This however is NOT what Cleburne Oates Hindman and others were discussing. They were talking about the vast numbers of able bodied slaves, that were not being used.
This does not bear on the memorial they were proposing, nor what Johnston and Walker and Vance and endless others, including the congress in Richmond, opposed so vehemently. If the matter was ALREADY IN EFFECT, as you try to suggest why then even offer the proposals, why then the vigorous opposition, why then would Lee plead, and why then would Davis beg the congress to act?
If slaves were already being openly used as armed fighting men, why didn't Cleburne and Hindman simply just find some willing fighters among the local slaves if they wanted more soldiers?
If Cleburne, Oates, and Hindaman were seeking solutions to a manpower shortage in the military, making proposals and trying to solicit support,and angering their fellow officers, for a program that was already in open practice, and that they could have taken advvantage of themselves at any time, were they daft? And if it was already a non-issue what were Johnston and Walker and other military men so angry about? Why all the openly very hostile resistance from the military and legislative leaders,ranging over the period of 1863 to 1865 if it was already common practice?
Was everyone hallucinating?
If Lee was begging and Davis pleading in 1865 for congress to allow and authorize them to do something that was already being done openly, and widely and commonly recognized and practiced, as you try to imply here in these posts, then Lee and Davis would be nothing but fools begging for water in front of a huge lake.