Speaking of Black Confederates...
Following are the last two paragraphs of a July 1904 article in the Montgomery Advertiser, describing a barbecue held in Prattville honoring Confederate veterans of the Prattville Dragoons and the W. W. Wadsworth Camp, United Confederate Veterans.
"Two honored Confederate Veterans about the grounds at the barbecue were the two old negroes who, as slaves, were devoted to their masters, (and) served in the war. One, Monroe Stuart, belonged to the late Mr. George L. Stuart, loaded guns at Vicksburg, was in prison for months, refused pardon to remain in the fight, and as he came out of prison, took the clothes off a dead Confederate soldier, put them on, and stayed by the side of Col. H. J. Livingston the last two years of the war. He is ever faithful to his white friends and always votes the Democratic ticket.
"The other black veteran is Bosin Lynum of Camden, who belonged to the late William Lynum. On Thursday he wore a Yankee sergeant uniform which, he said, was captured during the war. He said: 'They gin it to me at Montgomery.' He wore a white helmet with a red and yellow tassle on it. This, he said, belonged to 'Marse Gin'ral Bragg.' Well, he had soldier's clothes on, and was happy whether he got their history quite correct or not. He carried with him as credentials, as it were, an old New Orleans Times-Democrat, in which appeared a long article about him on an occasion when he made a speech there. He said: 'After the war I waited a while for that mule and forty acres, and then I went back to my white folk and have voted the Democratic ticket ever since.' "
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