Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

A Guide to a Confederate Army Free Blacks Impressment Document, Accession 11225, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library

Acquisition Information

This collection was purchased on February 13, 1996.

Funding Note

Funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Scope and Content

This collection's two items are a November 1861 Confederate army document (with its transmittal envelope) from Confederate engineer Captain Edmund Trowbridge Dana Myers (1830-?) asking a Captain Hicks of the Confederate steamer Northampton   to transport nineteen Virginia free blacks (listed by name and county   of residence) from Hardy's Bluff, Isle of Wight County   , to Richmond for eventual return to their homes by way of the Danville Railroad [ Richmond and Danville Railroad ]. Most likely these free blacks were being evacuated from the area due to approaching Federal forces. A Union army expedition of November 14-22, 1861 culminated in the occupation of the counties   of Accomack and Northampton  .

These blacks, ranging in age from nine to seventy-one, were conscripted for the construction of military earthworks and other defenses at Fort Huger and Hardy's Bluff [variously spelled Harden or Hardin]. Nine were residents of Charlotte County   ( Drakes Branch , Mossing Ford and Roanoke Bridge ), six were residents of Farmville, Prince Edward County   , and four were residents of South Boston, Halifax County   . During much of the war able-bodied white Southern males volunteered for military service but balked at performing manual labor. The Confederacy requisitioned slaves and free blacks to perform much of the routine manual labor required by its military forces. The Confederate Congress authorized the conscription of free black military laborers in July 1861 but many were drafted by Confederate military officers before the law was enacted.

Nine of these free blacks were enumerated in the 1860 Virginia census; some apparently were members of the same families: Galatin Brogden , 13, Charlotte County  ; John L. Brogden , 8, Charlotte County  ; Winston H. Brogden , 24, Charlotte County  ; Frank Cromwell , 70, Charlotte County  ; [Gabe?] Daniel , 29, Halifax County  ; Simon Daniel , 44, Halifax County  ; John White , 18, Prince Edward County  ; Phillip White , 39, Prince Edward County  ; Hercules White , 25, Prince Edward County  .

The C.S.S. Northampton  , built in Baltimore in 1860 and purchased by the state of Virginia in 1861 as a James River army transport, had a capacity of 800 men and their equipment. It was valued at $50,000 in May 1861. In September 1862 it was sunk by Confederates as a Drewry's Bluff obstruction on the James River to prevent the advance of Union forces.

Confederate officers identified by name in the document include Capt. Hicks of the Northampton , C. P. Gilman , Lieutenant Charles G. Forshey , chief of engineers, and Captain Edmund Trowbridge Dana Myers, engineering officer (as of November 25, 1861). Forshey and Myers were members of the staff of Major General John B. Magruder (1807-1871), an early proponent of slave military labor. The envelope is addressed to Lieutenant Colonel Fletcher Harris Archer (1817-1902), a 1841 University of Virginia law graduate, veteran of the Mexican War, and postwar mayor of Petersburg, Virginia. Fletcher commanded the 5th Battalion of Virginia Volunteers, which served as an artillery unit at Harden's Bluff on the James River, from October 1861 to May 1862.