I have posted many photos of Confederates on this board. I cannot at this time because that option is not available anymore. One photo is of Brig. Gen. Slaughter and staff taken in Mobile, Alabama. In the photo are nine Confederate officers and four black soldiers in regulation Confederate uniform. Another photograph I have posted is of the Charleston Zouave Cadets at Castle Pickney, South Carolina; in the photograph are eighteen men in line, at the ready, first rank knealing, Lt. R. C. Gilchrist commanding,; standing behind the officer on the extreme right are two uniformed black soldiers. Another photo I have not posted here is of Colonel J. H. Trapier's Mortar Battery, Morris Island, South Carolina. The men are all gathered in front of a tent; twenty-five men, without coats or jackets, front row lying down, second row sitting, third row standing. In the front row lying down is a black gentleman wearing a clean white shirt and vest.
"Gen. Cleburne tried to get Jeff Davis to draft the Blacks into the CS army & was shot down
big time"
Not in the public view. The majority of Southerners backed Cleburne. Newpapers around the South published his type of views and those of other Southerners calling for conscripting blacks into the Confederate Army. For this majority the goal was winning independence not saving the institution of slavery. Unfortunitly the powers in Richmond were for saving the institution of slavery and independence until public opinion and the direction of the war forced them to rethink their goals, but it was too late.
"Fort Pillow????"
Fort Pillow was manned by both black and white Union troops who together suffered from the effects of very poor leadership and the rage of the Confederates attacking them. Also the slaughter at Fort Pillow does not mean that Confederate Generals and even General Forrest were against arming blacks for their own purposes. The documented proof is too strong against the false belief that the Confederates did not arm blacks. Forrest never bluffed and Fort Pillow was not the only garrison Forrest declaired 'surrender or be put to the sword' ultimatums. He did so to all white garrisons as well.
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David Upton