Bob --

The State of Tennessee kept a seperate set of Confederate pension applications identified as 'colored' for men who were free blacks or slaves during the war. We also have POW reports and receipt lists for rations and firewood which list servants in a seperate column. Rolls for 1861 and even 1862 often list two or three servants per company roll.

Another factor mentioned in Power's Lee's Miserables concerned rations issued to the troops. Officers and men who took servants into the army with them had to provide food out of their own rations. Army regulations which forced cutbacks in rations obliged some Confederates to send servants home.

http://uncpress.unc.edu/FMPro?-db=pubtest.fmp&-format=a-reviews.html&-recid=32890&-find=

As you probably know, the law of Feb. 17, 1864, conscripted free blacks for the first time. These men were assigned to military support services such as quartermaster, commissary, engineer and medical departments. The Official Records series which includes Conscript Bureau activities lists free blacks conscripted in different areas.

However, I'm not familiar with military companies formed of free blacks or slaves prior to 1865. Can you identify any one of these in Confederate service at any time from 1861 to 1864?