sion of the facts regarding the war,
whether the slaves would have remained consciously faithful would have
been a perplexing question.[2]

The South had been aware of its imminent danger and with its
traditional methods strove to prevent the arming of the Negroes. With
the memories of Negro insurrections ever fresh in the public mind,
quite a change of front would be required to bring the South to view
with favor such a radical measure. The South, however, was not alone
in its unwillingness to employ Negroes as soldiers. For the first two
years of the war, the North represented by President Lincoln and
Congress refused to consider the same proposal. In the face of
stubborn opposition loyal Negroes had been admitted into the Engineer
and Quartermaster Departments of the Union armies, but their
employment as soldiers under arms was discountenanced during the first
years of the war.

In the North this discrimination caused much discontent among the
Negroes but those living in the States in rebellion did not understand
the issues in the war, and of necessity could not understand until the
Union forces had invaded the hostile sections and spread the
information which had gradually developed the point of view that the
war was for the extermination of the institution of slavery. It may be
recalled that during the opening days of the war, slaves captured by
the Union forces were returned to their disloyal masters. Here there
is sufficient evidence in the concrete that slavery was not the avowed
cause of the conflict.[3] If there was this uncertain notion of the
cause of the war among northern sympathizers, how much more befogged
must have been the minds of the southern slaves in the hands of men
who imagined that they were fighting for the same principles involved
in our earlier struggle with Great Britain! To the majority of the
Negroes, as to all the South, the invading armies of the Union seemed
to be ruthlessly attacking independent States, invading the beloved
homeland and trampling upon all that these men held dear[4].

The loyalty of the slave while the master was away with the fighting
forces of the Confederacy has been the making of many orators of an
earlier day, echoes of which we often hear in the present[5]. The
Negroes were not only loyal in remaining at home and doing their duty
but also in offering themselves for actual service in the Confederate
army. Believing their land invaded by hostile foes, they were