"Black CS Company in Montgomery? By:Jim Huffman
Date: Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 2:47 am

On or about March 28, 1865, Capt. George P. Ring of Co. K (the "Violet Guards"), 6th LA Infantry, while on detached service at Montgomery, AL (while the rest of the 6th LA was in VA), received authority from the CS War Dept. to raise a company of Black troops. Ring's wife was from Montgomery, and a letter from LA CS Sen. Thomas Semmes endorsing the plan said that Ring had every chance of success in raising such a company. Does anyone have any documentation regarding whether this company was actually ever formed, in whole or in part, before things fell apart in Alabama? Thanks in advance! -- Jim Huffman, Violet Guards, Co. K, 6th LA Inf."

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I moved this here because of the subject matter.

Although the possibility is highly unlikely that a company was formed and drilled in Montgomery in time to fight in the Battle of Selma, I have found two references to a organized Confederate Black unit(s?) at the Battle of Selma, Ala. One is in a work by the welknown Mississippi historian F.L. Riley, "Baptist in Alabama" written at the turn of the 20th Century. I have NOT found an original copy of either of the references but they state that Black Confederates resisted Wilson's Union forces at Selma, until forced to surrender. Riley states that Wilson then took these Blacks with him on the rest of his expedition through Alabama. I know that there were nearly 300 Black workers employed at the Selma Navy Yard, they may have been the source of the organized unit...I don't know.

Has anyone else found such a reference?

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David Upton