RARE editorial note:

Many people have emailed me about this topic, which has become rather heated. I have deliberately avoided taking a position here, and will continue to do so, except to say that the sources on this site I have personally found.

Despite many peoples' wishes, I refuse to add sites that are not first-person in nature, or add transcriptions of documents that I have not personally seen.

As a concluding note, the sources on this site are the only sources I found during close readings of Richmond newspapers that specifically mention African-American fighting men in Confederate service.

On this site are documents pertaining to the enlistment of slaves and free blacks in the Confederate Army.