"Levi Miller and JJ McBride, 5th Texas" Topic

HOW ARE WE TO UNDERSTAND THE RELATIONSHIP OF LEVI MILLER AND JJ MCBRIDE?

Almost everything we know about Levi Miller's Confederate service is based on two letters written in 1907 by J. E. Anderson, who replaced JJ McBride as captain of C Company after McBride's wounding. (These letters are now in the Virginia State Library.) One is to Miller; it was evidently written at Levi's request to support his application for a Confederate pension from Virginia:

In accordance with your request I have this day written Mr. B. C. Shull, of Marlboro, Virginia, giving him a full account of your connection with our army. I told him of all the campaigns you were in, beginning with Yorktown, Fair Oaks, and seven days in front of Richmond, Maryland, Fredericksburg, Suffolk, Pennsylvania, Chickamauga, East Tennessee, the Wilderness ,and Spottsylvania Court House, where, on the morning of May 10, 1864, you ran across to us over an open field, and the Yankee sharpshooters fired several shots at you before you could get into our trench. You brought me some rations and you had to stay all day before you could get out, and how on that day the Yankees made a rushing charge on us, and you stood by my side and fought as gallant as any man in the company, and after we had driven the Yankees away, Jim Swindler made a motion that Levi Miller be enrolled as a full member of Company C, Fifth Texas Regiment. I put the motion and it was carried by a unanimous vote. I immediately enrolled your name on the roll of the company, and I still have that same roll.

Also how you nursed Captain McBride (when he) was wounded at Manassas and again when he was thought to be mortally wounded at the battle of the Wilderness, and how you nursed him until the fall of 1865, long after the war was closed, and in fact your nursing saved his life. Again you were never absent from the Company during the entire war, except when nursing Captain McBride when wounded. Again how good and kind you were to any of the men when sick in camp, and how much the boys thought of you. Yes, Levi, if there ever was a man deserving a pension you are one of them. I wrote four pages to Mr. Shull giving all in full. Of course, I could not mention everything. I was truly glad to hear from you, and anything I can do for you I will do with pleasure. I am in good health but feeling old age. My wife died in 1892, and I am living with my adopted son whom I raised from an infant. Write me again.

Your old friend and comrade,
J. E. Anderson,
Last Captain of Co. C. 5th Texas regiment

Captain Anderson's letter to B. C. Shull, chairman of the Confederate Pension Board of Frederick County, gives more details of Miller's service:

Levi Miller served as a servant for Capt. McBride and Capt. J. E Anderson, of Company C, Fifth Texas regiment, during the entire war from 1861 to 1865. When our company arrived in Richmond in September, 1861, Capt. J. J. McBride wrote his brother who lived in Rockbridge county, Va., to bring us one of his servants (slaves), and he brought us Levi Miller who was with us during all the fighting around Richmond in the year 1862, and in the Maryland campaign. Capt. McBride was wounded in the battle of Manassas August 31, 1862. Levi Miller stayed at the hospital and nursed the Captain until he recovered and both rejoined the company in time for the Fredericksburg fight December 1862. He was on the Suffolk campaign in the spring of 1863.

He was in the Pennsylvania campaign and at New Castle and Chambersburg he met several negroes whom he knew (I think some of them were related to him) and who had run away from Virginia. They tried to get Levi to desert but he would not. He went with us to Georgia and was in the battle of Chickamauga, Georgia, and in the campaign around Chattanooga, Tenn. He was with us during the severe cold winter of 1863-64 in the campaign of Knoxville and East Tennessee.

In the spring of 1864 we returned to Virginia and rejoined General Lee's army. In the battle of the Wilderness, Va., where General Lee started to lead the Texas brigade in a charge and the men turned his horse and made him go to the rear before we would charge – for we would not see him killed – Capt. McBride, during the desperate fighting had both legs broken and was considered to be fatally wounded. This occurred in the early morning of May 6, 1864. Levi Miller was at that time with the wagon trains and did not know of the Captain being wounded until he got to Spotsylvania Courthouse where we arrived on the morning of May 8. On the morning of May 10 Levi Miller brought to me a haversack of rations and in order to get to me in our little temporary ditch and breastworks, had to cross an open field of about 200 yards and as he came across the field in full run the enemy's sharpshooters clipped the dirt all around him. I told him he could not go back until dark as those sharpshooters would get him. I gave him directions where he could find Capt. McBride and as soon as it got dark for him to go and nurse the captain until he died and then return to me.

About two o'clock on that day I saw from the maneuvers of the enemy in our front that they were fixing to charge us and I told Levi Miller that he would get a chance to get in a battle. He asked for a gun and ammunition. We had several extra guns in our ditch and the men gave him a gun and ammunition. About 4 p. m. the enemy made a rushing charge. Levi Miller stood by my side and man never fought harder and better than he did and when the enemy tried to cross our little breastworks and we clubbed and bayoneted them off, no one used his bayonet with more skill and effect than Levi Miller. During the fight the shout of my men was ‘Give ‘em hell, Lee!'

After the fight was over one of the men made a motion that Levi Miller be enrolled as a full member of the company. I put the motion and of course it passed unanimously and I immediately enrolled his name as a full member of the company, which roll I have yet in my possession.

As soon as dark came Levi Miller went to Capt. McBride who was taken to a hospital at Charlottesville, Va., and Levi Miller stayed and nursed him until October, 1865 which was some time after the war closed. Capt. McBride returned to Texas and died there in 1880. He owed his life to Levi Miller's good nursing.

Levi Miller was never absent a day from the army except when nursing Capt. McBride. No better servant was in General lee's army. If anyone was sick in camp he was always ready to wait on them. He was a pet with every man in the company. Thousands of faithful and generous acts I could write to you if space and time would permit.

My company was Company C, Fifth Texas Regiment, Texas Brigade, Hood's Division, Longstreet's Corps, Army of Northern Virginia. Out of a company of 142 men I had but nine left to surrender with me at Appomatox, Va.

Note two points:

First, Anderson wrote "I gave him directions where he could find Capt. McBride and as soon as it got dark for him to go and nurse the captain until he died and then return to me.

That strongly suggests that Miller's service was not primarily based on (although clearly initiated by) his being a chattel slave to the McBrides. He was servant to the officers of the company. Miller WAS a slave, of course, but he was also in effect an "orderly" or "batman" whose responsibility was the routine care of an officer, leaving the officer more time and energy for command. Many armies have had such, and they are seldom slaves, being more commonly private soldiers.

Indeed, Anderson wrote: Levi Miller was never absent a day from the army except when nursing Capt. McBride. No better servant was in General lee's army. If anyone was sick in camp he was always ready to wait on them. He was a pet with every man in the company. Thousands of faithful and generous acts I could write to you if space and time would permit.

That indicates that Miller's role as servant should be understood primarily within a military context; his relationship was FIRST as body servant to McBride (hence him twice accompanying the wounded McBride), but SECOND was as servant to the company generally.

This seems far more like a feudal relationship of vassal to lord, than a strictly economic one (property to owner, or employee to employer). Feudalism is hard for moderns to understand, because we (correctly!) think in terms of basic human equality and also of the possibility of "climbing a social ladder" or improving one's relative position in society – and feudalism knows nothing of these concepts. But feudalism is BASED ON mutual obligations, as well as assigned roles. The higher ranked lord OWES his vassals protection, while they in turn owe him obedience and support. (Of course, like all human societies and cultures, feudalism often failed to live up to its ideals.) This may well explain why Miller remained with McBride in hospital in Charlottesville for months after the war (and his slavery) ended; there was some connection, some element of their relationship that was not based on legality nor compulsion. (It IS possible that McBride paid him – assuming he had money.)

Someone, presumably Miller himself, DID have CSA engraved on his marker. He was photographed with a group of other Confederate veterans. It is unlikely in the extreme that he took pride in having been a slave, but he quite plainly took great pride in having been a part of the army.

Second, notice that Miller moved freely about, within the army and indeed across Virginia. I have seen (but cannot now find where) a document concerning Miller traveling by rail back to Rockbridge during the war, to fetch shoes for McBride. He brought up rations from the wagons to his company at Spotsylvania (and almost got killed), and Anderson expected him to travel with the wounded McBride to the hospital and then return to where the company was. Presumably Miller carried some sort of papers, "orders," some sort of passport that allowed him to do all of this. Slaves would, of course, but so would (and do) soldiers when absent from their assigned duty.

It is a shame that we know so little about McBride's and Miller's relationship, but what we do know suggests depth and complexity.

Kevin Levin has been writing about the Myth of the Black Confederates

Was Levi Miller a Black Confederate Soldier?
link

His Book – Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War's Most Persistent Myth

One remark
…the challenges of camp life, long marches, and even the battlefield itself altered the relationship between master and slave in profound ways. I see Levi Miller as a prime example of this phenomenon.

Reviews of his book had several interesting comments including:

A number about the debunking of yet another aspect of the Lost Cause Myth

"Levin's study is the first of its kind to blueprint and then debunk the mythology of enslaved African Americans who allegedly served voluntarily in behalf of the Confederacy. . . . Searching for Black Confederates is highly recommended for historians, students, and enthusiasts of the Civil War and Civil War memory.--Journal of Southern History"

Levin also investigates the roles that African Americans actually performed in the Confederate army, including personal body servants and forced laborers. He demonstrates that regardless of the dangers these men faced in camp, on the march, and on the battlefield, their legal status remained unchanged. Even long after the guns fell silent, Confederate veterans and other writers remembered these men as former slaves and not as soldiers, an important reminder that how the war is remembered often runs counter to history.

Several longer reviews online – for the Emerging Civil War – they closed their review with link

"One of the most troubling things about this issue is that the slaves themselves–once again–have their history rewritten by white people. Camp slaves were an integral part of the southern armies. They served officers and privates alike, often as a link between home and the battlefield. Their story deserves a truthful telling. As long as some people prefer a history made up of innuendo and outright lies, the reality of the camp slaves' story will stay dormant. Author Kevin Levin's book Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War's Most Persistent Myth, calls out those lies and makes an excellent case for a more truthful telling."

McBride was quite prominent after the war, being a cotton factor in Galveston as well as secretary to the Texas Confederate Veterans organization (which was a power in Texas politics) and also head of the state Masonic order. Unhappily the Masonic library burned and with it McBride's papers. We can only wonder, for example, whether McBride and Miller corresponded after the war, during the 14 or 15 years both were alive. One hopes so.

Levin could not be bothered to get our name right. It is not "MacBride".

Miller's role as soldier was doubtless very unusual, maybe unique. His role as servant within and as part of the army was doubtless typical of thousands.

He DID get the higher soldier's pension from Va. (The state also paid a lower pension to former slaves who had worked on Confederate fortifications etc.)

Lee's army routinely traveled with thousands of slaves to perform various logistical tasks. Levi no doubt observed black people being rounded up by Confederate soldiers in Chambersburg to be taken south, and this might have deterred any thoughts of running for freedom. The role that Lee and his officers played in the task of reclaiming "contraband" on campaign is somewhat up for interpretation, but their correspondence to each other at the time is carefully worded and quite suggestive.

link
– I suspect you already have this – but his wallet is apparently on display at a museum in Mansfield LA

Had not seen the writeup, which is a bit overblown and not quite accurate in several ways, but Brother Phil did indeed discover the wallet while at a reenactment in Mansfield, some years ago.

Also came across this Masters thesis – PECULIAR PAIRINGS: TEXAS CONFEDERATES AND THEIR BODY SERVANTS
PDF link

Seems to be a fair treatment – looking at several cases and acknowledging the relationship of Master and Body Servant yet not taking it further than that. He does use the lens of the Lost Cause to look at several pieces

In his conclusion –
If analyzed carefully, however, these findings will
discover these characters to be dauntless survivors who shared in complex interactions with
Confederates as a means to endure the turbulent decades after the Civil War. Slavery will
continue to be a topic of crucial importance to understanding American history, and the inclusion
of these peculiar pairings of masters and slaves during the war is crucial to ensuring a holistic
look at the overall complex nature of this nation's past.

Interesting, yes, though not without error. Levi did not surrender at Appomattox as he was nursing McBride in Charlottesville.

Survivors indeed, with every right to be fearful. Any relationship based on the power of one over the other is usually pretty dysfunctional. This does not mean that there were not instances of loyalty and better treatment as we have often discussed.

The body servants were of course drawn from the house servants, and would have had the same closer relationship. In the case of Levi and McBride it is very probable that they knew each other previously, from before JJ went to Texas. JJ was in his 20s and Levi a boy. The McBrides only had seven slaves, iirc, three of whom were Levi's mother and her two children. Again, it seems to have been more a feudal type relationship, lord and vassal.

There wasnt anything feudal about the old South except that some of its higher ups liked to fantasize that it was so. Just like Marie Antoinette liked to dress up like Little Bo Peep herding her sheep.

One off or Oddball exceptions like this Levi Miller story and Mary Chestnuts diary actually tend to prove that the South was dedicated to racial segregation and preventing blacks from serving as soldiers.

"One off or Oddball exceptions like this Levi Miller story and Mary Chestnuts diary actually tend to prove that the South was dedicated to racial segregation and preventing blacks from serving as soldiers."

Yes, when stories of the past don't jive with the modern narrative they prove the modern narrative is right. Huh?

Right, when the evidence doesn't fit the narrative, the blame rests with the evidence.

No, the problem is when the evidence is cherry-picked to attempt to prove a narrative. Who's doing that, I wonder? Surely not the professional historian.

No, the problem is when the evidence is cherry-picked to attempt to prove a narrative. Who's doing that, I wonder? Surely not the professional historian.

That would be going at it backwards. One examines at least some of the data first, and then constructs hypotheses, and then attempts to disprove them, pretty much the same as scientists do (or are supposed to do). However, it is often the case that other historians have long since examined all the data, so if one is to produce anything new -- a requirement for a PhD -- one must ask new questions of old data.

It is well known -- or was, and I assume still is -- that the same data may support several very different AND EVEN MUTUALLY INCONSISTENT narratives. For instance, there are at least three very different interpretations -- narratives -- of Andrew Jackson's war against the 2nd BUS. The two that are most directly opposite are by authors both of whom won the Pulitzer and the National Book Award (Schlesinger's AGE OF JACKSON and Hammond's BANKS AND POLITICS).

So I'm not sure what "cherry picking" means in relation to how historians actually work.

Levi's story is unusual as regards him actually being in combat, and being treated as a Confederate veteran by the OTHER veterans, as he surely was -- but not at all unusual as regards his service as officer's body servant and general servant to a company. Mary Chesnut's experiences are similarly unique -- after all, she was very wealthy and married to an ex-senator and general -- but also representative of women of her class and station. It is indeed a principle of historiography -- one that distinguishes us from the so-called social sciences -- that EVERY person and situation is unique. We may look for and see patterns, but each dot on the graph is still its own thing.

Of course my professional training was fifty years ago, but hopefully today's historians operate similarly.

The Chesnuts, both husband and wife, were RELIEVED to be freed of the burden of owning (and having to care for) slaves. Anyone who knows anything about George Washington's efforts to free his slaves will understand that he too would have felt similar relief had it been offered. Thomas Jefferson, too, one suspects (except maybe for Sally Heming). Slavery was an evil system that was nigh impossible to escape, a gordian knot impossible to unravel. Thank God for Lincoln's sword.

@doc

You admit yourself that the Levi Miller story is unique and not at all clear. What exactly do you think this story illustrates that you bring up on a monthly basis? Considering the amount of psychic energy you fritter away on Levi Miller, you must think there is a platitude shattering payoff here? Why not share your revelation with us?

To me, this is the equivalent of a Ripley's Believe it or Not.

Although there does seem to be a dollop of Lost Cause to it if this article in the Winchester Star, written for Levi's obit., is genuinely reproduced:

Levi Miller, one of the few colored men regularly enlisted in the Confederate army during the Civil War and the recipient of a Confederate pension from the state of Virginia, died this morning at his home at Opequon, this county, after an illness of about two months, from heart failure.

link

He was enlisted? By the State of Virginia? I thought he was in the 5th Texas? Was he a bonafide legally enlisted soldier or like Gunga Din, was he an honorary "soldier"; a mascot or "pet" like is mentioned above?

doc: Slavery was an evil system that was nigh impossible to escape, a gordian knot impossible to unravel.

You say this over and over but why do you think slavery is evil?

And why was it impossible to escape? Seems like the solution was well at hand. And who was trying to escape it? The Plantation owners were looking to expand it.

Pay attention, Charge. Levi was enlisted in the 5th Texas, but lived in Virginia and so received a pension from that state. Just like other veterans. Find aother nit to pick.

DO you know the story of GW's attempts to free his slaves. It did prove impossible, and things were looser in the 1790s than they became after Nat Turner.

"The solution was well in hand'? WHAT solution? Explain how a single planter could solve the problem. If, for example, free blacks were forbidden in his state? And if he wanted to continue to grow cotton and have an income? What Chesnut said bout arming slaves applied to other efforts to change: either everyone must do it or no one can do it.

Thus his Virginia pension was long after the events, gratuitous and in no way proof that he was either enlisted or as the result of an obligation due service.

And about paying attention, youre the one who keeps bringing up this ultra fringe example of Levi Miller. If you think that Im not getting it, then maybe you need to make your point better. Frankly, it might help if you stated what your point was.

I take it you've studied it for a while and yet Levi's story with the 5th Texas remains ambiguous.

There are so many other stories to the civil war more interesting than Levi's, doubtless there has to be a reason you keep championing this one?

ALL the pensions were long after the events.

The evidence is the two letters from Captain Anderson which I quoted.

There COULD be another reason why you don't get something. or more than one, actually.

And I champion the story because it's family.

Really, Charge, dealing with you is tiresome.

"Thus his Virginia pension was long after the events, gratuitous and in no way proof that he was either enlisted or as the result of an obligation due service."

Um, by definition if he got a pension it was proof that the commonwealth owed him an obligation for his service. That's what pension applications were for, for the petitioner to prove that the government owed him an obligation for his service. Go read a few of the pension applications and maybe you'll understand. I doubt you will, but it's worth a shot.

To keep it in context, the Virginia pension was not for any officially recognized military service but just for the important noncombatant tasks Mr Miller performed for the 5th Texas.

Charge, perhaps you could READ the OP? Levi Miller received a Confederate veteran's pension, larger than the pensions paid to blacks who could prove they labored on Confederate fortifications etc. He was also regularly included in veterans meetings, photos, etc. Captain Anderson describes his being enrolled in the company after fighting with them at Spotsylvania..

I discovered Levi Miller by looking up Uncle JJ in the Confederate Veteran magazine. Which was published from 1893 until 1932. I didn't expect to find much since JJ died in 1880. Only one entry in the Index, and it was a death notice for Levi!

That led to further investigation. There is, for example, a photo of a veterans' group, about thirty men, and up in the back row is one black face, Levi's. His status as a Confed vet was unusual enough that his death made a lot of newspapers.

My dad was an Eagle Scout escort at the last Confederate veteran reunion in Shreveport LA in 1935. Ten years later he was at an air field in France when a ME 262 buzzed the field and then landed and the pilot stood up with his hands in the air.

So in ten years he went from spending a day walking around with a man who fought in the Civil war to seeing a jet fighter land.

Charge, perhaps you could READ the OP?

Levi Miller received a Confederate veteran's pension, larger than the pensions paid to blacks who could prove they labored on Confederate fortifications etc.

He was also regularly included in veterans meetings, photos, etc. Captain Anderson describes his being enrolled in the company after fighting with them at Spotsylvania..

Still a little curious why VA is paying for a 5th Texas pension. Is that what normally happened? I'm not an expert on pensions paid to veterans or servants or whatever by VA long after the ACW had ended.

We can see from the letters that Anderson claims there was a vote, claims that Miller was placed on muster rolls and further that Anderson claims to have used that muster roll to ask for a pension for Miller; perhaps as a way to make it larger/stronger. However, we dont seem to have the muster roll itself and that muster roll doesn't actually seem to have been submitted to any authority that granted the pension. It could be that it came across as a good story. Which it does. Levi Miller sounded like a brave and dedicated man.

Also, it could be that the VA pension was fuller to Miller not because of his military service but because he promoted so strongly by Anderson. Outside of Anderson's own declaration, I didnt see anything from the VA Pension Authority that Miller received a military service pension.

If Miller was an official soldier it would be recorded somewhere. There were a lot of pensions paid to blacks/slaves after the war but none of them seem to have been for military service.

Incidentally, we dont know if there was actually a vote to induct Miller into the company; maybe there was and maybe there wasn't. Additionally, is that all it takes to become a CSA soldier, a company vote? What about the CSA Policy that slaves could not be soldiers?

Miller may have been included in reunions but it still doesn't make him an official Confederate soldier recognized by the CSA or VA or whatever authority actually recognizes Confederate service.

It sounds like Levi Miller wouldve made a fine soldier but frankly, all his superhuman effort did not seem to produce official CSA recognition of that status which only serves to underline the CSA's dedication to keeping blacks (and especially black slaves) out of their army.

Anderson surrendered at Appomattox. Of course he took the company roster home with him.

Levi and other company servants would have already been on a roster. There exist rosters listing cooks and such, a certain number of which were authorized.

It is likely enough that the company's acceptance of Levi as a soldier was impromptu, he having just fought with them. And Levi soon left to go to nurse JJ, where he remained until months after the war.

But Levi was accepted as a veteran both by the pension system aand by fellow veterans.

🤔 So if they declare reparations, would Levi's family have to pay them. Would seem only fair. 😉

LOL! Yes, when he died, his estate was $3,000 USD or so, iirc. Quite a sum on the early 1900s.

@doc

Aside from claiming Miller took part in battles that only he decided to catalog decades later, Captain Anderson made assertions about an inductive vote and recording it on a roll but he didn't bother to send that document as proof to either Miller or the VA authority he wrote to about a pension. Where is this document? It would help to authenticate what he wrote in his letter to Miller/VA Confederate Pensions Board.

Aside from the fact that you brushed over the illegality of any CSA unit's regimental (or company) vote to induct a slave into its ranks and did not explain why VA would pay a Texas obligation, there is no apparent official acknowledgement that Mr Miller was a veteran. I accept that he may have been paid a full pension but truthfully, that evidence hasn't been produced either.

Speaking of documents, where does this pension system officially accept Mr Miller as a veteran? That would be a very important document indeed.

It comes across like you are submitting incongruent pieces of evidence some contemporary, some long after the events, some missing and some perhaps pure fabrications in an effort that somehow they come together and form an officially enlisted black slave into the CSA army.

Charge, you define pedantry. As well as ignorance. And I very much doubt your good faith in this. Let's drop it.

doc,
You're wasting your time. APDC has a comic book view of history, one side is puree good and the other pure evil. He doesn't understand how actual humans act and rejects anything that shows his belief system is built on a base of sand instead of bedrock.

DnJ, yes.

Charge, you define pedantry. As well as ignorance. And I very much doubt your good faith in this. Let's drop it.

Call me a doubting Thomas. A sound critique might shed some light on an otherwise murky story.

doc I understand that you merely put this story here because of family pride but you have to understand, and would no doubt be shocked to hear, that there are sinister elements who might take Mr Miller's story and, via innuendo, use it to maintain that blacks officially fought for the Confederate Army.

You can drop it if you like, I will continue to question and investigate.

And quibble. Levi's combat experience was apparently just the one battle. His service as nurse and orderly etc was typical of thousands.

BTW, there were two companies of black Confederates that were part of the ANV and fought during the retreat to Appomattox.

Dn or others – I would love to read about the battles these black confederates fought in during the retreat to Appomattox. I havent seen any reference in OBs. Any sources?

The only fight I am aware of is when troops that were engaged in creating fortifications and the like – according to to this National Park Service Brochure – a small action with a unit of Union Cavalry and a Confederate Wagon train.

PDF link

Note this brochure mentions there were 36 African Americans on on the Parole Lists at the Surrender