NamSouth

[btownsend]

(My reply to someone questioning the existence of Black Confederates. BT)

"Blacks in the Confederate Army. Looking for help!"

From: brocktownsend@gmail.com

Two comments concerning Mr. Dickson's article and Mr. Griffith's reply:

1. Mr. Dickson wrote "Out of about 10,000 prisoners fewer than 30 were African-Americans."

The Appomattox Roster is fraught with errors. I shall deal with only C Company of the 53rd NC as pertaining to blacks.

My Great, Grandfather Private John Pelopidus Leach wrote:

"Needham and Jack, faithful and devoted servants of my Brother Geo. T. Leach who then commanded my company, and Capt. Richardson who was captured at Fort Stedman, informed of the surrender, came to the front in search of my Brother and myself. They awoke me and gave me the first information I had of Lee's army, which I did not believe, until returning with them past the courthouse to the bivouac of the remnant of my company I saw the open field about the village full of straggling men, moving in aimless fashion, artillery, ambulances and wagons gathering in parks, many men crying, some cursing and all in pitiful distress."

"My command stacked arms in front of the victorious federals on the 10th of April, with one lieutenant, nine white men--all with guns-- and two Negro servants, Needham Leach of Chatham and Jack Richardson of Johnston County." (The Lieutenant was my great Uncle, George Thomas Leach)

"I with Needham, a Negro servant, as my only companion turned south to my home, Pittsboro, NC, passed through Chapel Hill and the Federal brigade of Gen. Atkins stationed there.

At Byrnums Mill on the Haw River, Needham and I were rowed across the stream in a bateau carrying the family servant of Maj. London, Sr. returning home with a bag of corn meal which he carried on the back of a mule."

The Appomattox Roster did not list either Needham or Jack......So, in only one company of twelve men, they missed the two black servants. A mistake? I doubt it seriously. As Mr. Griffith states: "the Union army might not be the best source on black Confederate soldiers." Did these men actually fight with weapons? No one knows for sure, but that is completely irrelevant, as the varied roles they played would have MOSs in today's army.

2. Mr. Griffith wrote: "In the South, black mamas nursed white babies."

They certainly did and this was done long pass the end of the War. One of Private Leach's granddaughters was my Mother. I have two pictures taken in 1907 upon the birth of this child, Ellen Douglas Pippen. One picture shows her Grandfather holding her and the other picture shows her Mammy "Aunt" Emily holding her. You can see the love shining in the eyes and face of "Aunt" Emily as she looks down upon the child. "Aunt" Emily nursed my mother.

When Private Leach died in 1914, there was a monument erected to him in Littleton, NC depicting two hands shaking (one black and one white) with the words "This Is What He Meant, All Men Up. Erected By His Colored Friends"

Nope, we don't have to "pretend that the Confederates were multiculturalists and race-mixers." No pretending needed here. Just ask my black "Aunt" Dixie or my black "Cousin" Dixie.

Brock Townsend

"Anyone related to or descended from the men who signed the Appomattox Roster can feel proud, for these were the soldiers who stuck by their guns to the last. When they laid down their arms, the Army of Northern Virginia was no more. Yet it still marches in song and legend worthy to rank upon the greatest names in military history. It's troops would have been at home with Caesar's legions or Napoleon's Grande Armee. Like those hardy veterans, its men merely had to say that they had fought with General Lee in the Army of Northern Virginia to command respect from military men and civilians alike."

Philip Van Doren Stern
The Southern Historical Society Papers