Union Army Private James (G) Bates enlisted and mustered into Company F 14th Indiana Infantry on 6/7/1861. He was discharged on 10/27/1862. He then enlisted in Battery D, 4th U.S. Light Artillery. The 4th U.S. Light Artillery was part of the 7th Corps, Department of Virginia at that time. The Siege of Suffolk, Virginia was April 11-May 4, 1863. In April, 1863 he wrote his father. His letter was printed in the May 1, 1863 issue of the Winchester, Indiana Journal :

I can assure you [Father,] of a certainty, that the rebels have **** soldiers in their army. One of their best sharp shooters, and the boldest of them all here is a ****. He dug himself a rifle pit last night [16 April 1863] just across the river and has been annoying our pickets opposite him very much to-day. You can see him plain enough with the naked eye, occasionally, to make sure that he is a “wooly-head,” and with a spy-glass there is no mistaking him.
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On March 4-5, 1863, the 85th Indiana fought Confederates at Thompson Station,(or Spring Hill,) Tennessee where they had 8 men killed and 2 wounded. Reporting on the skirmish the Indianapolis Daily Evening Gazette wrote that the 85th reported, During the fight the [artillery] battery in charge of the 85th Indiana [Volunteer Infantry] was attacked by two rebel **** regiments.
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William F. Ruby Enlisted and mustered on 9/18/1861 as a Private into "E" Co. Indiana 10th Infantry. He was promoted to Commissary Sergeant on 3/20/1863. He mustered out 9/19/1864 in Indianapolis. He forwarded a casualty list written in camp at Ringgold, Georgia about 29 November 1863, to William S. Lingle for publication. Ruby's letter was partially reprinted in the Lafayette (Missouri) Daily Courier for 8 December 1863: "Ruby says among the rebel dead in the [Missionary] Ridge he saw a number of Negroes in the Confederate uniform."
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Report of (Union) Colonel Sempronius H. Boyd, Twenty-fourth Missouri Infantry.
GREENVILLE, MO., August 12, 1862.
COLONEL: I went to Van Buren, Carter County, and surprised 6 rebels, killing 2, capturing 3, and running the other one off; burned 1 mill and 3 houses (soldiers did this without orders); contrabanded 7 horses, 1 wagon and team, the driver (a negro) taking to the brush; captured a rebel mail from McBride's camp in Oregon County going to Potosi, Mo. McBride has gone to Batesville to organize, and tells his men he intends taking Greenville very soon. He has 2,000 poorly armed; many without arms. The purport of all the letters tends to this information. We were (that is, myself and orderly) fired upon by 5 butternuts from a hill. No harm done. I arrived to-day.
I am, most respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. H. BOYD,
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War of the Rebellion: Serial 127 Page 1059 CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES.
AN ACT for the payment of musicians in the Army not regularly enlisted.
The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That whenever colored persons are employed as musicians in any regiment or company, they shall be entitled to the same pay now allowed by law to musicians regularly enlisted: Provided, That no such persons shall be so employed except by the consent of the commanding officer of the brigade to which said regiments or companies may belong.
Approved April 15, 1862.
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For those who would say, cooks, laborers, musicians, and teamsters "weren't soldiers," here's what a Union General said in 1864.

"In the fullest sense, any man in the military service who receives pay, whether sworn in or not, is a soldier, because he is subject to military law. Under this general head, laborers, teamsters, sutlers, chaplains, &c. are soldiers. In a more limited sense, a private soldier is a man enlisted in the military service to serve in the cavalry, artillery, or infantry. He is said to be enlisted when he has been examined, his duties of obedience explained to him, and after he has taken the prescribed oath."

General August Kautz's, USA,”Customs of Service, for Non-Commissioned Officers and Soldiers" (1864), page. 11