Shadows of Loyalty: The Black Volunteers Who Chose the Gray

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Years ago I wrote an article titled, The Truth About Black History. And the truth is, the history we were taught in schools, the cinema, television, etc. is bent to fit forms that defy reality. Coming soon will be a slightly updated version of that story. In the meantime, I offer this snippet of history hidden by those who lie by omission. And they hate it when we uncover what they've cover up about the thousands of black men who fought for the Confederacy.

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The night before Fort Sumter fell, a young black physician in New Orleans named Francis R. Dumas stood on the levee and watched the Mississippi roll black under torchlight. He was thirty-three, free-born, and wealthy enough to own a small pharmacy on Rue Chartres. Yet when Louisiana seceded, he did something few expected: he volunteered for the Confederate army. Not as a servant, not as a laborer, but as a captain in the 1st Louisiana Native Guard—a regiment of free men of color who drilled in crisp uniforms and swore to defend their state.

“I have property here, family here, a future here,” Dumas told a skeptical white adjutant. “If the state falls, so do we.”¹

Dumas was not alone. Across the city, Bernard Cohen, a tailor’s son turned militia lieutenant, rallied 1,500 black creoles to the colors. Their unit—the first of its kind in the Confederacy—paraded through the Vieux Carré to cheers.

But the story of black Confederate volunteers is not one of parades. It is a story of choice under duress, of loyalty tested by fire, of names nearly erased by history and heroes historians prefer to hide behind the veils of "woke" ideology.

AbateHate.com removes the cover of covered-up news and history.

The Men Who Stepped Forward

Charles Lutz – The Twice-Captured Soldier
In the piney woods of Tangipahoa Parish, Charles Lutz enlisted in the 8th Louisiana Infantry in 1861. A free mulatto carpenter, Lutz carried a musket like any white private. He fought at First Manassas, was captured at Gettysburg, escaped, was recaptured at Appomattox—and survived. His service record, stamped “Colored,” survives in the National Archives.
“He loaded and fired with the best of us,” wrote Sgt. Elias Boudreaux in 1863.²

Primus Kelly – The Ranger’s Shadow

Out in Texas, an enslaved man named Primus Kelly rode with Terry’s Texas Rangers—not as a body servant, but as a volunteer combatant. When the 8th Texas Cavalry charged at Shiloh, Kelly was in the saddle, saber drawn. His owner, Col. Benjamin Terry, fell that day; Kelly kept fighting.

“Primus was worth three white men in a scrap,” Terry’s widow later told a pension board.³

Some claim The Lone Ranger TV character was modeled on Kelly. Others point to Zane Grey’s 1915 novel The Lone-Star Ranger, itself loosely inspired by the career of Texas Ranger John Reynolds Hughes—a white lawman renowned for tracking outlaws, though he never wore a mask or rode with a companion like Tonto. The consensus, however, is: the Lone Ranger was an original creation with no single real-life precedent.

Tom and Overton – The Captain’s Companions
In Virginia, two enslaved men—known only as Tom and Overton—rode with Capt. George Baylor of the 12th Virginia Cavalry. When the bugle sounded, they grabbed rifles from fallen troopers and charged. Baylor wrote in his diary:
“Tom and Overton fought like devils. I would not trade them for any two lieutenants.”⁴

William Colen Revels – The First Volunteer

In Surry County, North Carolina, William Colen Revels was twenty when he walked into the courthouse on April 20, 1861—the first man, black or white, to sign up for the local company. He served four years in supply and guard roles, earning a pension in 1927.
“I was born here,” Revels told the pension board. “I fought for here.”⁵

Thomas Tobi – Four Years in Gray
Thomas Tobi, a free black farmer from Southampton County, Virginia, enlisted in the Army of Northern Virginia on May 12, 1861. He served until the surrender at Appomattox—1,435 consecutive days. His name appears on the same muster rolls as Stonewall Jackson’s men.⁶

The Native Guard: Pride, Then Betrayal

The 1st Louisiana Native Guard was the Confederacy’s boldest experiment. Dumas, Cohen, and hundreds more drilled weekly in Congo Square. They offered their lives for a government that denied them citizenship. But when Union ships steamed up the Mississippi in April 1862, the white officers reportedly fled. The black soldiers were left to choose: surrender or switch sides.

Most chose the Union. Dumas and Cohen became Union officers. The Native Guard—reborn in blue—fought at Port Hudson, earning the first Medal of Honor for a black soldier. Their Confederate service? Erased from official memory.

“We were loyal until loyalty was no longer possible,” Cohen wrote in 1865.⁷

Many believe Dumas and Cohen were the first black military officers in American history when they commanded the 1st Louisiana Native Guard. If true, the first American military officers served for the South.

The Last Volunteers

In March 1865, with Richmond burning, the Confederate Congress authorized black enlistment. Gen. Robert E. Lee endorsed it. Two companies of black soldiers—some volunteers, some conscripts—drilled in the capital’s streets. But Appomattox came first. The war ended before they fired a shot.

Legacy in Pension Files

After the war, Tennessee granted pensions to black Confederates. Between 1890 and 1930, nearly 300 applications were approved—each with affidavits, muster rolls, and eyewitness letters. The files are a goldmine for historians.

“They served honorably, though under a system that oppressed them,” writes Ervin L. Jordan Jr. in Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia.⁸

End Notes

First, if you notice any factual or significant errors in this article, please share your observations in the comments below so readers can benefit from the correction.

Second, the thumbnail image of the Black Confederate soldiers was generated using AI and is meant to symbolically represent the bravery of Black men who were part of the Confederacy during America’s most devastating war.

Footnotes

New Orleans Daily Picayune, 28 April 1861; Encyclopedia Virginia, “Louisiana Native Guard,” Link
Sgt. Elias Boudreaux, 1863; History is Now Magazine, “Black Confederates,” Link
Terry family pension testimony; Texas State Historical Association, “Terry’s Texas Rangers,” Link
Capt. George Baylor diary; Baylor Family Papers, Virginia Historical Society, Link
William Colen Revels pension statement, 1927; North Carolina Troops, 1861–1865, Link
Compiled Service Records, National Archives; Fold3, Link
Bernard Cohen, 1865; Louisiana Historical Quarterly, Link
Ervin L. Jordan Jr., Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia (1995), Amazon