Probably should have posted here ! This man was an east Tennessean from Sullivan County. John D. Fowler mentions him on page 102 of his book on the 19th Tennessee Infantry, "Mountaineers in Gray." He points out Wiley is listed as a 15 year-old "mulatto and a farm-hand on the large commercial farm of William Perry." (household # 176. Household # 175 was my 3 x great-grandparents, John & Mary Cox.) He points to Wiley as evidence of the need the Confederates had of conscripting even "free persons of color" to meet quotas especially in east Tennessee as the flood of early and willing volunteers began to dry up. He quotes from the "OR" as evidence of that Series II Vol.VI, page 17, "And more recently the Confederate legislature of Tennessee have passed an act forcing into their military service (I quote literally) all male free persons of color between the ages of fifteen and fifty, or such number as may be necessary, who may be sound in body and capable of actual service; and they further enacted that in the event a sufficient number of free persons of color to meet the wants of the State shall not tender their services, then the Governor is empowered through the sheriff's of different counties to impress such persons until the required number is obtained." ...........Lieutenant-Colonel William H Ludlow (Agent for Exchange of Prisoners / 73rd New York Volunteer Infantry)

Wiley is shown enlisting March 20, 1863. He fought at Chickamauga and may have been slightly wounded. He's shown hospitalized at Knoxville where he's paid for three months service and apparently deserted from there in November. Feb.1, 1864 he enlists in Company D Union 4th Tennessee Infantry. He then deserts them after collecting the bounty but soon returns. He serves faithfully then till the end of the war and draws a Federal pension. On the Union muster-out descriptive roll he's described as having "brown hair, dark complexion, dark eyes." Nothing is ever mentioned about his mixed race with either armies' record. On subsequent census records and his death certificate he's listed as "white." He was married twice. He and his first wife (a distant relative of mine,) were divorced following the war. She had brothers and half-brothers who were and remained Confederate. I assume his second wife was also white.

In the 1860 census he's plainly listed "mulatto." Did it become a derogatory term in especially the upper south following the war ? Could this be the reason he's listed as "white" in public records after the war ? I've attempted to use Wiley's experience to point out the truth there were a few free blacks and mulattoes who bore arms in the Confederate ranks. Then I'm confronted with the fact in subsequent records he's listed as a white man.

I'd appreciate any thoughts and opinions !

Glenn