Again, great material for this topic. Summary elements from the testimony by Mr Gibbons worth discussing --

• Much anti-Confederate sentiment prevailed immediately after the war. This is almost certainly true if the interrogator was a Yankee or scalawag. In that case, any testimony supportive of the Confederate cause would have been unwelcome. The only acceptable answer Mr Gibbons could give was that he and other free men of color were coerced into joining the LNG.


• In any case, Gibbons directly contradicts General Lewis's assertion that the LNG would have fought if given an opportunity.


• General Butler's statement in November 1862 concerning the LNG contains no suggestion that members were ever obliged to join at bayonet point. In fact Butler's statement reads as if free men of color in New Orleans were available to serve no matter who controlled the City of New Orleans. Do you read Butler that way?


• Confederate service means as a member of a volunteer militia command under General Lovell's authority. We understand the relationship of the militia to Confederate authority by testimony at Lovell's court martial hearings and correspondence concerning the capture of New Orleans.


• Gibbons sets his actual period of service at two weeks. Given Governor Moore's appeal to free men of color in New Orleans during the last week of March 1862, we might have expected three or even four weeks service under Confederate authority, If we take Gibbons at face value, Capt Jourdan's LNG company was under Confederate control from April 12-25, 1862.


• Any chance we'll see this statement on a Black Confederate website?