HISTORICAL NOTES:

According to the records of the Union Army, General Butler's own memoirs, and the recently-published diary of Col. Banks, Commanding Officer of the 2nd Louisiana Native Guard, only six of twenty-six Confederate Native Guard officers accepted Union service (and were driven out of service within a few months), while less than ten percent of the rank-and-file of the Confederate 1st Louisiana accepted Union service.

That only twenty-three percent of the officers and less than ten percent of the enlisted men of the 1st Louisiana Native Guard switched sides is ample evidence that there was little enthusiasm for the offer made by Butler.

The notion that the 1st Louisiana Native Guard, organized as a Louisiana State Militia Unit and accepted for service by the Governor, changed sides en masse is a misrepresentation. The fantasy that the United States Colored Troops were "188,000 Black soldiers" when their ranks also held the Hispanic, Native Peoples, and other non-whites who were not allowed to serve in the ranks of the segregated Union Army is also typical of rewritten history.

The 1st Louisiana Native Guard, CSA, can trace its origins to the Louisiana Battalion of Free Men of Color who served under Jackson in the War of 1812 and whose officers were the first Black military officers in U.S. history.

Your Obedient Servant,

Brevet Colonel Michael Kelley, CSA
Commanding, 37th Texas Cavalry (Terrell's)
http://www.37thtexas.org
"We are a band of brothers!"

FIELD OFFICERS:

ROSTERS:

REFERENCES:

Booth - Records of Louisiana Confederate Soldiers and Louisiana Confederate Commands
Crute - Units of the Confederate States Army
Sifakis - The Compendium of the Confederate Armies

The Civil War in Louisiana
Index