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The proposal Patrick Cleburne made on January 2, 1864 to arm blacks to fight for the Confederacy is often understood as either promoting the use of armed slaves to preserve slavery or as a naïve proposition for emancipation that ignored what the South was fighting for. 1
It was neither. At the heart of his proposal was the conclusion that the war for slavery had already been lost. Now white Southerners were battling for survival.2
Patrick Cleburne’s proposal was not aimed at winning the victory that the Confederates had sought to win when they attacked Fort Sumter in April, 1861. That war, for a 13 state Confederacy preserving slavery, had been lost in 1863 according to Cleburne. Now the South’s whites were fighting to avoid complete subjugation by the North. Although Confederate President Jefferson Davis claimed to have plans to salvage victory, Cleburne dismissed this as a political smokescreen, writing “We…see in the recommendations of the President only a temporary expedient, which at the best will leave us twelve months hence in the same predicament we are in now.” In short, Jeff Davis failed “to meet…the depressing causes” of imminent Confederate defeat, in Cleburne’s words. 3
A Confederate collapse would lead to the inevitable end of slavery. Cleburne urged Southern whites to understand that a large part of the Confederacy had already fallen to the Union forces, and wherever those troops had marched, slavery had ceased to exist. The destruction of slavery had already occurred in Tennessee, and he predicted that Confederate armies would soon be unable to preserve it elsewhere. The Irish general warned that unless the radical action of ending slavery was taken, “we must be subjugated.”4
“Every man should endeavor to understand the meaning of subjugation before it is too late”, he warned. “We can,” he added, “give but a faint idea when we say it means the loss of all we now hold most sacred — slaves and all other personal property, lands, homesteads, liberty, justice, safety, pride, manhood.” Losing the war did simply mean losing slavery, he said, it meant having a new regime “[f]orced upon us by a conqueror.” If slavery ended only through a Union victory, then whites in the South would face “the hatred of our former slaves” who would ally themselves with the Unionists and, after the war would “be our secret police.”5
Cleburne is sometimes seen a man too naïve to understand the importance of slavery to the Confederacy. Far from it. He writes openly in his proposal that among those who might oppose his proposal it “is said slavery is all we are fighting for, and if we give it up we give up all.” His response is that “slavery is not all our enemies are fighting for.” In other words, defeat will entail a lot worse suffering for Southern whites than merely the loss of slaves. Historically, rebels were often executed or imprisoned after conquest. They might lose their homes or property. They would certainly lose their right to self-government, at least for a time.6
Cleburne believed that defeat could only be prevented if black men were enlisted in the Confederate army as part of a broad emancipation plan. However, he had to overcome the widespread belief among white Southerners that blacks were an inferior and cowardly race. Incredibly, he used three examples of black heroism fighting against whites to demonstrate their neglected capacity as soldiers. The first example was from Haiti: “The negro slaves of Saint Domingo, fighting for freedom, defeated their white masters and the French troops sent against them.” The second were Jamaican communities of resistance: “ The negro slaves of Jamaica revolted, and under the name of Maroons held the mountains against their masters for 150 years.” The third was one Southerners could see with their own eyes as black Union regiments defeated Southern soldiers: “[T]he experience of this war has been so far that half-trained negroes have fought as bravely as many other half-trained Yankees.” Cleburne’s analysis directly challenged Southern notions of white military superiority.7
Cleburne argued that the success of black soldiers in defeating the French army in Haiti proved their fighting ability.
Cleburne rejected the use of slaves as soldiers by the Confederacy. He opposed calls to force slaves to take up arms for the Confederates. “The slaves are dangerous now” due to the disruptions of war, he wrote, “but armed, trained, and collected in an army they would be a thousand fold more dangerous.” Arm the slaves, and they would turn their weapons on their “masters”. “[T]herefore”, he argued, “when we make soldiers of them we must make free men of them beyond all question, and thus enlist their sympathies also.” Any attempt to emancipate slaves who enlisted in the army would inevitably destroy slavery, he predicted, so he said “If, then, we touch the institution at all, we would do best to make the most of it…by emancipating the whole race.”8
Cleburne argued that liberating only those slaves who enlisted would demoralize black soldiers. Although they would be “free”, they would effectively be fighting to keep their wives, their children, and their communities enslaved. Contradicting the apologists of slavery who said that blacks were satisfied being slaves, Cleburne wrote that “the negro has been dreaming of freedom, and…it has become the paradise of his hopes.” To show good faith, Cleburne insisted that the Confederacy “immediately make [the slaves’] marriage and parental relations sacred in the eyes of the law” and that a comprehensive emancipation take place within a “reasonable time.” If blacks were called upon to fight, he wrote, “It is a first principle with mankind that he who offers his life in defense of the State should receive from her in return his freedom and his happiness, and we believe in acknowledgment of this principle.” If even a portion of blacks fought for the Confederacy, Cleburne said, “every consideration of principle and policy demand that we should set him and his whole race who side with us free.”9
Cleburne said that an army of slaves would not fight to preserve slavery, but his proposal was vague on how soon after enlisting blacks the Confederacy would end human bondage.
While Cleburne’s proposal was radical, it was unclear as to how long it would take under it to end slavery. It did not grant blacks Confederate citizenship or the vote. It also contemplated laws that would compel unemployed blacks to find work that may have been similar to the post-war vagrancy laws. In other words it would bring an end to slavery and limited civil rights, but it would not place African Americans on an equal footing with whites. 10
Cleburne’s proposal was supported by a number of officers of his own division, but when it was presented to the generals of the Army of Tennessee several wanted to suppress it while at least one viewed it as treasonous. When the proposal was sent to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, his reaction would be decisive. 11
VIDEO: Dedication of marker in Georgia at house where Cleburne made his emancipation proposal
Sources
1. Meteor Shining Brightly: Essays on Major General Patrick R. Cleburne by Mauriel Phillips Joslyn Terrell House Publishing (1998); Stonewall of the West: Patrick Cleburne and the Civil War by Craig L. Symonds published by University Press of Kansas (1997) pp. 50-51; Biographical Sketches of Gen. Pat Cleburne and Gen. T.C. Hindman by Charles Nash published by Tunnah & Pittard (1898); Biographical Sketch of Major-General P.R. Cleburne by Gen. W.H. Hardee Southern Historical society Papers Vol. XXXI edited by R.A. Brock 1903 pp. 151-164; Confederate Emancipation: Southern Plans to Free and Arm Slaves during the Civil War Bruce Levine published by Oxford University Press (2006) Kindle; January 12, 1864 Letter of W.H.T. Walker to Jefferson Davis Official Records of the War of the Rebellion Series I Volume 52 Part 2 p. 595.
2. January 2, 1864 Cleburne Emancipation Proposal
3. January 2, 1864 Cleburne Emancipation Proposal
4. January 2, 1864 Cleburne Emancipation Proposal
5. January 2, 1864 Cleburne Emancipation Proposal
6. January 2, 1864 Cleburne Emancipation Proposal
7. January 2, 1864 Cleburne Emancipation Proposal
8. January 2, 1864 Cleburne Emancipation Proposal
9. January 2, 1864 Cleburne Emancipation Proposal
10. January 2, 1864 Cleburne Emancipation Proposal
11. January 2, 1864 Cleburne Emancipation Proposal
The Immigrants’ Civil War is a series that examines the role of immigrants in our bloodiest war. Articles will appear twice monthly between 2011 and 2017. Here are the articles we have published so far:
1. Immigrant America on the Eve of the Civil War – Take a swing around the United States and see where immigrants were coming from and where they were living in 1861.
2. 1848: The Year that Created Immigrant America – Revolutions in Europe, famine and oppression in Ireland, and the end of the Mexican War made 1848 a key year in American immigration history.
3. Carl Schurz: From German Radical to American Abolitionist– A teenaged revolutionary of 1848, Carl Schurz brought his passion for equality with him to America.
4. Immigrant Leader Carl Schurz Tells Lincoln to Stand Firm Against Slavery.
5. …And the War Came to Immigrant America -The impact of the firing on Fort Sumter on America’s immigrants
6. The Rabbi Who Seceded From the South
7. The Fighting 69th-Irish New York Declares War
8. The Germans Save St. Louis for the Union
9. New York’s Irish Rush to Save Washington
10. Immigrant Day Laborers Help Build the First Fort to Protect Washington-The Fighting 69th use their construction skills.
11. Carl Schurz Meets With Lincoln To Arm the Germans
12. Immigrants Rush to Join the Union Army-Why?– The reasons immigrants gave for enlisting early in the war.
13. Why the Germans Fought for the Union?
14. Why Did the Irish Fight When They Were So Despised?
15. The “Sons of Garibaldi” Join the Union Army
16. The Irish Tigers From Louisiana
17. Immigrant Regiments on Opposite Banks of Bull Run -The Fighting 69th and the Louisiana Tigers
18. The St. Louis Germans Set Out To Free Missouri
19. Wilson’s Creek Drowns Immigrant Dream of Free Missouri
20. English-Only in 1861: No Germans Need Apply
21. After Bull Run: Mutineers, Scapegoats, and the Dead
22. St. Louis Germans Revived by Missouri Emancipation Proclamation
23. Jews Fight the Ban on Rabbis as Chaplains
24. Lincoln Dashes German Immigrants Hopes for Emancipation
25. When Hatred of Immigrants Stopped the Washington Monument from Being Built
26. Inside the Mind of a Know Nothing
27. The Evolution of the Know Nothings
28. The Know Nothings Launch a Civil War Against Immigrant America
29. The Know Nothings: From Triumph to Collapse
30. The Lasting Impact of the Know Nothings on Immigrant America.
31. Lincoln, the Know Nothings, and Immigrant America.
32. Irish Green and Black America: Race on the Edge of Civil War.
33. The Democratic Party and the Racial Consciousness of Irish Immigrants Before the Civil War
34. The Confederates Move Against Latino New Mexico
35. Nuevomexicanos Rally As Confederates Move Towards Santa Fe—But For Which Side?
36. The Confederate Army in New Mexico Strikes at Valverde
37. The Swedish Immigrant Who Saved the U.S. Navy
38. The Confederates Capture Santa Fe and Plot Extermination
39. A German Regiment Fights for “Freedom and Justice” at Shiloh-The 32nd Indiana under Col. August Willich.
40. The Know Nothing Colonel and the Irish Soldier Confronting slavery and bigotry.
41. Did Immigrants Hand New Orleans Over to the Union Army?
42. Did New Orleans’ Immigrants See Union Soldiers As Occupiers or Liberators?
43. Union Leader Ben Butler Seeks Support in New Orleans-When General Ben Butler took command in New Orleans in 1862, it was a Union outpost surrounded by Confederates. Butler drew on his experience as a pro-immigrant politician to win over the city’s Irish and Germans.
44. Union General Ben Butler Leverages Immigrant Politics in New Orleans
45. Thomas Meager: The Man Who Created the Irish Brigade
46. Thomas Meagher: The Irish Rebel Joins the Union Army
47. Recruiting the Irish Brigade-Creating the Irish American
48. Cross Keys: A German Regiment’s Annihilation in the Shenandoah Valley
49. The Irish Brigade Moves Towards Richmond-The Irish brigade in the Peninsula Campaign from March 17 to June 2, 1862.
50. Peninsula Emancipation: Irish Soldiers Take Steps on the Road to Freedom-The Irish Brigade and Irish soldiers from Boston free slaves along the march to Richmond.
51. Slaves Immigrate from the Confederacy to the United States During the Peninsula Campaign
52. The Irish 9th Massachusetts Cut Off During the Seven Days Battles
53. Union Defeat and an Irish Medal of Honor at the End of the Seven Days
54. Making Immigrant Soldiers into Citizens-Congress changed the immigration laws to meet the needs of a nation at war.
55. Carl Schurz: To Win the Civil War End Slavery
56. Carl Schurz: From Civilian to General in One Day
57. Did Anti-German Bigotry Help Cause Second Bull Run Defeat?
58. Immigrant Soldiers Chasing Lee Into Maryland
59. Scottish Highlanders Battle at South Mountain
60. Emancipation 150: “All men are created equal, black and white”– A German immigrant reacts to the Emancipation Proclamation
61. The Irish Brigade at Antietam
62. Private Peter Welsh Joins the Irish Brigade
63. Preliminaries to Emancipation: Race, the Irish, and Lincoln
64. The Politics of Emancipation: Lincoln Suffers Defeat
65. Carl Schurz Blames Lincoln for Defeat
66. The Irish Brigade and Virginia’s Civilians Black and White
67. The Irish Brigade and the Firing of General McClellan
68. General Grant Expells the Jews
69. The Irish Brigade Moves Towards Its Destruction At Fredericksburg.
70. Fredericksburg: The Worst Day in the Young Life of Private McCarter of the Irish Brigade
71. Forever Free: Emancipation New Year Day 1863
72. Private William McCarter of the Irish Brigade Hospitalized After Fredericksburg
73. The Immigrant Women That Nursed Private McCarter After Fredericksburg
74. Nursing Nuns of the Civil War
75. The Biases Behind Grant’s Order Expelling the Jews
76. The Jewish Community Reacts to Grant’s Expulsion Order
77. Lincoln Overturns Grant’s Order Against the Jews
78. Irish Families Learn of the Slaughter at Fredericksburg
79. Requiem for the Irish Brigade
80. St. Patrick’s Day in the Irish Brigade
81. Student Asks: Why Don’t We Learn More About Immigrants in the Civil War?
82. Missouri’s German Unionists: From Defeat to Uncertain Victory
83. Missouri Germans Contest Leadership of Unionist Cause
84. German Leader Franz Sigel’s Victory Earns a Powerful Enemy
85. Immigrant Unionists Marching Towards Pea Ridge
86. German Immigrants at the Battle of Pea Ridge: Opening Moves
87. Pea Ridge: The German Unionists Outflanked
88. German Immigrants at the Battle of Pea Ridge
89. The Organization of the “German” XI Corps
90. The Irish Brigade on the Road to Chancellorsville
91. The “German” XI Corps on the Eve of Chancellorsville
92. The “Germans Run Away” at Chancellorsville
93. The New York Times, the Germans, and the Anatomy of a Scapegoat at Chancellorsville
94. An Irish Soldier Between Chancellorsville and Gettysburg
95. Lee’s Army Moves Towards Gettysburg: Black Refugees Flee
96. Iron Brigade Immigrants Arrive at Gettysburg
97. Iron Brigade Immigrants Go Into Battle the First Day at Gettysburg
98. The “German” XI Corps at Gettysburg July 1, 1863
99. An Irish Colonel and the Defense of Little Round Top on the Second Day at Gettysburg
100. A Prayer Before Death for the Irish Brigade at Gettysburg: July 2, 1863
101. The Irish Regiment that Ended “Pickett’s Charge”: July 3, 1863
102. Five Points on the Edge of the Draft Riots
103. Before the Draft Riots: The Cultivation of Division
104. The New York Draft Riots Begin
105. Convulsion of Violence: The First Day of the New York Draft Riots
106. The Draft Riots End in a Sea of Blood-July 14-15, 1863.
107. Pat Cleburne: The Irish Confederate and the Know Nothings
108. Killing Pat Cleburne: Know Nothing Violence
109. Pat Cleburne: Arresting a General, Becoming a General
110. The Immigrant Story Behind “Twelve Years a Slave”
111. A German Immigrant Woman’s Gettysburg Address
112. Pat Cleburne: The Irish Confederate’s Emancipation Proclamation
113. Pat Cleburne: The South Can’t Use Black Soldiers Without Ending Slavery
Cultural
Painting of the Return of the 69th from Bull Run Unearthed
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The Five Meanings of “The Immigrants’ Civil War”
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Cinco de Mayo Holiday Dates Back to the American Civil War
New Immigrants Try to Come to Terms with America’s Civil War
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Should Lincoln Have Lost His Citizenship?
The First Casualties of the War Were Irish-Was that a Coincidence?
Civil War Anniversaries-History, Marketing, and Human Rights
Memorial Day’s Origins at the End of the Civil War
Germans Re-enact the Civil War-But Why Are They Dressed in Gray?
Leading Historians Discuss 1863 New York City Draft Riots
The Upstate New York Town that Joined the Confederacy
Civil War Blogs I Read Every Week
First Annual The Immigrants’ Civil War Award Goes to Joe Reinhart
Damian Shiels Wins Second Annual The Immigrants’ Civil War Award
Mother Jones: Civil War Era Immigrant and Labor Leader
Immigration Vacation -Civil War Sites
Fort Schuyler-Picnic where the Irish Brigade trained
The Fallout from No Irish Need Apply Article Spreads Worldwide
No Irish Need Apply Professor Gets into a Fight With Our Blogger Pat Young Over Louisa May Alcott
Books for Learning More About The Immigrants’ Civil War
Free Yale Course with David Blight on the Civil War
Cinco de Mayo Holiday Dates Back to the American Civil War
