by late 1863 and 1864 war was not looking good for Confederacy
-Union naval blockade became v effective and likelihood of British aid vanished
-armies sulfide from defeats in Vicksburg and Gettysburg in 1863 and Tennessee, Georgia, and Virginia in 1864
-white southerners began to discuss possibility of arming black men
-some newspapers advocated it
-General Patrick Cleburne recommended enlisting slaves and promising freedom if they remained loyal
-argued policy would gain recognition and aid from Britain and disrupt union military efforts to recruit black southerners
-prospect of arming slaves and free black men appealed most white southerners
-Pres Davis said no speaking of that
-most white southerners convinced that to arm slaves it defied assumptions on which southern society was based
-black ppl were inferior, and proper status was to be slaves
-Civil war for white southerners was a war to prevent the abolition of slavery
-now they were saying to abolish slavery to save the southern nation
-south moved toward employing black troops
-General Robert E. Lee was critical to determining whether the Confederacy would decide to arm black men
-no southerner was more revered or respected
-Lee had freed nearly 200 slaves in keeping with instructions of his father in law will which said they should be free 5 years after his death in 1857
-Lee announced he favored both enrolling and emancipating black troops
-Congress voted to enlist 300,000 black men between ages of 18 an 45
-receive same pay, equipment and supplies as whites but those who were slaves would not be free unless owner consented and the state where they served agreed to emancipation
-didnt really help, Lee surrendered
