I am wrong....
It was as early as the summer of 1861 when official request to raise slave regiments occured. In July of 1861 W. S. Turner of Arkansas asked permission to raise a black regiment and was turned down by the Confederate Bureau of War, and General Richard S. Ewell requisted enlisting slaves into the Confederate Army and was rebuked by President Davis. "Confederate Emacipation" , by Bruce Levine.
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David Upton