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Black Confederates Mentioned In Union OR Reports

I was recently told at another site, such reports needed to be "corroborated" to be believed. "It requires extraordinary evidence because it runs counter to what we know about how the Confederate armies worked."

July 1862, Series I, Volume XVI, Lieutenant Colonel John G. Parkhurst (9th Michigan Infantry) "There were also quite a number of negroes attached to the Texas and Georgia troops, who were armed and equipped, and took part in the several engagements with my forces during the day."

John Gibson Parkhurst

Lawyer at Coldwater, Michigan, Civil War officer, U.S. Marshal of Eastern District of Michigan and Minister to Belgium. John G. Parkhurst was born April 17, 1824 at Oneida Castle, New York. He attended Oneida Academy, then studied law in the office of N. F. Graves. He was admitted to the bar in 1847. He moved to Coldwater, Michigan in 1849 and open up a law practice. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Governor Blair appointed Parkhurst to be lieutenant colonel of the 9th Michigan Infantry. He was taken prisoner at Murfreesboro in July 1862, spent three months in a Southern prison, and was exchanged in December 1862. He served as lieutenant colonel and colonel in the 9th Michigan Infantry, provost marshal of the 14th Army Corps and of the Military District of Tennessee, and was brevet brigadier general of U. S. Volunteers. He served under General George H. Thomas

From 1866 to 1869 he was marshal of the Michigan District. A life-long Democrat ran for various offices, usually without success. President Cleveland rewarded his service to his party and to the nation, naming Parkhurst as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States to Belgium. He served from 1888 to 1889. In 1893, President Cleveland commissioned him postmaster of Coldwater where he served until 1897.

Parkhurst had many other interests. As early as 1849, he was engaged in the insurance business which he continued throughout his life. He also invested in farm lands and participated in veterans organizations. He died May 6, 1906.

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