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The Native Guard: Black men and the Civil War [1]

['Tammy C. Barney', 'More Tammy C. Barney', 'Verite News']

Date: 2024-04-01  

Illustration of the First Louisiana Native Guard from Frank Leslie’s illustrated newspaper, March 7, 1863. Credit: Library of Congress

Free men of color in New Orleans served double duty during the Civil War, fighting for both the Confederate and Union armies.

In April 1861, the Confederacy formed the 1st Louisiana Native Guard, also known as the Defenders of the Native Land. According to an article on Emerging Civil War, the regiment consisted of 33 Black officers and 731 privates. Mostly, the regiment marched up and down Canal Street.

“The Black regiment was intended to assuage Northern propaganda that claimed the Confederacy was racist and fighting for the preservation of slavery,” the article states.

“The Confederacy never intended to arm them.”

Historians differ on what motivated the Black men to join the Confederacy. Some say it was “out of a sense of loyalty to their state.” Others said they probably feared for their lives if they refused to serve or hoped that their lives would improve after the war.

Disbanded in May 1862, the Native Guard reorganized under the Union Army as Corps d’Afrique and included formerly enslaved men. Like the Confederates, the Union mistreated the regiment. According to University of Louisiana, Monroe History Professor Terry L. Jones, the Native Guard members were paid less than white soldiers, issued inferior weapons and suffered ongoing harassment.

Still, they were the first Black soldiers to fight in a major battle, the May 1863 Union siege of Port Hudson, La.

“Though the soldiers fought valiantly, the charge was driven back with extensive losses,” author James Hollandsworth Jr. said in his book “Native Guards: The Black Military Experience During the Civil War.” “The white officers and the northern press praised their tenacity and fighting ability, but the Native Guards were still not accepted on the same terms as their white counterparts.”

When the war ended, some Native Guard members entered Reconstruction politics such as P.B.S. Pinchback, the country’s first Black governor in 1872.

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[1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2024/04/01/the-native-guard-black-men-and-the-civil-war/

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