I see we are discussing the Louisiana Native Guards in another thread and this gives me an opportunity to share a post made by our own contributing author, Dr. Arthur W. Bergeron Jr. over on the Louisiana board. If anybody can speak from a base of knowledge of this he is the man. Among his other landmark works is Black Southerners in Gray: Essays on Afro-Americans in Confederate Armies. Suffice to say also I don't think I've ever read one of his post where I didn't learn something.

Here is the link to the post.

http://history-sites.com/mb/cw/lacwmb/index.cgi?noframes;read=9386