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Former Confederate Officer Assisting Black Orphans?

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  • #1

    Former Confederate Officer Assisting Black Orphans?

    Greetings,

    Just wanted to see if anyone could help me. I've been approached by an English professor here at my university regarding the name and activities of a former Confederate officer who, after the war, reportedly engaged in assistance to Southern black orphans. I've already done the usual Google search but haven't yet been able to find anyone specifically mentioned as having engaged in this charitable work. My first two "suspects" were, as might be imagined, Nathan Bedford Forrest and James Longstreet. However, I was not immediately able to make any connections with orphan assistance.

    If anyone can assist me on this vexing question, I (and the English professor) would be very grateful for the help!

    Regards,

    Mark Jaeger
    Regards,

    Mark Jaeger
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Re: Former Confederate Officer Assisting Black Orphans?

    I do not think Forrest would be a man who'd be helping any person of African descent, as he was very active in the Ku Klux Klan after the war.....
    Taylor Kessen

    5th Ohio Light Artillery Battery and 29th OVI

    Then We shall give them the bayonet!- Jackson

    Comment

    • #3
      Re: Former Confederate Officer Assisting Black Orphans?

      CSA General John Breckinridge spoke out strongly against the KKK. It is unknown if he helped any ophaned slave children.
      [FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=DarkSlateGray][SIZE=3]Michael Phillips, GGG Grandson of
      Pvt Edmond Phillips, 44th NCT, Co E, "The Turtle Paws"[/SIZE]
      [SIZE=2]Mustered in March 1862
      Paroled at Appomattox C.H. Virginia, April 15, 1865[/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT]

      [FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=Navy][B]"Good, now we'll have news from Hell before breakfast."[/B][/COLOR][/SIZE]
      Was Gen Sherman's response upon hearing the capture and execution of 3 reporters who had followed from Atlanta, by the rebels.
      The execution part turned out to be false.[COLOR=DarkRed] [B]Dagg Nabbit![/B][/COLOR][/FONT]

      Comment

      • #4
        Re: Former Confederate Officer Assisting Black Orphans?

        Actually NBF was very active in helping former slaves after the war and his connection with the KKK is not as simple as often believed.

        Comment

        • #5
          Re: Former Confederate Officer Assisting Black Orphans?

          Nor where the activities of the KKK immediately after the war, the same as when it was re-invented in the 1920s.
          Brian Hicks
          Widows' Sons Mess
          Known lately to associate with the WIG and the Armory Guards

          "He's a good enough fellow... but I fear he may be another Alcibiades."

          “Every man ever got a statue made of him was one kinda sumbitch or another. It ain’t about you. It’s about what THEY need.”CAPTAIN MALCOLM REYNOLDS

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          • #6
            Re: Former Confederate Officer Assisting Black Orphans?

            The dreaded Moderator comment: Folks, Mark is looking for sources. Please cite the sources, especially since 1) You should in the first place on the AC. 2) This is for a college professor.

            Thanks gents.
            Herb Coats
            Armory Guards &
            WIG

            Comment

            • #7
              Re: Former Confederate Officer Assisting Black Orphans?

              I was just clarifying a misapprehension by a previous poster, not offering documentation on the original question. As for NBF, There are plenty of biographies and contemporary accounts and even congressional testimony attesting to his post war activities and certainly tons of contemporary and historical accounts of the KKK, not to mention easily accessibly info on Google.

              Comment

              • #8
                Re: Former Confederate Officer Assisting Black Orphans?

                Originally posted by Doughboy View Post
                I was just clarifying a misapprehension by a previous poster, not offering documentation on the original question. As for NBF, There are plenty of biographies and contemporary accounts and even congressional testimony attesting to his post war activities and certainly tons of contemporary and historical accounts of the KKK, not to mention easily accessibly info on Google.
                I concur with Mr. Wilson. NBF was a complex individual and oft unjustifiably maligned for his involvement with the KKK. There are any number of accounts and other documentary evidence to indicate that the targets of the 1866 KKK were carpetbaggers and scalawags, not Negroes. It is rarely mentioned that NBF attempted to disband the KKK in 1869 due to the violent direction it had taken. Most accounts of his post-war life in Memphis bespeak his cordial dealings with the black community. An example is his speech at a meeting of the Independent Order of Pole Bearers (an early Black advocacy group) and the warm reception he received there. But it is easier to connect him with the Klan and label him a bad person. To be sure, the KKK is a loathsome organization; today it seems but a collection of thugs, crazies, outcasts and ex-felons, but to understand NBF one truly needs to read and understand the early history of that organization and NBF's actual association with it and not the mythical presentations.

                A. W. Redd
                Last edited by reddcorp; 01-12-2012, 09:47 AM. Reason: Add name
                Andy Redd

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                • #9
                  Re: Former Confederate Officer Assisting Black Orphans?

                  Please stop stoking the fires of Angry Herb. The thread concerns sources about orphan assistance in the south for African Americans. More second or third hand conjecture about Forrest and/or the KKK is going to make Angry Herb even angrier.
                  Silas Tackitt,
                  one of the moderators.

                  Click here for a link to forum rules - or don't at your own peril.

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    Re: Former Confederate Officer Assisting Black Orphans?

                    Originally posted by markj View Post
                    Greetings,

                    Just wanted to see if anyone could help me. I've been approached by an English professor here at my university regarding the name and activities of a former Confederate officer who, after the war, reportedly engaged in assistance to Southern black orphans. I've already done the usual Google search but haven't yet been able to find anyone specifically mentioned as having engaged in this charitable work. My first two "suspects" were, as might be imagined, Nathan Bedford Forrest and James Longstreet. However, I was not immediately able to make any connections with orphan assistance.

                    If anyone can assist me on this vexing question, I (and the English professor) would be very grateful for the help!

                    Regards,

                    Mark Jaeger

                    Hi, Mark! Your question intrigued me so I tried a search, too, for various combinations of "negro orphans," "colored orphans," and "rebel" or "confederate" "officer" -- and pretty much also drew a blank. I wonder how actively this officer provided assistance and what that might have consisted of.

                    This source claims a kind of passive assistance by Beauregard, in that some of his land was used for a black orphanage: http://www.tngenweb.org/records/madi...n/fbwtn-05.htm I found a few other sources mentioning the use of Memminger's home for a like purpose.

                    A more active kind of assistance is hinted at in the book The Sequel of Appomattox, which states that some southern states after the war, like Mississippi, required black orphans to be bound out as apprentices, preferably to former masters, if found to be "suitable persons": http://books.google.com/books?id=Rf1...rphans&f=false

                    While active, the assistance in this case need not have been particularly charitable.
                    Michael A. Schaffner

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