I have found newspaper adds for blacks being wanted to help with Laundry, Cooking, Wagon drivers, etc for Clarksville, Texas for help in local regiments. I am assuming that these adds were for the slaveholders and NOT the indivudual blacks as there were only 2 listed in the 1860 census for Red River County as being free. I do NOT know if these blacks were promised their freedom if they joined the units? The blacks listed for Company D. of the 23rd Regiment of Cavalry were as follows: Austin, Colored Cook; Ben, Colored Cook; Hall, Colored Cook; Jack, Colored Cook; Frank, Colored Cook. "Ben" was the personal servant of Lt. Sims and upon Sims urging to escape did so directly after the surrender at Fort Donleson and made his way back to Texas. "Haywood Goodloe" was black but NOT listed in the Company roster of Company D. However, "Haywood" was the personal servant of John J. Goodloe. John J. Goodloe was taken to Camp Douglas, IL after Donelson and he could have given "Haywood" his freedom upon knowing they were to be split up because Haywood would be taken to Camp Chase. Likewise "Walter" was NOT listed in the regimental roster of Company D. yet he was the personal servant of Sgt. John L. Jamison. Jamison would also be taken to Douglas and Walter to Camp Chase.
I know that two of the very first men to die at Chase that were taken from Ft. Donelson were two black men listed as "Free and Black" Their names were "Haywood and Walter" According to some Camp Chase records Lt. R.G. Lane who was also a (Dr.) looked after the two blacks before they died at Chase. 2nd Lt. Sims and L.L. Bailey acted as nurses for the two blacks before their death. At that time there were about 75 blacks at the Camp Chase Prison while some Southern Officers were paroled within the city limits of Columbus, Ohio. The Fort Donelson prisoners were arrive at Chase at the beginning of March 1862. By April of 1862 the blacks at Chase would be paroled. Also by April the officers at Chase would be transferred to Johnson's Island unless they were high field grade officers then they were sent to Fort Warren, MA.
However, before the parole of blacks in April four of them would did at Chase. I may have located two of the four blacks graves in Central Ohio? Time may tell. I still do NOT understand how these soldiers and men of Clarksville, Texas ended up at Fort Donelson with Forrest? I may have to go through 30 CMSR's to find the answer.