This discussion has taken on a different twist from speaking to African Amercian Confederate Soldiers to considering those AA's, free or slave, who may have been impressed to serve the Confederacy in a support capacity.

My contention has always been that known AA's, or Persons of Color, were not drafted, enlisted and/or volunteered to serve as Soldiers with the Confedrate forces in combat during the Civil War in the numbers stated by the Myth. I make this statement recognizing that there may possibly be exceptions.

Jan, I do not in any way doubt your statements and proof given about your AA ancestor. The questions surounding his service in both the Confederate and Union Army is .... Was he serving as a known AA, or as you stated "a man of swarthy complexion".

When speaking of the hundreds of thousands of AA's involved with service to both the Confederacy and the Union do we not need to distinguish between those who served as impressed persons and those who served as soldiers?

Impressment of Free and Slave Blacks during the Civil War.
http://tinyurl.com/3tvqaae

Art Thomas