Thanks Edward, great post ! Good info !

"free persons of color," often had nothing in their Confederate service file concerning their race. The revisionists of today who "go postal" at the mention of Blacks in the Confederate ranks, want to quote "official Confederate policy" from Jefferson Davis, Alex Stephens, Judah Benjamin, Hal Cobb, etc. I find that reasoning almost laughable. I don't believe "official Confederate policy" was adhered to in the same way official policy of the Lincoln Administration was. The Confederacy was after all, fighting for States Rights and already in rebellion against one strong central Government :

The often mentioned, Richard, Poplar, Private, (cook) Co.H, 13th Virginia Cavalry, was captured on the retreat from Gettysburg. Spent the remainder of the war at Point Lookout. He was apparently "free-born." There's nothing in his Confederate record to indicate he's a Black man. His burial record on the other hand is plain about his race.

Colored Confederate Seaman, Benjamin Gray was a twelve-year-old youth who enlisted in the C.S. Navy at Wilmington, North Carolina. One of the several ships he served on was the Albermarle. In June 1917, while a resident of Bertie County NC, Gray applied for a Confederate Pension from North Carolina. It was approved the following month. After his death in 1924, his widow, Margaret was granted a pension based upon his service. Nothing is mentioned in either record about their race.

Confederate Private John Hammonds, Co.E 5th ((McKenzie's) east Tennessee Cavalry wrote to "a dear uncle" Feb. 10, 1862 from Knoxville. After speaking of their location and caring for comrades sick with the measles, he mentions a "small chunk of a fight" with the "Lincolnites " two days before. "We killed six of them & taken one prisoner & wounded ten more. Jack Thomas a colored person that belongs to our company killed one of them."
There is a record for a Jackson Thomas in Co.E but no indication of his race. Both men were killed at the Battle of Big Creek Gap in east Tennessee in March, 1863. According to Confederate records both men may have been killed after being wounded and captured.