The recent publication of such books as _Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees
in Civil
War Virginia_ by Ervin Jordan and _Black Southerners In Gray_ by Richard Rollins
have renewed interest in the role of African-Americans in the Confederacy. While
there is little doubt that African-Americans made significant contributions,
albiet reluctantly; as laborers, teamsters and servants, their role as soldiers
in the Confederate armies is much less documented. While some insist that there
were NO African-American Confederates; others point to accounts of hundreds
or thousands of black men in gray uniforms. This story examines one possibility.
Professor Eugene Wigfall of the University of Southeastern Virginia has just released his research into free blacks who served in the Confederate armed forces. Prof. Wigfall’s research has taken more than a decade and is based on attempting to match the names of free blacks from the 1860 census with the names of known Confederate servicemen. Wigfall’s research also relied heavily on input from informed sources on several Internet discussion groups.
The results of Prof. Wigfall’s research show conclusively that a free black man, 32 year old Moses Johnson of Yorktown, Virginia served in the Confederate army. Records indicate that Johnson offered his services to the Confederates immediately upon the secession of his home state. He was rebuffed however, due to his race and, angered by the rejection, traveled to Fortress Monroe to offer his service to the Federals. Gen. Benjamen Butler, upon meeting Johnson, declared him to be a ‘contraband of war’, and put him to work polishing his silverware collection. Dissatisfied with his treatment by the Federals, Johnson deserted in early June, 1861. While walking down the road towards Bethel in the early morning hours, Johnson was stopped by a detachment of Union troops. Fearing a return to Fortress Monroe, Johnson told the soldiers that he had just passed a detachment of Confederate troops headed that way. The Union troops quickly set up an ambush and fired on a column of troops as it marched into view. In the resulting firefight Johnson slipped away to the Rebel lines where he told the story of how he managed to trick to Union regiments into firing into each other. His story so impressed Gen. John B. Magruder that he enlisted Johnson on the spot.
The next month found Moses Johnson attached to Gen. Thomas J. Jackson’s command as a guide. During the battle of Bull Run, Jackson watched as Gen. Barnard Bee’s South Carolinians begin to withdraw in confusion. Jackson dispatched Moses Johnson to inform Bee of the whereabouts of Jackson troops. When Johnson reached Bee he conveyed the General’s instructions. Bee, still unsure of Jackson’s whereabouts, asked Johnson to point him out, to which Johnson replied: "dar’s Gen’l Jackson, next to dat stone wall". In the heat of battle, Johnson’s response was relayed by Bee to his men in his now legendary statement.
The following year found Moses Johnson in the vicinity of his home town of Yorktown. Johnson was once again reunited with Gen. Magruder and was employed as a scout and guide. During this time it came to the General’s attention that Johnson was an excellent shot as well. Johnson soon became a terror to Union pickets and rumors abounded of a company of black sharpshooters. Magruder, always eager to seize the theatrical advantage, ordered all his sharpshooters to don blackface when on the front lines. Gen. McClellan, who had been provided with accurate estimates of the Confederate strength, suddenly fell victim to the ruse that large numbers of blacks were being enlisted by the Confederates. Accordingly, he revised his figures to reflect the enlistment of every black man of military age in Virginia, giving his enemy a strentgh of more than 500,000 troops in the trenches before Richmond.
Records of Johnson’s service are almost non-existent for the rest of 1862. In the spring of ’63 however, Moses Johnson again turns up in Jackson’s command. At the battle of Chancellorsville it was Johnson who suggested to Jackson that he: "sneak around dem Yankees and wop dem upside de head". Johnson’s contributions at Chancellorsville did not end there, the following day, acting as a sharpshooter, Johnson spied a high ranking Union officer standing on the porch of a nearby home. The officer was partially obscured by a stone column, making it impossible for Johnson to get off a good shot. Johnson, ever the innovator, fired a shot into the top of the column, breaking off a large marble chunk, which struck the Union officer squarely on the head. The Union officer was, of course, Gen. Joseph Hooker.
Following Jackson’s death, Moses Johnson was attached to Lee’s staff . As plans unfolded for an invasion of the North, Johnson suggested to Lee that he enlist all the free blacks that they should come across in the northern states. This plan, like the rest Lee’s plans that summer, turned out to be a total disaster. Disappointed that other free blacks had not followed him into the Confederate army, Johnson accompanied the Army of Northern Virginia northward to the small town of Gettysburg. Following two days of fierce fighting, Lee ordered the massive, but suicidal, attack that ended with the bloody repulse of Pickett’s division. Riding forth to console his beaten forces, Lee remarked: "This was all my fault"; to which Moses Johnson unhesitantly replied: "Damn right! Gen’l Lee, what de hell wuz you thinkin’."
In the fall of 1863 Moses Johnson accompanied Longstreet’s corps to the western theater, where he took part in the battle of Chickamauga. One evening, shortly after the battle, Longstreet introduced Moses Johnson to a group of Confederate generals who had spent the evening drinking and cursing Braxton Bragg. After hearing Longstreet’s description of Johnson’s distinguished service, Gen. Patrick Cleburne grabbed a piece of paper and scrawled a lengthy proposal for arming blacks for Confederate service. All of the generals present eagerly endorsed the document, although most denied recollection of having signed it the next day.
Moses Johnson continued to serve with the Army of Northern Virginia throughout the bloody campaigns of 1864. Disappointed with the Confederate government’s reluctance to enlist blacks into service, Johnson lobbied tirelessly to get legislation that would not only recognize, but encourage blacks to join the Confederate ranks. Moses Johnson finally got his wish in early 1865 when the Confederates passed a bill authorizing the War Department to organize black troops for Confederate service. He was bitterly disappointed however, when not one black volunteered for service.
As Petersburg and Richmond fell, Moses Johnson, ever the faithful Confederate, began the trek west toward Appomattox. At some point during the retreat he convinced Gen. Fitz Lee that his cavalry could escape through the encircling Union lines and strike in their rear if they donned blackface and pretended to be escaping slaves. Fitzhugh Lee was however, not as clever as his illustrious uncle and he forgot to have his men change out of their gray uniforms. It was Fithugh Lee’s troopers in ‘disguise’ that several witnesses reportedly mistook for black Confederate cavalry during Lee’s final retreat. The observant Yankees were, of course, not fooled by Confederate troopers in blackface and killed or captured most of the unit. A handful survived to surrender a few days later with Lee at Appomattox. They had not stopped during the retreat to remove their blackface and, consequently, were listed as being black on their parole papers.
Moses Johnson all but disappeared following Lee’s surrender. Some say that he was killed by vengeful ex-slaves, other stories have him fleeing to Mexico with several high-ranking Confederate officers, and one story has him travelling west to join Gen. Nathan Badford Forrest’s night riders following the war.
Whatever happened to Moses Johnson, his legacy as the only black man to serve in the Confederate army offers a fascinating twist to a war that continues to excite interest to this day.
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