Subject: You Wrote
Date: 6/24/2005 10:58:13 EST
From colonel@37thtexas.org
To: Kevin Levin
You Wrote:
"I am not going to get into a debate about numbers. What is clearly documented in the primary sources
is that some USCT were executed upon surrender.
What is even clearer is the racial animosity expressed
by Confederates, which is not surprising. I argue elsewhere that the presence of black soldiers clarified
for many of Lee's men what was at stake in this war. Armed black men represented the undermining of established racial hierarchies throughout the South
(and even in many parts of the North). This is a
salient fact surrounding this battle." -- Kevin
[Sent to Kevin Levin]
"Unfortunately, you misinterpreted the documentation
as follows which clearly shows that the first incidents
of the murder of USCT were perpetrated by White
Union soldiers who bayoneted retreating USCT to try
to get them to resume the advance:
"George L. Kilmer, an officer of the Fourteenth New York Heavy Artillery, went into the Crater with the first wave and reported afterward that when the USCT moved forward to charge the fort, some of White soldiers refused to follow them. Pandemonium broke out when the Black soldiers could not continue the assault and started to retreat and come back into the Crater. 'Some colored men came into the Crater and there they found a fate worse than death in the charge . . . It has been positively asserted, that White men [Union] bayoneted Blacks who fell back into the Crater.'" - "The Sable Arm." Dudley T. Cornish, New York: Longman, Green & Co., 1956, p 274
There are also other incidents of USCT engaging in organized murder of White Confederate soldiers in Florida and at Ft. Blakelely, Alabama on April 9, 1865, where they shot, bayoneted, and bludgeoned unarmed surrendered Confederate soldiers and shot two of their own White USCT officers who tried to stop them, killing one Union officer and permanently crippling the other.
There were even more incidents of Union forces themselves targeting USCT:
"Sergeant George E. Stephens of Company B described the scene to Captain Emilio: 'Just at the very hottest moment of the struggle, a battalion or regiment charged up to the moat, halted, and did not attempt to join us, but from their position commenced to fire upon us. I was one of the men who shouted from where I stood, 'Don't fire on us. We are the Fifty-fourth.' I have heard it was a Maine Regiment .'" - "A Brave Black Regiment: History of the Fifty-Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry," Luis F. Emilio, Boston: Boston Book Company, 1894; Reprint, Salem: Ayer Company Publishers, Inc., 1990., 93
War is not civilized and there were other documented incidents of White Confederate soldiers murdering surrendered White Union soldiers as well as White Union soldiers murdering surrendered Confederate soldiers and even murdering the slaves they had supposedly come to free. Custer's men hanged a number of Mosby's men without cause or trial in the field and in retaliation Mosby hanged some of Custer's men with the warning that this could be the last incident of the sort or the first of many.
To isolate the incidents of White Confederate soldiers killing USCT while ignoring incidents of White Union soldiers killing USCT, [USCT killing White Confederates], or the murders of White soldiers by White soldiers on both sides presents incidents of USCT being killed by White Confederates as a false and inflammatory image. It makes it appear that such incidents were particular and one-sided when they were part of a much wider pattern perpetrated by both sides.
You also fail to understand that Confederate soldiers served side-by-side with Blacks who operated in the Confederate military not only in support functions, but also as armed Confederate combat soldiers. The evidence of their combat service as contained in the Federal Official Records, Northern newspapers, and the letters and diaries of Union soldiers are so numerous and compelling that the National Park Service has recognized their service undertaken to research those sources and add them to the African-American History Web Project.
Take some time, read, become better informed, and set aside your personal prejudices before you put your foot in your mouth again.
Through painstaking research and thorough, uncommented documentation we celebrate the courage, sacrifice, and heritage of ALL Southerners who had to make agonizing personal choices under impossible circumstances.
"The first law of the historian is that he shall never dare utter an untruth. The second is that he shall suppress nothing that is true. Moreover, there shall be no suspicion of partiality in his writing, or of malice." - Cicero (106-43 B.C.)
We simply ask that all act upon the facts of history. We invite your questions."
Your Obedient Servant,
Colonel Michael Kelley, CSA
Commanding, 37th Texas Cavalry (Terrell's)
"We are a band of brothers!"
"I came here as a friend...let us stand together. Although we differ in color, we should not differ in sentiment." - LT Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, CSA, Memphis Daily Avalanche, July 6, 1875
"Unfortunately, you misinterpreted the documentation..........."
Stonewall Camp United Confederate Veteran
