Daughter of Slave who Fought for Confederacy Dies

[Linda Anderson]

"A woman whose father, a black slave, fought on the Confederate side in the Civil War alongside his master was buried today, more than 150 years after the conflict began.
"Mattie Clyburn Rice, 91, died last month. Her father was Weary Clyburn, a slave from South Carolina who followed his master to war and saved his life."


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http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi...d=60770561

[Anita]

Linda, what an amazing story. At first I thought there must be an error. Went to your link read that Weary Clyburn fathered Mattie when he was 82 in 1922. His story is remarkable. My sister lives in Monroe, NC. Thanks for posting this.

[Wild Bill]

Although it is limited, blacks served as laborers and combat soldiers in the Confederate Army. There are legitimate black sons of Confederate veterans in Mississippi today, several of Bedford Forrest's aides were black (they made excellent scouts), and an entire artillery battery in the Army of Tennessee was comprised of black gunners. Union troops reported being shot at by blacks in gray uniform in the Peninsular Campaign in Virginia in 1862 and Hanover Junction of the Va central and RF&P railroads was guarded by black troops in 1864-65. The entire 1st SC infantry went to war with each man having his black body servant along. There was an Arkansas Rebel pulled off the battlefield by his own body servant at Wilson's Creek, Mo. It was common place in many battles. It is, to say the least, a highly controversial politically incorrect subject nowadays.

For those interested, see Ervin l. Jordan, Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia; Richard Rollins (ed.), Black Southerners in Gray: Essays on Afro-Americans in Confederate Armies (Redondo Beach, CA: Rank and File Publications,1994); and Robert Durden, The Gray and the Black (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1972). I believe that one article, possibly an entire issue, of North & South Magazine was devoted to the topic a while back. The letters to the editor were heated, to say the least.

Louisiana had three black regiments offer to enlist in the Confederate Army in 1861. Believing that slavery was the cornerstone of the Confederacy, as CSA Vice Presodent Alexander Stephens said, Rebel authorities refused to accept them, and in 1863, many of these men enlisted in the Corps D'Afrique in the Union army and played a prominent role in the siege of Port Hudson.

It seems that there were so many black teamsters in Lee's Army of Northern Virginia that even Marylanders were amazed during the 1863 Gettysburg Campaign. They manned Longstreet's entire reserve ammunition wagon train and it never missed a battle.

There are even instances where blacks served in the Texas version of the KKK in 1870, see Allen W. Trelease, White Terror (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1971), and some were pursued by Union authorities all the way to Canada after they participated in the murder of a Freedmen' Bureau agent.

[Linda Anderson]

You're welcome, Anita. It's amazing to think that Mattie Clyburn Rice's father was born before Robert Lincoln, Fanny Seward & Lewis Powell.

Thanks, Bill, for all the references. Some of it is pretty shocking to me, like blacks in the Texas version of the KKK.

My husband was wondering about the pensions paid to the Confederate soldiers. How was it worked out that that they were able to receive pensions from the government they had fought against?

[Anita]

Linda, I also wondered about the pensions paid to the Confederate soldiers.

Here's what I found.

"It wasn't until the 1930s that confederate soldiers began receiving pensions from the federal government. Prior to that, confederate soldiers could apply for benefits through the state they resided in.
The last verified Civil War veteran, Albert Woolson, died in 1956 at age 109. The last widow, Gertrude Janeway, died in 2003 at age 93.
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washing...r-pensions

"The federal government did not grant pensions to Confederate veterans or their dependents , however,southern state governments
granted pensions to Confederate veterans and widows. Veterans filed for pensions in the state where they were living at the time,
not the state from which they served." http://www.archives.gov/research/militar...nsions.pdf

[Linda Anderson]

Thanks, Anita.

""It wasn't until the 1930s that confederate soldiers began receiving pensions from the federal government."

However, the article from archives.gov says that:

"Confederate veterans, who served in the military before the Civil War, or with the United States Army after their Confederate service, were eligible to receive pensions from the federal government."

So were the pensions that the confederate soldiers received from the federal government starting in the 1930s from wars other than the Civil War? If those pensions starting in the 1930s were in fact from serving in the Civil War, what happened that brought that change about?

[Anita]

(10-19-2014 09:44 PM)Linda Anderson Wrote:  Thanks, Anita.

""It wasn't until the 1930s that confederate soldiers began receiving pensions from the federal government."

However, the article from archives.gov says that:

"Confederate veterans, who served in the military before the Civil War, or with the United States Army after their Confederate service, were eligible to receive pensions from the federal government."

So were the pensions that the confederate soldiers received from the federal government starting in the 1930s from wars other than the Civil War? If those pensions starting in the 1930s were in fact from serving in the Civil War, what happened that brought that change about?

Linda, I can find no source that says Confederate vets ever received a federal pension for service in the Civil War. It would make sense that they should be entitled to a pension for other Federal military service. The article in "US News & World Report" isn't clear.
The VA should be able to clarify.

[Linda Anderson]

Anita, I found this article about Civil War Pensions.

"At the same time [1890] that pension requirements were becoming more liberal, several Southern congressmen attempted to open up the Federal system to Confederate veterans. Proponents justified such a move by noting that Southerners had contributed to Federal pensions through indirect taxes since the end of the war. These proposals met with mixed responses in both North and the South, but overwhelmingly, opposition came from those financially comfortable Confederate veterans and southern politicians who regarded such dependency on Federal assistance a dishonor t the Lost Cause. It should be noted that impoverished Southern veterans frequently were not averse to the prospect of receiving Federal pensions. In any event, no such law ever passed, and Confederate veterans and their widows never matriculated into the Federal pension system."

http://www.civilwarhome.com/pensions.html

[Anita]

(10-20-2014 06:48 PM)Linda Anderson Wrote:  Anita, I found this article about Civil War Pensions.

"At the same time [1890] that pension requirements were becoming more liberal, several Southern congressmen attempted to open up the Federal system to Confederate veterans. Proponents justified such a move by noting that Southerners had contributed to Federal pensions through indirect taxes since the end of the war. These proposals met with mixed responses in both North and the South, but overwhelmingly, opposition came from those financially comfortable Confederate veterans and southern politicians who regarded such dependency on Federal assistance a dishonor t the Lost Cause. It should be noted that impoverished Southern veterans frequently were not averse to the prospect of receiving Federal pensions. In any event, no such law ever passed, and Confederate veterans and their widows never matriculated into the Federal pension system."

http://www.civilwarhome.com/pensions.html

Thanks Linda. My great great grandfather got a pension from the state of GA in 1890 after losing his left arm the first day of the Battle of the Crater at Petersburg. His name is Joshua Chapman.