The American Confederate Government, at the first years of the Civil War, did not want African Americans serving as soldiers. At that time only slaves serving their masters were allowed on the battlefield. As the Confederate Army had a growing need for troops, the government approved having blacks serve as soldiers.
I'm a Virginia historian and legal expert who is related to individuals who rode on the Mayflower ship, American founding father George Mason IV, three Union veterans from the U.S. Civil War, two of whom marched with General Sherman to Atlanta, two Confederate veterans, and President Theodore Roosevelt’s and Franklin Roosevelt’s family.
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