by the Union fleet. This brigade was placed at the United States Mint building, under command of a creole, who, instead of following the confederate troops out of the city when they evacuated it, allowed his command to be cut off, and surrendered to General Butler.

Of course, prior to this date, the negro at the South had taken an active part in the preparations for war, building breastworks, mounting cannon, digging rifle-pits and entrenchments, to shield and protect his rebelling master.

January 1st, 1861, Hon. J. P. Walker, at Mobile, Ala., received from R. R. Riordan, Esq., of Charleston, S. C., a dispatch rejoicing that—

These doubtless were slaves, and mere machines; but the Charleston Mercury of January 3rd, brought the intelligence that—

Only the fire-eaters based their hope of success against the North,—the National Government,—upon the stubborn energies of the white soldiery; the deliberate men rested their hopes,—based their expectations, more upon the docility of the negro, than upon the audacity of their white troops.

The legislature of Tennessee, which secretly placed that State in the Southern Confederacy, enacted in June, 1861, a law authorizing the governor—

And then it further provided—

A few months after, the Memphis Avalanche, of September 3rd, 1861, exultingly announced the appearance on the streets of Memphis, of two regiments of negroes, under command of confederate officers. On the 7th of September, again the Avalanche said:

Nor were the negroes in Virginia behind those of the other Southern States. In April, the Lynchburg Republican chronicled the enrollment of a company of free negroes in that city, also one at Petersburg.

Thus instead of revolts among the negroes, slaves and free, as predicted by some Union men at the North, many became possessed of a fervor,—originating generally in fear,—stimulated by an enthusiasm of the whites, that swept the populace like a mighty sea current into the channel of war. The negro who boasted the loudest of his desire to fight the Yankees; who showed the greatest anxiety to aid the confederates, was granted the most freedom and received the approval of his master.

The gayly decked cities; the flags, bunting and streamers of all colors; the mounted cavalry; the artillery trains with brazen cannons drawn by sturdy steeds; followed by regiments of infantry in brilliant uniforms, with burnished muskets, glittering bayonets and beautiful plumes; preceeded by brass bands discoursing the ever alluring strains of the quick-step; all these scenes greatly interested and delighted the negro, and it was filling the cup of many with ecstasy to the brim, to be allowed to connect themselves, even in the most menial way, with the demonstrations. There was also an intuitive force that led them, and they unhesitatingly followed, feeling that though they took up arms against the National Government, freedom was the ultimatum. Many of those who enlisted feared to do otherwise than fight for slavery, for to refuse would have invited, perchance, torture if not massacre; to avert which many of the free blacks, as well as some of the slaves, gave an apparent acquiescence to the fervor of their lesser informed comrades, who regarded any remove from the monotony of plantation life a respite.

The readiness with which they responded to the call was only astonishing to those who were unacquainted with the true feelings of the unhappy race whose highest hope of freedom was beyond the pearly gates of the celestial domain. One thing that impressed the blacks greatly was the failure of Denmark Vesy, Nat Turner and John Brown, whose fate was ever held up to them as the fate of all who attempted to free themselves or the slaves. Escape to free land was the only possible relief they saw on earth, and that they realized as an individual venture, far removed from the field-hand South of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.

It was not unnatural, then, for some to spring at the opportunity offered to dig trenches and assist Beauregard in mounting cannon, and loading them with shot and shell to fire upon Fort Sumter.

The negro did not at first realize a fight of any magnitude possible, or that it would result in any possible good to himself. So while the free negroes trembled because they were free, the slaves sought refuge from suspicion of wanting to be free, behind, per se, an enthusiasm springing, not from a desire and hope for the success of the confederates, but from a puerile ambition to enjoy the holiday excitement.

Later on, however, when the war opened in earnest, and the question of the freedom and slavery of the negro entered into the struggle; when extra care was taken to guide him to the rear at night; when after a few thousand Yankee prisoners, taken in battle, had sought and obtained an opportunity of whispering to him the real cause of the war, and the surety of the negroes' freedom if the North was victorious, the slave negro went to the breastworks with no less agility, but with prayers for the success of the Union troops, and a determination to go to the Yankees at the first opportunity; though he risked life in the undertaking. When the breastworks had been built and the heavy guns mounted, when a cordon of earthworks encircled the cities throughout the South, and after a few thousand negroes had made good their escape into the Union lines, then those who had labored upon the fortifications of the South were sent back to the cotton-fields and the plantations to till the soil to supply the needs of the confederate soldiers who were fighting to keep them in bondage. But when the policy of the North was changed and union and liberty were made the issues of the struggle, as against slavery and disunion, and the Union forces began to slay their enemies, the Confederate Government realized the necessity of calling the negroes from the hoe to the musket,—from the plantations to the battle-fields.

In the incipiency of the struggle, many of the States made provision for placing the negro at the disposal of the Confederate Government; but elated at their early victories, the leaders deemed the enforcement of the laws unnecessary, negro troops not being needed. As the change came, however, and defeats, with great losses in various ways depleted the armies, the necessity of the aid of the negroes became apparent. Stronghold after stronghold, city after city, States in part, fell before the march of the Union troops. The negro had become a soldier in the Union army, and was helping to crush the rebellion. President Lincoln had declared all slaves in rebeldom free, and thousands of black soldiers were marching and carrying the news to the slaves.

This state of affairs lead President Davis and his cabinet to resign to the inevitable, as had the North, and to inaugurate the policy of emancipating and arming the slaves, knowing full well that it was sheer folly to expect to recruit their shattered armies from the negro population without giving them their freedom.

It was therefore in the last days of the confederate authorities, and it was their last hope and effort for success. Despair had seized upon them. The army was daily thinned more by desertion than by the bullets of the Union soldiers, while Sherman's march from Atlanta to the sea had awakened the widest alarm. In the winter of 1864 and 1865 the question of arming the slaves was presented as a means of recruiting the depleted and disordered ranks of the army, and it soon assumed an importance that made it an absorbing topic throughout the Confederacy. There was no other source to recruit from. The appeal to foreigners was fruitless. "The blacks had been useful soldiers for the northern army, why should they not be made to fight for their masters?" it was asked. Of course there was the immediate query whether they would fight to keep themselves in slavery. This opened up a subject into which those who discussed it were afraid to look; nevertheless it seemed unavoidable that a black conscription should be attempted, and with that in view, every precaution was taken by those who supported the scheme to avoid heightening the dissensions already too prevalent for good. The newspapers were advised of the intended change of policy, to which not a few of them acquiesced. General Lee was consulted, as the following letter, afterward printed in the Philadelphia Times, shows:

This letter was intended for members of Congress to read, and it was circulated among them, but all was not harmony. Many members were bitterly opposed to arming the slaves, some of them denounced General Lee for writing the letter, and prepared to oppose the measure when it should be introduced into Congress.[41]

At length the period for its introduction arrived. Lee in his attempted invasion of the north made no more careful preparations than did Mr. Davis and his cabinet to carry through Congress the bill enrolling slaves and to emancipate them. Finally the hour was at hand, and amid the mutterings of dissenters, and threats of members to resign their seats if the measure was forced through, the administration began to realize more sensibly its weakness. However, it stood by the carefully drawn bill.

Of course the negro people about the city of Richmond heard of the proposition to arm and emancipate them if they would voluntarily fight for their old masters. They discussed its merits with a sagacity wiser than those who proposed the scheme, and it is safe to say that they concluded, in the language of one who spoke on the matter, "It am too late, de Yankees am coming." There were those among them, however, known as the free class, who stood ever ready to imitate the whites, believing that course to be an evidence of their superiority over the slaves. They were very anxious to enlist.

On February 8th Senator Brown, of Mississippi, introduced a resolution which, if it had been adopted, would have freed 200,000 negroes and put them into the army; but on the next day it was voted down in secret session. Upon this very February 9th, when Senator Brown's resolution was lost, Mr. Benjamin, Secretary of State, addressed a large public meeting at Richmond. He made a very extraordinary speech, setting forth the policy of President Davis and his cabinet. Emissaries of Mr. Davis had just returned from the Peace Conference at Fortress Monroe, where they met representatives of the United States government, and learned that the conditions upon which the Southern States could resume their relations were those which they were compelled to accept finally. During Mr. Benjamin's speech he said:

Mr. Benjamin's speech created an intense excitement among the slave-holders. The situation seemed to have narrowed itself down to a disagreeable alternative. They must either fight themselves or let the slaves fight. Doubtless many would have preferred submission to Lincoln, but then they could not save their slaves. Immediately following Mr. Benjamin's speech on the 11th, a bill was introduced into the House of Representatives authorizing the enlistment of 200,000 slaves, with the consent of their owners. As a test of its strength a motion was made for the rejection of this bill, and the vote not to reject it was more than two to one. There was every indication that the bill would pass. It was while this measure was under discussion that General Lee wrote the letter which follows in answer to one of inquiry from a member of the House:

Meanwhile the measure, to forward which this letter was written, was progressing very slowly. J. B. Jones, clerk of the War Department of the Confederate Government, entered in his diary from day to day such scraps of information as he was able to glean about the progress of this important matter. These entries are significant of the anxiety of this critical time. Under February 14th we find this entry:

So ends the entries on this interesting subject in Mr. Jones' diary. Though the conscientious war clerk ceased to record, the excitement and effort of the advocates of the measure by no means slackened. Grant's cordon around the city drew closer and tighter each day and hour, continually alarming the inhabitants. Governor Smith gave the negro soldier scheme his personal influence and attention. The newspapers began clamoring for conscription. No little effort was made to raise a regiment of free blacks and mulattoes in the latter days of January, and early in February a rendezvous was established at Richmond, and a proclamation was issued by the State authorities. A detail of white officers was made, and enlistment began. The agitation of the subject in Congress, though in secret session, gave some encouragement to the many despairing and heart-sick soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia.[43] Their chief commander, Lee, perhaps dreamed nightly that he commanded 200,000 negro troops en masse, and was driving the Yankees and their Black Phalanx like chaff from off the "sacred soil" of the Old Dominion, but, alas, such a dream was never to be realized.

About twenty negroes,[44] mostly of the free class, enlisted, went into camp, and were uniformed in Confederate gray. These twenty men, three of whom were slaves of Mr. Benjamin, Confederate Secretary of State, were daily marched into the city and drilled by their white officers in the Capitol Square, receiving the approving and congratulatory plaudits of the ladies, who were always present.[45] However, no accessions were gained to their ranks, consequently the scheme, to raise by enlistment a regiment of blacks, was a failure, for the few volunteers secured in Virginia and a company in Tennessee are all that the writer has been able to obtain any account of. The Confederate authorities then sought to strengthen the army by conscripting all able-bodied negroes, free and slave, between the age of eighteen and fifty. Monday, April 3d, was appointed as the day to begin the draft. The Virginia State Legislature had come to the rescue of the Davis-Lee-Benjamin scheme, and so had the local authorities of Richmond, but all was to no purpose. It was too late; they had delayed too long.

With a pitiable blindness to the approach of his downfall, only a few days before he became a fugitive, Jefferson Davis wrote the following letter:[46]

The appointed time came, but instead of the draft, amid blazing roofs and falling walls, smoke and ashes, deafening reports of explosions, the frenzy of women and children, left alone not only by the negro conscripting officers and President Davis and his Cabinet, but by the army and navy; in the midst of such scenes, almost beyond description, the Black Phalanx of the Union army entered the burning city, the capitol of rebeldom, scattering President Lincoln's Proclamation of Emancipation to the intended confederate black army. For twelve squares they chanted their war songs, "The Colored Volunteers" and "John Brown," in the chorus of which thousands of welcoming freed men and freed women joined, making the welkin ring with the refrain,

The decisive events of the next few days, following in rapid succession, culminating with Lee's surrender, on the 9th of April, at Appomattox, left no time for further action, and when the war was over, with the important and radical changes that took place, it was almost forgotten that such projects as arming and freeing the negro had ever been entertained in the South by the Confederate Government.