"Witness [John L. Lewis]---They were with us. I myself reviewed a regiment of colored men in the city of New Orleans [November 23, 1861], and they were ready to fight for us if we had brought them into requisition."

AP-
"Second, this important exchange establishes that the LNG had never been called into active service."

You make a leap here. Lewis does not say that they were -never- brought into requisition.