White Officers for Black Confederate Troops

Confederate Major General Patrick R. Cleburne, a brilliant commander, who died at Franklin, Tennessee, advocated arming slaves to fight for the Confederacy.

Beginning in late 1864, nearly 200 white Southern  men petitioned the Confederate Secretary of War for colonel's commissions, so they could raise black regiments.

These never-before published documents will be in a book due out in late 2011.