In one of my earlier posts on “black confederates” I made the observation that you cannot tell which confederate headstones are for “black confederates”. I think this is a simple, straight forward question. In the post I was actually referring to the lost opportunity of the SCV’s who are the most likely to place “black confederate” headstones to tell their story. It appears that someone else is thinking along the same lines over at Michael Cushman’s (aka: Palmetto Patriot) SLNM.
Rob Chievers said…
Why does his tombstone not have Black Confederate listed on it since it is so important?September 13, 2010 7:41 PM 
PalmettoPatriot said…
Do the White soldiers have “White Confederate Veteran” written on theirs? Do the Indians have “Indian Confederate” on theirs? How about the Spanish ones or whatever? That would be utterly ridiculous. He was a Confederate soldier. Period. September 13, 2010 9:06 PM
This little discussion even made it onto the Southern War Room’s postings, so the question must have legs or these neo-confederates would not keep cross-posting the question and responses.
Here is my point to both this and the earlier post. Since we in the North are “purposefully distorting the truth of ‘black confederates’ ” why not when replacing or placing a stone in the first place, mark them with “black confederated” in order to end the “historical cover-up”? Take for instance the 37th Texas’ website dealing with “black confederates”…
Black Confederates Why haven’t we heard more about them? National Park Service historian, Ed Bearrs, stated, “I don’t want to call it a conspiracy to ignore the role of Blacks both above and below the Mason-Dixon line, but it was definitely a tendency that began around 1910″ Historian, Erwin L. Jordan, Jr., calls it a “cover-up” which started back in 1865. He writes, “During my research, I came across instances where Black men stated they were soldiers, but you can plainly see where ‘soldier’ is crossed out and ‘body servant’ inserted, or ‘teamster’ on pension applications.” Another black historian, Roland Young, says he is not surprised that blacks fought. He explains that “some, if not most, Black southerners would support their country” and that by doing so they were “demonstrating it’s possible to hate the system of slavery and love one’s country.” This is the very same reaction that most African Americans showed during the American Revolution, where they fought for the colonies, even though the British offered them freedom if they fought for them.
It is obvious these people think something is up historically…despite the proven misquote of NPS Historian Bearrs. I think this is a fair question. Granted, it is obvious to those historically minded individuals why “black confederates” tombstone’s are not marked or marked with “black confederate”, but if the SCV’s and other “heritage” groups are really set on setting the record straight, why not spend the little extra money and tell “the truth”?
Oh…wait…that would be historically inaccurate…silly me!
PS: After this article, I think I need to get a new ” ” key on the keyboard!!
The stones are furnished by the United States Government.
They have no place to list the race of anyone.