Didn't professor Levine do a reasonable job of naming different sources? Starting with Jefferson Davis and continuing to Secretary of War James A. Seddon, Secretary of Treasury Judah P. Benjamin, General Joseph E. Johnston. The most explict was this --

Major George Campbell Brown, General Ewell's son-in-law, "The small body of black soldiers raised in Richmond in the weeks before defeat were the first and only black troops raised on our side." Is there any question about what is meant here?

If blacks and FMoC were freely being enrolled in Confederate service, what was General Cleburne attempting to accomplish in January 1864?

Again, if If blacks and FMoC were freely being enrolled in Confederate service, why did Captain Oates go to Richmond in February 1863 in an attempt to pursuade his Congressman to have blacks and FMoC enrolled in combat units? BTW why would a Confederate field officer who lost his arm in service of his country and persistently advocated the use of black troops in the Confederate army be treated with such disrespect by advocates of Black Confederate myth?

Why would Confederate regiments like the 49th Georgia Regiment petition the War Department to allow blacks to be enrolled in their ranks? The 15th Alabama Regiment and others did the same thing. If blacks were already being enrolled, what was the purpose of these petitions?

You and I just exchanged notes about the correspondence between Secretary of War Seddon and General Dabney H. Maury on the topic of enrolling 'mixed blood' Creoles in a single company at Mobile (Levine mistakes this unit as a regiment - it was only a company). Was this exchange unclear about no one having a degree of Negro blood being admitted into an armed branch of service?

Why we should cast these and other statements aside? What is unclear or uncertain about the statement, "first and only black troops?"