In Volume 8 the North Carolina Troops books series, on
page 148, we find this:
Polk, John -----
Negro. Served as "body guard to Colonel Samuel
Lowe" of this regiment.
Who was John Polk? Was he a slave owned by Colonel Lowe? A
freeman? Inquiring minds want to know more.
I've been writing today about free persons of color and
slaves attached to the Branch-Lane brigade. Talk about an area in which there
is a total lack of research. There are, I believe, a couple of reasons for this
gap. First, people seem more interested in adopting positions than actually
doing the research to confirm or refute their ideas. The positions run the gambit
from "There were no blacks in the Confederate army," to "There
were no blacks willingly serving in the Confederate army," to "There
were tens of thousands of blacks willingly serving in the Confederate
army." Second - it's not easy to find good sources, especially when the
"National Narrative" is already against you. Why is this? I believe
the reason why we don't find more mention of black men serving right alongside
white men in the ranks is this: it was not an uncommon practice prior to the
war. They worked in the fields together, in towns together, often attended
church together, and, given that the majority of slave owners only owned one or
two slaves, often lived in the same house together.
On a couple of occasions here on this blog, I've talked
about the Cozzens/Cossens/Cousins brothers. They were free people of color who
voluntarily served in Company B, 37th North Carolina Troops. In one letter from
another member of the 37th NCT, I have a list of men messing together. The
Cozzens are included in that list. This clearly was no big deal to the writer
of the letter. While this is scant
evidence of the theory that I proposed above, it is a start.
So just how many free men of color, or slaves, served in or
simply served Confederate regiments? That is impossible to say. But I did a
little sample. There were 139 men who served in the officers corps of the 37th
NCT. Officers were, historically, better educated and wealthier and could
afford slaves. I took the officers of two companies from Watauga, B and E. Out
of the twelve officers in Company B, nine were from Watauga. In Company E,
seven out of eleven were from Watauga. According to the slave census, only one
officer in Company B owned slaves - Jonathan Horton. He owned five, and could
possibly have brought one from home. Likewise, in Company E, only one man,
William F. Shull, owned slaves. He owned three, and could have brought one from
home. If that tally is true for every company, then there might have been one
slave brought from home for each company. Of course, that slave would be attached
to his master, and possibly his master's mess mates. It is possible that this number would be
greater in a regiment recruited earlier in the war. I've not written about a
regiment recruited early in the war (yet), so I'm not sure. You might easily
add three or four more for the field and staff. I also have some records of
soldiers renting servants. But, they often do not specify whether they were
renting slaves or freemen. So, maybe fifteen slaves or servants tending to
their masters in a regiment?
In the Branch-Lane brigade, I have identified twenty-three
men who served as teamsters during the war, a position traditionally occupied
by black men. But so far, I have not been able to identify any of them as either
free men of color or as enslaved. The research continues.
Back to John Polk. The scant amount of information we have
simply says he was a "Negro" and that he was Samuel Lowe's "body
guard." The record does not tell us if he was a cook, or teamster, or if he was slave or free, or even how long he
served.
I went and looked in the US Census. Samuel Lowe was from Lincoln
County. I found a John Polk, age 35, in the 1860 Gaston County census. He is a
freeman, and lists his post office in the King's Mountain area.
There is a John Polk in the 1870 US census for Cleveland
County, North Carolina. He is listed as a black man, age 49, living in the home
of Abe Polk, age 59. He was from North Carolina, and could read and write.
Of course, I have no idea if these are the same men, or even
if this is the right John Polk. I also searched for Samuel Lowe as a slave
owner on Heritage Quest. I could not find him listed.
People often mention the plethora of books about the war.
Save for a literal handful, like Bell Wiley's Southern Negroes, 1861-1865; Durden's The Gray and the Black: The Confederate Debate on Emancipation;
Blackerby's Blacks in Blue and Gray:
Afro-American Service in the Civil War; and Barrow, Segar, and Rosenburg's Black Confederates, it appears that
everyone is willing to just adopt some position, dig in, and hurl "bum
shells" at those who disagree. That is a terrible shame, as men like John
Polk deserve to have their stories told.
