I'd like to make a few last comments on the subject of Black Confederates and then I am going to let it rest. I've seen veins bulge and extensive research submitted. I've seen tempers flair and have even expected some name calling but luckily non of us went to such low tactics. I witnessed well documented websites discredited as trying to glorify the Southern soldier or his cause.

I'd just like to thank Jim and Jamie for allowing all of us this forum to express our views and opinions. I've learned a lot and feel like I have made some friends and of course an enemy or two while visiting and posting on this board. But we still endeavour to be ladies and gentlemen in our posts and usually show a great deal of respect and and intellectual stimulation on these posts. I know all of us are not degreed college graduates and all of us are not racist bumpkins trying to provoke or instigate a confrontation.

But back to the subject that we were discussing it seemed that the postings and their accepted credibility were very one sided. Craig, you came off very strong minded and had lots of quoted references that I'm sure you expected would be taken as the gospel truth. Then when others including myself offered quoted references on the topic you seemed to blow them off as speculation with the questions of "when were these statements made, in what context", etc. David Upton challenged you constantly and supplied reference to his statements but you always wanted to twist his posts to suit your ideas. I even quoted a report by Dr. Lewis Steiner, Chief Inspector of the United States Sanitary Commission on his report of 3000 Black soldiers in Jackson's ranks in Frederick Maryland in 1862. I also referenced Frederick Douglas' remarks on the Black Confederate soldier which you also held as suspect or tried to quantify it. Your constant postings and feeding back a poster's words seemed to get you mired deeper into a quagmire that you couldn't support or get out of. The fact is that Blacks did freely participate with the Confederate military not only as cooks, blacksmiths, teamsters, "ditch diggers" and personal aides but as legitimate rifle toting combat soldiers. Their service is documented in reports, diaries, and letters home. And does a support person in the military not qualify him as a soldier? If not then there are a lot of folks out there today that cook, clean, do I.T. work, run errands and generally pitch in in a non combat role that evidently don't count. Does that make them less of a soldier? I think not. For without them there would not be a boot on the ground that could successfully do his or her job.

I offer this as a last thought. Once the first shot of the WBTS was fired and the first soldier became a casualty do you think the loud voices in Washington or Richmond carried much importance with the man in the mud with a rifle and an enemy shooting at him ? I doubt it. It became an issue of survival. An issue of tactics and manuevers. It became a deadly game of who could kill without being killed. Who could gain the most ground and recon the most information. It became a deadly game of supply, resupply, and attrition. It became an issue of pride in one's unit, his pards, his NCOs and his Command Structure. This was an extremely ugly and difficult time in our country. Brother fought brother, families nurtured the wounded of the enemy. People "manned up" and did what was neccessary to survive. This war often called a civil war was NOT civil either in actions or in it's technical definition. It was just war. Dead, dieing, sickness, starvation, and every deprivation known to people of the era. It was said that this conflict would open wounds that would last a hundred generations. It has. Maybe we should be careful not to bask in the violence of the evil of the time and in the supposed grandeur of the war.

In closing I'll make one more point. In today's America who is our most feared enemy? I would have to say that it those very people that we elect to represent us in Washington. I think that was the reason for the separation of states and the call to arms. The people of the South saw an evil lurking in Washington and wanted no part of it. They exercised their given right to dissolve themselves from it. And when invaded and attacked for their actions they..............

- Not for fame or reward -
- Not for place or for rank -
- Not lured by ambition -
- Or goaded by necessity -
- But in simple -
- Obedience to duty -
- As they understood it
- These men suffered all -
- Sacrificed All -
- Dared all - And Died -

The Arlington National Cemetery Monument
to The Confederate Soldier

Deo Vindice,
Keith