Teresa Roane Bio

Our June speaker, Ms. Teresa Roane, comes to us from Richmond VA. Teresa earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Virginia Commonwealth University and worked eight years for the Richmond Public Library, followed by 15 years at the Valentine Museum’s library. More recently, for over seven years, Teresa was the Archivist at the Museum for the Confederacy and has served on several boards including the Historic Richmond Foundation.

Teresa has researched the Black participant in the Confederate armies and has spoken at many venues to include several Civil War Round Tables. Teresa has completed exhaustive research with various resources to include the National Archives.

Ms. Roane's June 2021 Program

From our history of the Civil War, we have learned the first African American unit to serve in a combat role was the Union First Kansas Colored infantry. That unit fought the first battle for an African American unit at the Battle of Island Mound, in October of 1862. The first Federally recognized black    unit    was the
54th Massachusetts, organized in 1863. By 1864 approximately 180,000 Black soldiers were serving in the Union Armies, and 20,000 more in the Navy with deaths of approximately 40,000. Black soldiers served in the artillery, infantry, cavalry, teamsters, and scouts, as well as cooks, blacksmiths, and laborers, fulfilling all the responsibilities of any and all soldiers in any army.

However on the Confederate side, were there Blacks who served in the Confederate armies? If so, were they slave or were some free? What were the logistics assigned to the Black man? Were they assigned weapons, or the rolls of teamsters, cooks, musicians, etc.? Were these Blacks recognized by the Confederate government in any way? Of the 71,000 troops that moved with Lee into Pennsylvania, were there Blacks that moved with that army? Teresa will give us a very interesting and detailed program of the logistics of the Black man in the Confederate armies.