Confederate Navy
Naval historian Ivan Musicant has written that there were blacks who served in the Confederate Navy. Musicant wrote:
Free blacks could enlist with the approval of the local squadron commander, or the Navy Department, and slaves were permitted to serve with their master's consent. It was stipulated that no draft of seamen to a newly commissioned vessel could number more than 5 per cent blacks. Though figures are lacking, a fair number of blacks served as coal heavers, officers' stewards, or at the top end, as highly skilled tidewater pilots.Read more about this topic: Military History Of African Americans In The American Civil War
Famous quotes containing the words confederate and/or navy:
“Well, you Yankees and your holy principle about savin the Union. Youre plunderin pirates thats what. Well, you think theres no Confederate army where youre goin. You think our boys are asleep down here. Well, theyll catch up to you and theyll cut you to pieces you, you nameless, fatherless scum. I wish I could be there to see it.”
—John Lee Mahin (19021984)
“There were gentlemen and there were seamen in the navy of Charles the Second. But the seamen were not gentlemen; and the gentlemen were not seamen.”
—Thomas Babington Macaulay (18001859)