-government. Some people say that
Negroes will not fight. I say they will fight. They fought at Ocean
Pond (Olustee, Fla.), Honey Hill and other places. The enemy fights us
with Negroes, and they will do very well to fight the Yankees."[35]

The pressure to fill the depleted ranks of the Confederate forces
became greater as the war continued. It was noted above that Congress
and the State legislatures had called into service all able-bodied
whites between the ages of seventeen and fifty years; later the ages
were extended both ways to sixteen and sixty years. Grant remarked
that the Confederates had robbed "the cradle and the grave" in order
to fill the armies[36]. Jefferson Davis began to see the futility of a
hypothetical discussion as to the advisability or values in the use of
Negroes as soldiers and in a letter to John Forsythe, February, 1865,
stated "that all arguments as to the positive advantage or
disadvantage of employing them are beside the question, which is
simply one of relative advantage between having their fighting element
in our ranks or in those of the enemy."[37]

A strong recommendation for the use of Negroes as soldiers was sent to
Senator Andrew Hunter at Richmond by General Robert E. Lee, in
January, 1865. "I think, therefore," said he, "we must decide whether
slavery shall be extinguished by our enemies and the slaves be used
against us, or use them ourselves at the risk of the effects which may
be produced upon our social institutions. My own opinion is that we
should employ them without delay. I believe that with proper
regulations they may be made efficient soldiers. They possess the
physical qualifications in a marked degree. Long habits of obedience
and subordination coupled with the moral influence which in our
country the white man possesses over the black, furnish an excellent
foundation for that discipline which is the best guaranty of military
efficiency. Our chief aim should be to secure their fidelity. There
have been formidable armies composed of men having no interest in the
cause for which they fought beyond their pay or the hope of plunder.
But it is certain that the surest foundation upon which the fidelity
of an army can rest, especially in a service which imposes hardships
and privations, is the personal interest of the soldier in the issue
of the contest. Such an interest we can give our Negroes by giving
immediate freedom to all who enlist, and freedom at the end of the wa