"Would the conscripted slaves have fought well, with eventual freedom as their reward"
Bryan,
I think they would have contributed much to the southern cause. In my opinion part of the problem that the south had during this time was what I call "ingrown eyeballs". There was so much "states rightism" in the southern states that it is a wonder that Davis did not have ulcers. He had to put up with Vance from NC and Brown in Ga and Milton in Florida to name a few and then there was Vice Presisdent Stevens who spent most of that period in Georgia in bed with both real afflictions and his hypocondria. Lee needed men and when he asked Davis and Davis asked the states to send him men from their states they would not. I seem to remember reading somewhere that Lee put the question to his troops, did they want black men helping and I think if I remember right they were aminable to that. I have been reading a book on Grant and Sherman and according to letters that Grant wrote, he thot the black troops did quite well and seemed to have more discipline that many of his whites. On the other hand, Sherman never trusted the blacks and in his letters to his wife he was very vocal about them. Here you have two men who can work hand in glove with each other but are very far apart on the idea of blacks. As you know Sherman spent a lot of time in the south early in his military career and perhaps he was affected by that or perhaps he just had that same prejudice that permeated the entire country when it came to blacks. We had that for a 100 years after the hostilities ceased and in some ways or maybe many ways we still have it. In my opinion.
Frank