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Re: Louisiana Native Guards

There is a lot of disinformation about this unit but I have found most of it comes from sources that are, shall we say, "anti-South"-

Negro Troops in Blue and Gray: The Louisiana Native Guards, 1861-1863
by Mary Frances Berry (Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania)

[Situation: The Federals have captured New Orleans and General Benjamin Butler is installed as military commander of the city. A few months into his administration he meets with some members of the former Confederate Native Guard:]

"...Butler indicated that when he asked the colored officers why they served with the Confederacy they said, 'We were ordered out and dared not refuse, for those who did so were killed and their property confiscated.'...14"

14 Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, pt. 3:367 [357; Butler's testimony is p.353-364]; Parton, Butler in New Orleans, 516-17.

~~~

"We were ordered out and dared not refuse, for those who did so >> were killed and their property confiscated.<<"

This is a misquote.

The actual quote is (on page 357):

"They said they had been ordered out, and could not refuse; but that the rebels had never trusted them with arms. They had been drilled in company drill."

The phrase "were killed and their property confiscated" does not appear anywhere in Butler's testimony...
...nor is it in Parton's "Butler in New Orleans."

Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, pt. 3, Butler- p.353-364
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llss&fileName=1100/1154/llss1154.db&recNum=10

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