AFRICAN AMERICANS WHO SERVED THE CONFEDERACY: African American History Paperback

Paper back version" The first-line colored combat troops never exceeded 6,000 men serving in combat units. An additional 4,000 auxiliaries joined them and were recruited in the South for picket duty. Statistically, only 30,000 of the 179,000 black volunteers were combat troops.[1] Because of Union prejudice, African American uniformed soldiers were not used in combat as much as they might have been.[2] It was not until 1864 that Congress granted equal pay to the US Colored Troops.[3]
In terms of the Confederacy, more than 380,000 were conscripted to work for the Confederate military in precisely the same jobs as we see above that non-combatant Union Afro-Americans were assigned. The difference is that the Union Afro-Americans voluntarily enlisted, whereas the southern Afro-Americans were, for the most part, conscripted without choice. They were conscripted by years each year, and in 1864, the Confederacy requested 309,854 slaves be impressed and received 282,393.[4] These impressed slaves contributed to the Confederate war effort; their motivations for doing so will be described in the following paper. Their work was often at the forefront of the Confederate defenses. In many cases, these Afro-American conscripted slaves worked and lived under the same conditions as any Confederate soldier.