New York Times June 18, 1861
Confederate force at Vienna Railroad Station [1st South Carolina]
Some of the Ohio men pretend to say that there were 800 South Carolinians present, subsequently reinforced by 600 Virginians from Falls Church.� It is added, moreover, that the Palmettoans had two flank companies of picked negroes, armed with muskets and sabre-bayonets-these sable soldiers acting as servants and pack-horses in time of peace, and as soldiers whenever fighting is the business immediately on hand.
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The Daily True Delta, August 3, 1862, Affairs in Tennessee, The Capture of Murfreesboro, The Philidelphia Press of the 19th…
All who have escaped, and citizens of the place, declare that a battalion of negroes assisted the rebels…
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The Daily True Delta, Oct. 21, 1862, Virginia Army News, An Expedition to Rappahannock Station…
…resulting in the capture of forty or fifty rebels soldiers, several negroes and an ambulance. The prisoners were at once paroled.
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From the Macon Daily Telegraph, April 9, 1861:
A Southern Rights Negro from Atlanta, goes to fight the Abolitionist.
The following incident occurred yesterday in connection with the assembling in our city of the Volunteer Soldiers from various parts of the State, preparatory to their leaving for Pensacola, and serves to illustrate the character and condition of the slaves of the South.
A faithful negro man 55 or 60 years of age, belonging to John Neal, Esq., of Atlanta, accompanied the “Gate City Guards,” from Atlanta to Macon as Fifer, without any expectation of going further, and having a son living in Macon, whom of course he wished to visit. Yesterday morning I received a letter from Mr. Neal, saying one of his sons was a member of a Volunteer Company of Quincy, Fla., and en route for Pensacola, via Montgomery, Ala., and requested me to see Glasgow—inform him of his young master being in the army, and that he desired Glasgow to meet him at Montgomery, and to request Capt. Ezzard, of the “Gate City Guards” to let Glasgow continue with his company as far as Montgomery, to meet young Neal, all of which was arranged as desired, and much to Glasgow’s joy. Late yesterday evening Glasgow called upon me, accompanied by his son, to have his worldly affairs arranged, (as all prudent men do when embarking in hazardous enterprises:) and stated he wished it to be “put in writing” for him, that if he never returned, or fell in “de service and defence of de country, he wished his money to the paid over to his son Washington, (who was present with him,) that his young master in Atlanta had it loaned out for him—mentioned what it would amount to next Christmas—(a very handsome sum.) I promised him in presence of witnesses I would reduce his nun cupative will to writing, and send it to his master, who would faithfully carry it out, I knew. I bade Glasgow farewell, and with a hearty shake of hands, he left me, satisfied he had arranged his pecuniary affairs properly, and rejoicing that he would soon be with his “young master” in Montgomery to share his fortunes in defence of Southern Rights and Southern institutions. Wonder what Greeley, “et id omne genus,” thinks of such evidence, (and there will be thousands of such whenever opportunity offers, throughout the entire slave States,) of dissatisfaction of our negroes—their feelings and attachments to their masters? B.
MACON, April 6th, 1861.
We happened to see Glasgow when he left and feel confident that no one when forth, “in defence ob de country,” feeling the responsibility more than he. As to what “Greeley thinks” that we will never know, for his peculiar province lies in suppressing the truth in relation to anything which may occur in the South, and as an evidence of his success in this branch we refer the reader to a perusal of the Tribune, where he will see statements of a famine, insurrections, Union sentiments in the Gulf States, &c., &c., which we, right in the heart of it, see or hear nothing of.
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The Newbern (N. C.) Progress, of the 17th inst., says:
The committee, of which we were a member, having performed the commission they were sent to do, returned by a special train last night. There are now about 150 to 200 men under arms at Fort Macon, and everything is being put in order. Should a Government vessel attempt to enter the harbor they will receive a warm reception, certain.
The ladies of Newbern were busily engaged yesterday making bedding and other things necessary for the comfort of our military companies who went down to Fort Macon last night.
Yesterday, when our military companies were beating up for recruits, about sixty free negroes volunteered and went down to Fort Macon to do battle for their country, while another gave twenty-five dollars cash to help support the war; and still another, who is a poor man, having just arrived at our wharf with a load of wood for sale, delivered it up to the town auctioneer, with a request to sell it and appropriate it in the same way.
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Items from Georgia.
Joe Clark, a colored barber of this city, has written a letter to Gov. Brown, offering to raise a company of free colored men, to be enlisted in the service of the State of Georgia in the present crisis. Whatever may be thought of the policy of enlisting soldiers of this cast, the offer is a patriotic one, and ought to show the "philanthropists" of the North that the free colored population of the South do not appreciate their efforts in behalf of the negro race. Joe served in the Indian war of 1836, and still limps occasionally from a wound received in that campaign.
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Richmond Dispatch
Friday morning...May 24, 1861
Clarksville, Mecklenburg co., May 21, 1861
A servant of Thomas B. Wall, of this county, insisted so much on going with Capt. Finley's company, that his master consented for him to go. He was told that his clothes were not fit; he replied that he had money to buy suitable clothing. When told that he would have to pay his expenses on the railroad, he said he had fifty dollars which he had made by hard work, and he wanted to go to fight, to die for the South. The conduct of this intelligent servant is much praised.
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The Daily Dispatch: September 19, 1861
Gen. Lyon killed by a Darkey,
The Fort Smith (Ark,) Times contains the following in relation to the death of General Lyon at the battle of Oak Hill, in Missouri:
A negro man, body servant to Capt. John Griffith, of the gallant Third, was in the hottest of the fight, at Oak Hill, and fought in the last charge like a tiger. He claims to have killed Gen. Lyon. He says, he shot a man in the breast, that was on a large grey horse, and was waving his hat, and he saw him fall. Thus it is very probably that the Abolition Lyon fell by the hands of a darkey.
This same black man, finding his youngest master. Benj. Griffith, wounded in the calf of the leg, picked him up, and carried him off of the field; notwithstanding, Ben resisted it with all his might, as he wanted to fire a few more rounds at the Dutch..
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Wanted.
--A male Cook, (free colored,) to cook for a mess of give young men in a Richmond light artillery company with Gen. Lee's army. References as to honesty required. Apply to
Benj H Smith,
A A Q M General's Office,
Corner 1th and Main streets.
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