I have seen stories of some Union soldiers who said that black men fought on the side of the South. These men acquired Confederate uniforms and even Union uniforms (as did white Confederates from Union wounded and dead) some even acquired weapons. Some blacks are listed in Confederate rosters as musicians. I am sure that there were some blacks that passed as whites that served in both armies and we will never know how many they were. When I came to the Park, I researched and talked with several historians about black Confederate soldiers. However, the Louisiana Native Guard can say that they were approved as militia for the Confederacy, for the defense of New Orleans, but they eventually served in the Union Army. There are stories about black servants fighting for the South, but no blacks are given soldiers pensions – some are given pensions for being loyal to the Confederacy. Many blacks in Louisiana owned businesses and were well off. Most of the ones that I found were from Louisiana and were mixed race, some often passing for white. I have found very few blacks that are listed on the rosters of the Confederate army, as soldiers or militiamen. In the Confederate Army at the end of the war, they had authorized black soldiers, but not the recent claims of hundreds of thousands of black soldiers. Although both armies reject black soldiers, by the end of the war over 200,000 men serve in the Union Army and Navy. African-Americans tried to enlist in both the Union and Confederate armies at the start of the Civil War.
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