The story of black Confederate soldiers will be told to the Washington Civil War Round Table meeting on Monday evening, November 23, at 6 p.m. at the Jockey Club restaurant on The Square in Washington.

Martin O'Toole will present "Legends of Black Confederates," said Claibourne Darden, Round Table president. "There were a number of black soldiers in the Confederate armies. We are not referring to the blacks who served as cooks, teamsters, personal assistants, or construction workers, but we are referring to black men who actually served in the ranks as soldiers. Unlike the Union Army, who put all their black troops into segregated units with white officers, the Confederates integrated their black troops into their regular units."

O'Toole is expected to speak on one of the outstanding examples of Confederate Black troops, Holt Collier, from Mississippi, who served as a sharpshooter for the 9th Texas Calvary. "Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest noted what a splendid shot Trooper Collier was," O'Toole said. "A good time after the War, Trooper Collier served as a bear guide for President Teddy Roosevelt."

These black Confederate soldiers were for all practical purposes written out of the historical accounts of the Civil War, Darden said. "The winner of a war writes most of the history, especially for a good amount of time after the war. The North seemingly wanted to ignore or in some cases deny, that Blacks would freely fight for the Confederacy. For those who don't know about it, it is a tremendous part of our history. O'Toole makes a superb presentation and will debunk so much of the inaccurate information concerning our black Confederate troops."