Confederate Minorities

By: Josef Nix

The Confederate States of America in many aspects was the most enlightened and progressive society of its time, its minority and women’s policies barrier-breaking in some areas which are as yet unmatched in the unified republic. When placed against contemporary Union policies, the Confederates come out with a much better image. 

AFRICAN AMERICANS

Though the Southern War of Independence has come to be viewed by many as a war over slavery, the fact remains that at the time Union forces were confiscating as contraband of war and marketing those slaves who fled to their lines, the Corps d’Afrique and the Native Guards were mustered into the Confederate forces with equal pay and were commanded by African American officers. During the Confederate retreat from New Orleans, these units volunteered to stay behind and keep the peace until the occupation forces arrived. These were the first African American units commissioned in a North American armed force. Their incorporation into the Union armed forces during pacification was not entirely willingly and their memoirs make for interesting reading. Many fled to France during the French exodus of the Reconstruction period.

At the Johnson Island POW camp in Ohio where the proportionate death rate from disease, starvation, mistreatment and random acts of violence was considerably higher than Andersonville, African Confederates who refused to be disloyal had their rations cut off and survived only through their white compatriots’ sharing of their own meager and substandard rations.

At the outset of the war, Nathan Bedford Forrest sought by example to implement the Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin’s proposal to free any slave and their families who would fight for the Confederacy. Forest freed more than 40 men who rode with him throughout the war, among them the man Forrest credits with being the strategist brains behind his still-studied guerrilla tactics.

African Confederates served with notable distinction in several Civil War battles, their services at Seven Pines gaining coverage in the international press accounts remarking on their skill and courage, a recognition which did not go unnoticed in the Washington government. The more conservative estimates place the number of African Confederate servicemen at around 80,000. Professor Ervin L. Jordan’s study, Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia (University of Virginia Press, 1995), documents a considerable number of interesting cases and acknowledges the difficulties faced by African Confederate veterans in securing veteran status.

The role of the African Confederates was not forgotten by the Confederate veterans. An interesting “bit of trivia” is that the first casualty in the War Between the States was Heyward Shepherd, the free black baggage master at the Harper’s Ferry depot, who was shot in the back by Brown’s raiders as he went to raise the alarm. A monument to him was erected jointly in 1931 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of the Confederate Veterans. The Confederate cemetery in Canton, Mississippi has long been anchored by a monument to the slaves who fell in defense of the town against Sherman. When Confederate Veteran sculptor Sir Moses Ezequiel included African Confederate soldiers and civilians on his monuments it was done purposefully and statedly because, according to Ezequiel, there would come a day when their sacrifices would be denied by those writing the history of the period.

Perhaps most significant is that the Confederate constitution contained a prohibition against the foreign slave trade, a prohibition struck out of the document adopted by the federal union and which is of significance today as the United States confronts the trade in human chattel between Sudan and certain Middle Eastern nations and targeting the sub-Saharan Christians and animists.

Union policies toward people of color were unquestionably ambivalent. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation only after England made it clear that, did he not, England would recognize the Confederate government, citing the Union occupation policies toward women, Catholics, Jews, Creole French and foreign nationals in the South. Significantly, even when the proclamation was issued it freed only the slaves of territories in rebellion, leaving those under Union control in chains.

WOMEN

The Confederate woman has achieved an iconic character-type renown both at home an abroad, but the comfortable stereotype misses in bringing across the realities which produced it. The colorful “chamber pot rebellion” or the more melancholy bataille des mouchoirs fit nicely into the misty, romanticized version of the story along with the image of the steel magnolia facing an invading army and bowing coolly from the front porch. Yet, the other side of the Confederate woman was by no means so traditionally feminine.

The first American woman to be held prisoner of war was Eugenia Yates Levy Phillips. The first American woman to die while in the dispatch of her duties in the diplomatic service of her country was Rose O’Neal Greenhow. The first American woman to receive congressional recognition for bravery on the field of battle was Loreta Janeta Velázquez . The first American woman to be a fully commissioned officer, first to be given a full veteran’s pension and the first to be buried with full military honors in a military cemetery was Cpt. Sally Louisa Thomkins. The first women to be mustered into military service and the first to fight as front-line soldiers were the women of the Nancy Hart Brigade of LaGrange, Georgia.

Eugenia Phillips and Rose O’Neal Greenhow shared the distinction of being the first women held political prisoners. Taken along with two of Mrs. Phillips’ daughters following the Union debacle at First Manassas, the arrests of Mrs. Phillips and Mrs. Greenhow were in response to the women’s reputation with the diplomatic corps as being the best informed Americans on matters of military deployment, both having sat in Buchanan’s “kitchen cabinet.” Mrs. Greenhow was credited by General Beauregard for the victory at Manassas for which she received congressional recognition. Mrs. Phillips, following her first release and deportation South, was sent with last-minute instructions to Ambassadors Slidell and Mason, meeting with them the night before their ill-fated voyage. Mrs. Greenhow was later sent by the Richmond government to London to shore up relations with England and was drowned while attempting to run the blockade on her return trip home. Mrs. Phillips was taken prisoner a second time following the occupation of New Orleans and was held under most punitive conditions on Ship Island, known as “the Devil’s Island of the North.” Mrs. Phillips release came under international pressure on the Washington government.

Mathilda Deslondes Slidell played a key role in securing the Erlanger loan courtesy her contacts made in her business dealings which had made her perhaps the wealthiest woman in America prior to the outbreak of hostilities.

Loreta Janeta Velázquez entered the Confederate Army in male mufti and was recognized by congress in that guise, but when discovered to be a woman (quite the story in itself), the recognition was not rescinded. Mrs. Velázquez has been further credited with engineering the land defenses of Mobile, defenses which were effective up to the last days of the war. She also acted as an espionage and intelligence operative in the North, on more than one occasion of personal encounter outwitting the head of the Secret Service, Lafayette Baker, “the American Fouché,”

Cpt. Sallie Thomkins was director of the Robertson hospital which, under her stringent sanitary regime, had the highest survival rate of any military hospital, north or south, for which she was recognized by Florence Nightengale following the war. The matron of nursing at Chimborazo, Phoebe Yates Levy Pember, Mrs. Phillips’ sister, was honored in the 1990s by a Civil War commemorative stamp recognizing her work in implementing Cpt. Thomkins’ methods at what was then the largest hospital in the world.

Adah Isaacs Mencken, the best-known American actress of the day as well as a poet of note who counted among her friends and admirers Alexandre Dumas, Charles Swinburne, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Bret Hart, Charles Dickens and Emperor Napoleon III, she served as an espionage agent and Confederate publicist both in the North and in Europe.

While Belle Boyd, Emma Sansom and Nancy Hart emerged as prototypes of the Confederate woman of action, they were joined by a wide range of women of all castes and classes in their dedication to the defense of the homeland, mostly nameless women who, like the Roswell and New Manchester factory workers forcibly deported under inhumane conditions, paid high prices for their patriotism.

CATHOLICS

Confederate Catholics, a small minority outside of Louisiana and Maryland, achieved high prominence. Three members of Jefferson Davis’ cabinet were Catholic. Father Abraham Ryan, the idolized poet-priest of the Confederacy, was considered one of the most able men of letters in the country. General Patrick Cleland was recognized then and now as the embodiment of the military man of integrity and honor. Rose O’Neal Greenhow was Catholic and it was under her instructions that Ambassador de León negotiated with the Vatican, bringing the CSA as close as it was ever able to come to diplomatic recognition, the Pope addressing his correspondence to President Jefferson Davis.

The Know Nothing origins of the Republican Party made the Catholics, north and south, a “suspect” group and Catholics were targeted for especially punitive actions both during the war and pacification. That several of the John Wilkes Booth conspirators were Catholic was at issue at the time of the trials and a strong case has been made that Mary Surratt’s fate as the first American woman executed for political reasons was influenced by the anti-Catholic sentiments of her prosecutors.

FOREIGN BORN AND CREOLES

The nativism of the Anglo-Protestant Know Nothing element of the Republican Party also influenced the treatment of the foreign-born population of the Confederacy, an element whose roster of contributions ranged from General Cleland to the military strategists Col. Hypolite Oldowski and Maj. Heros von Brocke to the common foot soldiers. The countries of origin of Confederate soldiers include such far-flung places as Turkey, Egypt, India, China and most Latin American and European nations. The anti-foreign sentiment is now recognized as the modus operandi of the rationale behind the execution of Henry Wirz, the Swiss-born commandant at Andersonville and the first Confederate to be honored by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

This Anglo-American exclusionism was reflected in the harsh anti-French policies of the federals. Just how stringent and how effective these policies were is evidenced in the de-Gallicization of the conquered territories. In 1860, fully half of the total population of the Confederacy spoke French as either the first or second language of daily discourse and half of the reading material consumed, both domestic and imported, was printed in French with such out-of-the-way places as Franklin, North Carolina supporting French language weekly papers. By 1968 the 4.5 million French speakers had been reduced to less than 300,000 and French language publication had all but disappeared. Thousands left for France, deciding against the example set by General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard. Their number included almost the entire educated elite of the gens de couleur, among them poets, dramatists, doctors, financiers and legal scholars of international reputation, the core from which the African American leadership would have emerged.

JEWS

The Know Nothing philosophical element exhibited much the same attitude toward the children of the original Abraham as it did toward other “aliens.” Less than 50,000 Jews lived in the Confederacy, yet their contributions and acceptance continued a long list of Jewish “firsts” in not only the United States but all of Western society. The Jews would also suffer at the hands of the Union the worst outbreaks of anti-Semitism yet witnessed in North America.

Judah Philip Benjamin, known abroad as “the most brilliant mind in America” by his European contemporaries and to American history as “the brains of the Confederacy,” served as Attorney General, Secretary of War and Secretary of State. It would be 1968 and the appointment of Henry Kissinger before another Jew would reach so high a position in the United States. Quartermaster General Myer was considered at home and abroad as being one of the most able men of the Confederacy. Senator David Levy Yulee represented Florida. Hyams served as Attorney General in Louisiana. Edwin de León was the diplomat sent by the Richmond government to the Vatican and to the Ottoman court. Benjamin Mordacai, one of the wealthiest men in America, donated his entire fortune to the widows and orphans fund after having equipped a unit of South Carolinians. David López is credited with pioneering torpedo boat warfare. In Arkansas, with only 300 Jews, 53 served in the Confederate forces and Jonas Levy served as mayor of Little Rock throughout the war. Rosanna Osterman is credited with providing the intelligence to Rafael Semmes which brought about the liberation of Galveston. Nashville’s noted architect, Adolphus Heiman, devoted his considerable talents to the construction of defense installations in the Tennessee Valley and it was for him that Ft. Heiman was named. In Memphis Rabbi Jacob Peres led his entire class from his secular school into military service. Eugenia Phillips, Phoebe Pember and Adah Isaacs Mencken were all Jewish.

At the time the federal congress was refusing to commission rabbis as chaplains, the Confederate chaplaincy was opened with no protest and Richmond’s Rabbi Michelbacher was invited to deliver the invocation in the Confederate congress.

Jews were singled out for particularly vicious attack by the politically appointed generals of the Union. General Grant’s infamous General Order #11, deporting “Jews as a class” within 24 hours from the Department of the Tennessee, was joined by General Hurlburt’s Order #162 and by Generals Butler’s and Banks’ forced deportation of 7/8 of the New Orleans Jewish community, among them the internationally recognized rabbinical scholar, Rabbi James K. Gutheim. As late as 1864, General Butler was listing Jews with swine as “seized contraband.” Lafayette Baker had Simon Wolfe, the most able spokesman for Northern Jews, arrested and charged him with being a member of the B’nai B’rith “with its organization in the South!” In Memphis General Hurlburt preferred to arrest his Jewish suspects while they attended services, preferably when called to the bima.

Parson William G. Brownlow, later appointed reconstructionist governor of Tennessee, gained his reputation as an anti-semitic rabble rouser touring the North and trumpeting the “Jewish conspiracy” to packed houses and his books, pamphlets and newspaper articles were widely distributed. Andrew Johnson referred to Senator Yulee as a “contemptible Jew” and reserved a special anti-Jewish venom for Benjamin.

When Confederate congressman Foote demanded an investigation into alleged war profiteering by Jews, the community was exhonorated and received public apology from the legislative body. Foote was expelled from

congress and went North where he joined the Brownlow crusade. He later served in the reconstructionist federal congress.

Kahl Montgomery, now Beth Or, was the only Jewish congregation chartered during the Civil War and present at the first services were many of the most prominent citizens of Alabama. Perhaps one of the more interesting bits of trivia is that of Pvt. Isaac Gleitzman who rode with Forrest and who kept kosher throughout the war, keeping one mess kit for meat and one for dairy.

It is of note that following the war the Slidell’s daughter married a scion of the Erlanger family. Bertha Ochs was a founding member and considered the driving force behind the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Sir Moses Ezequiel’s name would become associated with the Confederate memorial monuments.

HISPANICS

Hispanics in the unified republic have yet to attain the levels enjoyed by Spanish-surnamed and Spanish-speaking Confederates. The tejano regiments were the first units of Hispanics to serve in the American military and the last unit to surrender was that of Col. Benítez. Names such as Gálvez, García, González, de León, López and Ménez pepper the Confederate veterans’ lists.

Spanish heritage Confederates made outstanding contributions in many other arenas. They were highly prominent in the diplomatic corps. The sheer survival of the Confederacy depended on the Caribbean ports remaining open and the Brownsville-Matamoros supply line and the port of Havana were fundamental to blockade running. Those with blood or business ties in those areas were in great demand and held in high regard, contributing beyond their proportional numbers to all levels of Confederate society. Yet these policies were not entirely self-serving. At the time the Washington government was telling the Mexican resistance to the French occupation that the Monroe Doctrine would have to wait until the war was over, the José Quintero mission to Nuevo León brought recognition and badly needed material resources when these latter were in short supply at home.

Many of their outstanding won distinction in other minority categories, but certainly will be recognized immediately as Spanish-speaking and Spanish-surnamed, unlike the Union’s token Hispanic, Admiral Farragut who, incidentally, was Southern born and bred and whose naval success in Mobile Bay was checked by the land defenses of Loreta Janeta Velázquez and whose famous “damn the torpedoes” quote referred to the tactics pioneered by López. Benjamin, de León and López identified proudly with their Sephardic heritage.

Most intriguing, though, is the number of Confederates who participated in the Cuban Wars of Independence and how many hold honored place in Cuban history.

INDIGENOUS AMERICANS

Even more than these other minorities, the first Americans were singled out by the victors for special treatment because of their Confederate loyalties. The Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma joined with nine non Southern nations in sending troops and diplomats to support the Richmond government, which responded by naming Elias Boudinot as the Confederacy’s equivalent to the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the first Indian in America appointed to this office. Boudinot, like Benjamin, was to serve in three high profile positions. In addition to the aforementioned office and his seat in Congress, Boudinot acted as envoy of the Cherokee Nation to the Richmond government. This was no window dressing. The matter of conflict of interest was brought before the congressional body and Boudinot helped resolve the issue by agreeing that, in his capacity as congressman, he would abstain from floor debate and cast no vote on matters pertaining to Indian affairs.

The Oklahoma contribution to protecting the western areas from invasion was determining in keeping the Brownsville-Matamoros line open until the closing days of the war, with General Stand Watie being distinguished as the last Confederate General to lay down arms, agreeing only to “stop fighting,” and not to surrender.

Early in the war a significant number of Cherokee followed Chief John Ross’ lead and attempted to side with the Union, with Ross himself begging audience in Washington, but denied access to present his case. The Confederate welcome was as equal nation and Ross acknowledged the better deal was coming from Richmond and did not use his power and influence to impede the Confederate mainstream. Following Pea Ridge, the Union military refused to exchange Indian POWs, falsely accusing them of the most outrageous barbarities. The Richmond government responded by refusing to exchange any POWs which led to the conditions of Andersonville. It is of note that the losses to the Cherokee Nation of just military age males during the war and pacification was greater in actual percentage of the total Cherokee population than were the total losses to the entire Cherokee people on the Trail of Tears.

The Indigenous Americans outside of Oklahoma made strong contributions to the Confederate cause. The Eastern Cherokees’ role in the successes of Early’s Raiders remains a legend of near mythological dimensions. The Indians of Louisiana and South Carolina participated fully in the service of the Confederacy and in Mississippi the respect for the Indians was so strong that when Greenwood LeFlore retired from politics and went home to his Delta Plantation in protest to secession, he was allowed to do so in peace. The Choctaw were such fierce Confederate loyalists that even today the southeastern parts of Oklahoma are known as “Little Dixie.” This loyalty was mirrored by the Richmond government which stands alone of the American governments to have never broken a treaty made with an Indian nation.

To have a clearer view of how far ahead of the Federals’ the Confederates were in their Indian policies, one need only compare their actions to those of the blue pony soldiers in the decades following the war. The abrogation of all treaties and the destruction of the territorial integrity of the Indian lands were stated reconstructionist policies and the first “peacetime” African American units, the famous Buffalo Soldiers, were first established to impose the measures of what was to become the blood genocide of the Western Indians. Generals Custer and Sheridan, this latter being the source of the infamous quote “the only good Indian is a dead Indian,” were products of the attitudes fostered by the policies of their government, articulated and put into practice in the Civil War.

IN RETROSPECT

Looking at the record, those seeking to view the Confederate symbols as symbols of White Anglo-Saxon Protestant male exclusionism will find instead that those symbols represented a highly diverse, multicultural, open and liberal society well ahead of its time.