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Patrick Ronayne Cleburne, a Confederate General killed in action at Franklin, TN (30 Nov 1864) was born in County Cork , Ireland, March 17, 1828. Patrick was the second son of a physician and his other died when he was just an infant. An orphan by age fifteen, he followed inhis father’s footsteps in the field of medicine. However, he failed to pass the medical exam so he enlisted in the British Army in 1846.
A few years later Cleburne migrated to America settling in Arkansas. By 1860 he was a was solid citizen practicing law. When the war broke out Cleburne sided with his beloved Arkansas, for whom he was grateful for the opportunity he had been given as a new immigrant.
He would become the Colonel of the 15th Arkansas and promoted to Brigadier General in March 1862. The Irish soldier-leader would go on to serve valiantly in action at Shiloh, Richmond (KY), Perryville, Stones River, north Georgia and eventually at Franklin where he fell mortally wounded on 30 November 1864.
Download the CWPT
Most Endangered 2008 Report
( PDF - 1.52MB)
The new CWPT (Civil War Preservation Trust) report, History Under Seige, not only lists endangered Civil War battlefields in the United States, but it is also a plan for saving these few remaining links to our heritage before encroaching development takes it from us forever.
Did you know that:
- In 2007 CWPT saved more than 1,600 acres including land at Champion Hill, Miss., Shiloh, Tenn., and Petersburg, Va.
- Since 1987 the CWPT has protected more than 25,000 acres at 99 sites in 18 states.
One of the more interesting questions related to blacks serving in the American Civil War is this, did blacks (free or slave) serve in combat roles in the Confederate Army? Unquestionably the historical evidence is strong that some blacks - perhaps several thousand - did serve in the Confederate Army in unofficial, non-combat roles as servants, laborers, teamster, musician, cooks, etc. But the official record is very unsupportive that thousands of blacks served as official soldiers in the ranks of the Southern soldiers’ rosters.
When we use the word official we mean that a black soldier would have been documented through the same paperwork process as a white man would have in terms of enlisting, mustering in or out, and perhaps applying for pension benefits after the war. It is this logistical paperwork process that leaves a trail for historians to study and interpret.
But how strong is the primary historical evidence - letters, diaries, first-hand accounts, military records, etc., - that blacks served in combat roles for the South? It is an important question.
Besides the fact that it is important to preserve accurate history it is also important to “get it right” when it comes to knowing who fought in the Civil War so that these individuals can be properly honored and their place in history duly noted. Some who favor a Southern perspective on the war, particularly defending the proposition that the South did not fight to preserve or defend slavery, have argued that thousands of slaves fought on behalf of the South thereby proving that they were generally supportive of the Southern way of life.
Some people have suggested that as many as 30,000 blacks took on the uniform and actually fought for the South, but does the historical record support that amount? What exactly does the historical record provide us with any kind of confidence to be able to answer this question?
In short, if one sticks solely to the historical record for primary evidence of the black soldier picking up arms and fighting for the South, one can only conclude that the support for such a claim is scanty at best - merely anecdoctal - and entirely unsubstantiated at worst. Instead of the widely claimed and purported number of 30,000 fighting black soldiers for the Confederacy, an honest look at the historical record leads one to the conclusion that as little as under a hundred to as many as several hundred blacks may have actually engaged in combat for the South during the Civil War by actually carrying and discharging a weapon. How to interpret that evidence - or lack thereof - is left to the professional and armchair historians to debate.
It is widely accepted by historians that perhaps as many as 200,000 blacks served in the Union Army. That is a sizable number when one realizes that only 750,000 to 900,000 men even fought for the South during the entire Civil War. According to historian and Professor James I. Robertson, Jr., “Approximately 180,000 blacks served as Federal soldiers. This figure represents 9 percent of the North’s fighting force. One-third of the blacks (68,17 
died in the service, with sickness causing thirty times more deaths than battle.” Soldiers Blue and Gray: p. 35.
For the Union side at least, the historical record is fairly definitive and clear: we know that about 9-12% of the Union Army was filled by black troops, depending on if one goes with the figure of 180,000 or 200,000 black Union troops serving. Black Union soldiers participated in at least 41 major battles and roughly 450 smaller actions. 37,000 black Union soldiers died in the Civil War. Though early black troops were not aggressively deployed as bearers of arms, it is the case that by the middle of the war, at least, more and more black Union troops were entrusted to carry arms and to perform in combat action.
CWG has discovered that historians and staff - notably Robert Krick - at Spotsylvania National Battlefield Park have sifted through about 100,000 soldiers’ records to see how many non-whites were represented. Non-whites could be blacks, Native Americans, and mulattoes. They found that only 20-30 non-whites were found out of 100,000 soldiers’ records. That is less than 1/300th of one percent. Taking into account that the following estimate involves more conjecture than a good historian would be comfortable with applying to acceptable methods of reliable historical inquiry, one can still get a fairly solid “finger in the air” estimate that if that same ratio of 1/300th was applied to the figure-range of 750,000 - 900,000 Confederates serving during the war from 1861-1865, then one could only reasonably conclude that, at best, between 250-300 black soldiers may have served in the Confederate Army, and of those an even much smaller percentage would have been entrusted to take up arms.
This might seem surprising but a leading Civil War historian, Professor James McPherson, who won a Pulitzer prize for a Civil War book he wrote, has gone on record to say that of the more than 25,000 soldiers’ letters he has personally read over the years, he has only found evidence that perhaps 6-12 black Confederate soldiers were even mentioned.
The reality is this, looking at the historical record itself when it comes to answering the question - did many black men, free or slave, take up arms for Confederacy - one can only confidently say that perhaps a few, maybe scores, did but anything beyond that is highly conjectural and suspect. The larger the number of fighting black Confederates grows by one who would purport that thousands, even tens of thousands of blacks actually carried arms and faced combat during the Civil War, the more any objective observer would have to wonder what his or her agenda really was.
The best evidence that blacks even served in the butternut uniform as official soldiers is suggested by records related to some blacks serving in a regiment from Louisiana and one perhaps from South Carolina.
Civil War Gazette (CWG) turned to a couple leading Civil War historians to address the question, how many blacks actually took up arms and fought for the South?
CWG asked Professor and Civil War historian-author Steven Woodworth about the number of blacks who fought for the Confederacy:
“It would be hard to prove that absolutely zero blacks fought in the Confederate army, but I think it must have approached that level. I wonder if “non-white” includes American Indians. I suspect it does and further suspect that American Indians would have been much more prevalent than blacks in Confederate ranks. I haven’t kept a count of how many Civil War soldiers’ diaries and letters I’ve read–I guess it has been quite a few–but I’ve never come across a single instance of a black serving in the Confederate army. Whatever may have been the number of blacks serving and actually fighting as soldiers in the Confederate army, it must have been a minuscule percentage–completely insignificant for anyone trying to make the argument that blacks saw the conflict as a war of Yankee aggression, felt it was their war too, and joined up to fight for the Confederacy. That’s just a fairy tale.”
CWG also asked Civil War author and historian Wiley Sword about blacks serving in the Confederate army as soldiers:
“The majority of black Confederates who actually fought were essentially with the army as servants or personal attendants for officers. This was especially true in the initial part of the war (1861-62), I have read occasionally about these slave/servants taking up a rifle and fighting in the ranks with their master. Otherwise, various mulattoes or persons with light complexions may have been directly enrolled in the army. Since it was against C.S.A. policy to enlist blacks in the fighting army (until the very last
in 1865), I doubt if formal records will show the extent of black combat participation. I’m convinced some did fight, but how many is a very subjective guess.”
For further reading on the role of blacks serving in the Confederacy check out:
- Black Southerners in Gray, Essays on Afro-Americans in the Confederate Armies, edited by Richard Rollins
- The Journal of Confederate History Series, Vol. XI, published in 1994 by Southern Heritage Press, Murfreesboro, Tenn.
- “Blacks in Gray”, by Jason H. Silverman. North & South Magazine, Vol 5, Number 3, April 2002: 35-45.
- “Black Confederates”, by Bruce Levine. North & South Magazine, Vol 10, Number 2, July 2007: 40-47.
- “United States Color Troops”, by Gregory J.W. Urwin in Encyclopedia of the American Civil War, edited by Heidler and Heidler: 2002-2003.
- “African-American Soldiers, C.S.A.”, by Frank E. Deserino in Encyclopedia of the American Civil War, edited by Heidler and Heidler: 16-18.
- “African Americans in the Confederacy”, by Edgar A. Toppin in Encyclopedia of the Confederacy, Volume One. Edited by Current: pages
Surgeons and amputations during the Civil War
“At the time of the Civil War, ether or chloroform or a mixture of the two was administered by an assistant, who placed a loose cloth over the patient’s face and dripped some anesthetic onto it while the patient breathed deeply. When given this way, the initial effects are a loss of consciousness accompanied by a stage of excitement . . . . The Civil War surgeon went to work immediately, hoping to finish before the drug wore off. Although the excited patient was unaware of what was happening and felt no pain, he would be agitated, moaning or crying out, and thrashing about during the operation. He had to be held still by assistants so the surgeon could continue.” Bollet, (p. 32).
It is commonly believed that most Civil War surgeons were simply butchers, amputating arms and legs unnecessarily oftentimes. This popular misconception is partially due to movies and film depicting gross scenes of amputations performed by rogue surgeons against the screaming wishes of his patient as the doctor amputates a bleeding leg. Though grotesque scenes such as these make for good cinema, it was hardly the typical experience during the Civil War.
Dr. Alfred Bollet dispels several myths about surgery during the Civil War in his fine article (The Truth about Civil War Surgery) in the October 2004 issue of Civil War Times. Bollet explains how surgeons had other procedures they could use besides amputation, how surgery was almost always done with anesthesia, that most wounds were not just to arms and legs, and that not every surgeon had the authority to amputate. 
To be sure, there were some isolated incidences of surgery done without anesthesia (for example at Iuka, Mississippi on September 17, 1862) and/or cases where an amputation was not necessary. But medical scholars and historians attest that the surgical care provided by doctors to soldiers during the Civil War was very good for its time. This is all the more remarkable when we realize that little was known about germs, and the spread of infection, and drugs were nearly non-existent in the 1860s. Perhaps a major reason why it was commonly believed, especially by soldiers, is because of how little soldiers knew about anesthesia back then. Bollet writes:
“At the time of the Civil War, ether or chloroform or a mixture of the two was administered by an assistant, who placed a loose cloth over the patient’s face and dripped some anesthetic onto it while the patient breathed deeply. When given this way, the initial effects are a loss of consciousness accompanied by a stage of excitement . . . . The Civil War surgeon went to work imediately, hoping to finish before the drug wore off. Although the excited patient was unaware of what was happening and felt no pain, he would be agitated, moaning or crying out, and thrashing about during the operation. He had to be held still by assistants so the surgeon could continue.” Bollet, (p. 32).
Most amputations performed during the Civil War were necessary to save the life of the soldier. Wounds caused by bullets and artillery normally shattered the bone. The only recourse for most soldiers, if they wanted to live, would be to have the shattered bone or limb removed. The closer the amputation occurred to the trunk of the soldier the more likely it was for a soldier to not survive the operation. The fatality rate for soldiers who received an amputation was around 25% overall. Those who did die after amputation often did so because of infection, complications or because the wound was too severe to be able to survive.
Recommended reads:
Civil War Medicine: Triumphs and Challenges. Alfred J. Bollet.
Gangrene and Glory: Medical Care during the American Civil War. Frank R. Freemon.
The Western Theater during the Civil War consisted of: parts of Arkansas, Missouri, Indiana, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana; North Carolina and all of Tennessee and Kentucky.
Links are keyed to the Battle Summaries of the National Park Service.
Arkansas
Arkansas Post | Helena |
Missouri
Belmont (1861) | New Madrid (1862) | Island No. 10 (1862)
Indiana
Corydon |
Georgia
1863
Davis’ Cross-Roads | Chickamauga | Ringgold Gap | Allatoona |1864
Rocky Face Ridge | Resaca | Adairsville | New Hope Church | Dallas | Pickett’s Mills | Marietta [Operations] | Kolb’s Farm | Kennesaw Mountain | Peachtree Creek | Atlanta | Ezra Church | Utoy Creek | Dalton II | Lovejoy’s Station | Jonesborough | Allatoona |
Alabama
1864
Mobile Bay | Decatur | Fort Blakely |1865
Selma |
Mississippi
1862
Iuka | Corinth| Hatchie’s Bridge| Chickasaw Bayou|1863
Port Gibson | Champion Hill | Big Black River Bridge| Vicksburg |1864
Meridian | Tupelo | Brice’s Cross Roads |
Louisiana
1863
Milliken’s Bend |
Tennessee
1862
Fort Henry | Fort Donelson | Shiloh | Corinth | Memphis| Chattanooga| Murfreesborough| Parker’s Cross Roads| Chattanooga |1863
Stones River | Dover | Thompson’s Station | Brentwood | Franklin | Hoover’s Gap | Chattanooga | Wauhatchie | Campbell’s Station | Fort Sanders | Bean’s Station |1864
Memphis | Johnsonville |Columbia |Spring Hill |Franklin |Murfreesborough |Nashville |
Kentucky
1862
Mill Springs | Munfordville | Perryville |
1864
Cynthiana |
North Carolina
1864
Bentonville |
The Western Theater during the Civil War consisted of: parts of Arkansas, Missouri, Indiana, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana; North Carolina and all of Tennessee and Kentucky.
Click on map for full size
Map credit: Campaign for Corinth by Dossman, p. 15.
CWG: When did the Federal income tax on personal income begin?
The Federal income tax on personal income began during the Civil War in 1861 during Abraham Lincoln’s administration. It violated the Constitution and was struck down at war’s end.
CWG: What percent in Federal tax revenue did Confederate states account for just prior to the outbreak of the Civil War (circa 1860)?
The Confederate states made up 87% of the tax revenue of the Federal treasury in 1860.
CWG: What was the primary form Federal taxes assumed just prior to the Civil War?
Before the War broke out Federal taxes were mostly in the form of excise taxes and tariffs (import taxes). Tariffs provided most of the Federal revenue in the form of taxes.
CWG: Why did Northern states use import taxes during the Civil War?
Northern states used import taxes as a way to protect their own manufacturers against Great Britain and other overseas competition. Northern imports brought in very little taxes for the government.
CWG: How did import taxes impact the South during the Civil War?
Unlike the North, the Southern states’ primary staple was King Cotton. The South depended heavily upon exporting cotton to overseas markets. Unlike the North, the South was an export-oriented economy. Thus import taxes on Southern cotton contributed greatly to the Federal tax revenue.
CWG: Since the North could not depend on revenues brought in from exported goods (i.e., cotton), how did the North generate revenue internally?
The North resorted to taxing it’s citizenry on such items as tobacco, alcohol, clothing, food stuffs, stamps, tools and even entertainment. The newly created Department of Internal Revenue (DIR) collected the taxes. Personal evasion of taxes was a common problem for the DIR.
CWG: What percent did taxes cover for the Civil War expenses of the North?
Taxes paid for roughly one-fifth of the North’s daily war efforts.
CWG: Where did the rest (i.e., four-fifths) of the money come from for the North?
It came from such forms as the creation of paper money, bonds and borrowing, This led to rampant inflation for the Northern economy due to an excessive proliferation of money.
CWG: How much did inflation affect the North from 1861-1865?
During the Civil War the cost of goods and services increased by 80% for the Northern states.
CWG: How much did inflation affect the South from 1861-1865?
During the Civil War the cost of goods and services increased by 60-70 times for the Southern states.
CWG: How much did it cost the North to wage Civil War on a daily basis?
About $1.75 million dollars was needed every day by the North to conduct its affairs on the military front, according to Anderson. Stevens says it was costing the North $2.5 million a day by the spring of 1863 (p. 106).
CWG: Prior to the changes in 1863 in bank charters, what kind of money or currency was in circulation in the United States?
There were many different forms of money in circulation prior to 1863, including private bank notes, government-minted gold and silver coins, Spanish dollars, and even private coins. There were as many as 1,500 different institutions issuing private bank notes. Private notes undermined the value of the Federal currency. They were printed in a variety of sizes, styles and denominations, thus making even simple transaction difficult to execute.
CWG: What did the Legal Tender Act of 1862 accomplish?
The Legal Tender Act of 1862 effectively outlawed privately minted gold and silver coins, and authorized the Federal Government to issue paper currency. It was printed with green ink on the back and thus became known as greenbacks. They were unbacked by gold and silver.
The government issued $500 million worth of bank notes during the war. By the end of the war, inflation having taken its toll, these same bank notes decreased in value by 61%.
CWG: How did the government use bonds to finance the Civil War?
At the beginning of 1863 the government relied heavily upon the sale of “five twenties” (six percent bonds, callable in five years and maturing in twenty). However, the demand for war bonds was unpredictable. They would rise and fall based on the military successes of failures of the North.
The government issued five kinds of paper currency during the war. For more information on the kinds of paper currency the North printed during the war see: http://www.financialhistory.org/civilwar/1861-1865/north/currency.htm
CWG: What were the first coins minted with the motto “In God we Trust” on them?
The Union 2-Cent pieces were the first U.S. coins minted with the motto, In God we Trust. These coins were bronze and were available from 1864-1865 during the war and actually up to 1873 after the war. They depict images of a shield, and eagle and a laurel sprig.
CWG: How were stamps used as “currency” during the Civil War?
Due to short supply of coins in the North, the government issued un-gummed stamps that could also be used as coinage.
CWG: Why did the Federal government stop minting coins after the Civil War began?
Facing a probable long war, the North decided to stop issuing coins and turned too printing paper money (i.e., greenbacks). As a result, many northerners panicked and started hoarding coins. Before long, most coins were no longer in circulation.
CWG: How did the Government respond to the crisis of coins being hoarded?
In response to the crisis, the Federal government issued fractional paper currency in denominations of 3, 5, 10, 15, 25, and 50 cents. These became known as shinplasters. People did eventually accept them as substitutes for metal coinage. The government stopped issuing fraction currency in 1876. By then $368 million worth of it made it into the private sector.
CWG: Did the South use similar means, as the North to finance the war effort (e.g., bonds, taxes and loans)?
In contrast with the North, the South primarily depended on paper currency to finance the war. As a result, inflation impacted the South even more since this currency was not backed by silver or gold. Currency was printed from 1861-1864. In 1861, when Confederate currency was first printed, it was worth 95 cents on the U.S. dollar. By 1863 they were trading at just 33 cents on the dollar. By April 9, 1965, at the war’s end, a Confederate dollar traded at just 1.6 cents on the dollar. On May 1, 1865 Confederate dollar bills were sold in bales of 1,200 notes for just $1 U.S. dollar.
CWG: How much currency was printed by the Southern government?
More than $1 billion was in circulation during the Civil War. Unfortunately, as much as $1.5 billion was printed in counterfeit Confederate currency. The North encouraged and promoted the counterfeiting of Confederate currency since it devalued the value of it.
CWG: What are some examples of paper denominational amounts that were printed by the South?
Confederate banknotes were printed in blue-gray color and became known as bluebacks. They were available in the following denominations: 5 cent note, 10 cent note, 15 cent note, 25 cent note, 50 cent note, $1 note, $1.75 note, $2 note, $3 note, $5 note, $10 note, $20 note, $50 note and $100 notes. $10 notes were the most widely printed note.
CWG: Were coins minted by the Confederacy?
Yes, coins were minted by the Confederacy but they were very rare, Experimental pennies (copper or silver, 1861) and half-dollars (silver, 1861) were minted by the South. Examples: .1 cent coin, .50 cent coin, $5 dollar coin.
CWG: What are some examples of paper denomination amounts that were printed by the Federal Government?
3 cent note, 5 cent note, 10 cent note, 25 cent note, $1 dollar note, $1, $2 dollar note, $5 dollar note, $10 dollar note, $50 dollar note
CWG: What kind of scenes did the South depict slaves on their printed currency?
Among the myriad of scenes depicting slave labor we find the following categories of images on printed currency: Individuals With Cotton Individuals With Assorted Tasks, Field Scenes Stylistic Scenes, Post Civil War Scenes, Sugar Plantations and Transportation. For more information see “Beyond Face Value” on the Web.
