From privates to generals, Mansons, Birdsongs, Bowies, Brayboys, and Gineses served on both sides of the worst conflict in American history. Slaves and slaveowners, free men of color, poor Southern whites, and educated Northern elites represented these families in America's tragic Civil War.
On the following pages are lists with unit assignments of those who served. But here are a few illustrative examples:
James W. Manson
served as a private in the 3rd Georgia Infantry. However lowly his military
rank, he was a scion of one of Georgia's prominent families. James was the 26
year old son of William Manson, owner of the large plantation at Turkey Creek in
Wilkinson County. James may have felt more comfortable around his cousin from
Jefferson County who served with the 45th Georgia Infantry. Unfortunately, there
would be no fraternization during their tours of duty. While James W. Manson was
a private, his cousin, the prominent physician James Bethune Manson, was
a lieutenant.
Brig. Gen. Mahlon D. Manson commanded the 5th Indiana Regiment and later the U.S. XXIII Corps. A druggist by profession, he had served in the Indiana legislature before the war. During the battle of Richmond, Kentucky, he was wounded and captured. He spent about four months in a Confederate prison. After leaving Confederate custody, he returned to command, but suffered severe wounds in the drive against Atlanta. He resigned in 1864 and later was elected to Congress from Indiana.
Brig. Gen. George Washington Bowie was commander of the 5th California Infantry. A native of Maryland, he was a scion of the prominent Bowie and Calvert families. A direct descendant of General James John Mackall, he was a member of the family ancestral to the Louisiana Bowies. Ft Bowie near Willcox, Arizona, is named for him.
George W. Bowie of Alexandria, Louisiana, was one of Gen. Bowie's Louisiana cousins. He served as a private in Co. I, Confederate Engineer Troops. He was captured and held as a prisoner of war until June of 1865.
Casius H. Gines served as a private in the 54th U.S. Colored Infantry. The unit was organized in 1864 from the 2nd Arkansas Infantry (African Descent).
Moris M. Braveboy of
Williamsburg County, South Carolina, served in Co. H, 10th South Carolina
Infantry, Confederate Army. He enlisted under the name "Morris Brayboy."
Described in the 1880 census as a "mulatto" aged 42, he spent the postwar years
as a farmer and lived past 1910.
African-American Sailors in the Civil War by Surname: