Records for these Black Confederates aren't in the so called "Official Record". That is a Union record that was compiled after the war. It is compiled mainly from Union sources, not Confederate.

Confederate letters and records from the Officers and men tell the story as well as slave narratives from the 1920s.

Below are some examples ...

http://web.archive.org/web/20080416202956/http://www.37thtexas.org/html/BlkHist.html

http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1863/battle-of-fredericksburg.htm

While the CSA did not officially enroll Blacks as soldiers, it did not stop the States from enrolling them as body servants to keep in step with Richmond. After all the War was fought over the right of states to chart their own course without interference from a federal government. If there were no Confederate soldiers, how does one explain away the twenty-six black Confederate soldiers buried with their white, brown, and red brethren. They had a choice to walk to the front gate of Camp Morton, take the oath, and fight for the Union, but instead they chose to die far away from home and family. I'm sure people like Kevin Levine with his hateful attitude toward the South would like to photoshop them out of history, but there they are. There are also reports of "Negros" fighting for the Confederacy in the Official Records and letters to family from Union soldiers. As Frank Ernest has said, "We know there is sand on the beach. We're just discussing how many grains of sand there are."

Sorry, Bill from Ohio, but (1) I'm sure Mr Levin is familiar with that New York Herald article, which is a staple "proof" of black Confederates, and (2) the article does not provide any proof of black Confederate soldiers, but of the presence of blacks with the Confederate forces (which no one denies) who may have been swept up with others captured by Union forces (which no one would deny) , and who may well have been carrying arms, but were most probably doing so as manservants of white soldiers in the Confederate army. (A similar problem holds for pension reconrds of southern black Americans for Confederate "service," since such pensions were granted by several ex-Confederate states to slaves who had accompanied their masters in the army.) If there had been black Confederate soldiers prior to the enlistment of a mere handful in the very last days of the war (the story told in Bruce Levine's Confederate Emancipation), there would be evidence in muster rolls and enlistment papers. And there is none!!!

One of the hallmarks that separates professional historians from history buffs is their ability -- obligation, actually -- to analyze, verify, and corroborate information with authoritative sources before they pass it off as fact. The internet has become a cesspool of spurious ideologically-tinged history, and there's no better example than the flap over black confederates. The story here isn't really about whether a handful of African-Americans served in something other than compulsory support roles in confederate military units. It's really about the willful misuse and propagation of historical data with analysis that passes off ideology as corroboration.

No proof of Black Confererate Soldiers, please turn your attention to a New York herald article dated July 11, 1863.

Mr. Levin, please research this topic before you submit a comment. There were indeed "Black Confederate Soldiers" during the civil war.

Mr Levin says there is no evidence of black confederate soldiers. Wonder if he will bother to interview Mr. Wimbush and examine any documentation he may be able to provide.