Based on your prerequisites that the Confederate government “openly recognize, willingly arm and pay” them, Black Texas Confederates were definitely not soldiers. I am not going to try to convince you otherwise. Based on your criteria it would be ludicrous to try to argue.

I am not trying to reinvent or reinterpret history I am just trying to report the facts. Blacks did serve in the Confederacy. Usually they served in a support rather than a combative role. It is this fact that I am trying to expose and publicize.

Most people, white and black, in their pensions say they were present at a given battle but do not elaborate on their participation. More research needs to be done on this one but I think you may find it interesting. All I have at this time is James Cape’s interview to substantiate his story. His says he was actually fighting which is unusual in my research findings.

James Cape was interviewed by a WPA reporter in the 1930’s. His master, Bob Houston, who was a private in the 4th Texas Cavalry Co B and also the 8th Texas Cavalry Co G (Terry’s Rangers) approached him and asked if he wanted to go to war. Cape asked what he had to do. Houston replied, he just had tend horses and ride. Cape said he was young then and it sounded like fun.

Cape continued saying after he was in the Army it was not so much fun. He said tending horses and riding them was not all he had to do. He said he had to “do some shootin’ and get shooted at”. One time, he said, they stopped a train and took all the Yankee money and a lot of other things.

He said he was in a Battle at Independence which lasted three days and nights. He says they gave him a rifle and had him fight when they were not running. He said he was wounded in the shoulder in that battle and they lost a lot of soldiers and their supplies. To me this sounds like Liberty, in the Tullahoma (TN) Campaign of April 1863 rather than Independence MO of 1862 or 1864.

I work in a genealogical library. When I suggest Blacks investigate the possibility their ancestor might have served in the Civil War they think I am crazy. They want to know the plantation their ancestor lived on but they refuse to believe their ancestor might have been a Free Person of Color and they surely refuse to believe their ancestor might have served in the Confederacy. Things like Blacks serving in the Confederacy that do not fit the stereotype down in the “hood” and it is difficult to get people to broaden their minds. My hope is my two projects help to make Blacks aware of the contribution African Americans gave the South.

Here is one that may blow your hat off. I was looking at a pension the other day and saw one for a man who is one of the people on my Free People of Color of Texas list. I need to review my FPC research but the man or at least his members of his family were slave holders.

There were Black FPC soldiers in South Carolina and other states and some of them were slave owners. It may be I am about to document at least one in Texas. This man appears on a roster of soldiers. I will be checking my FPC research to see if other Texas FPC who might have served in the Civil War.

Thanks,
Mic mic@micbarnette.com