Nelson W. Winbush

Nelson Wyman Winbush (born 1929) is an American educator and Civil War historian. He is one of a few African-American members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and is known for his controversial views, such as his support of the modern display of the Confederate flag.

Early life and education Winbush was born in Ripley, Tennessee, in the Mississippi Delta region, to Isaac and Ganelle Nelson Winbush. His siblings included brothers Robert and Harold, and sisters Mary and Dorothy Jean. His family grew up in the house built in 1908 by his maternal grandfather Louis Napoleon Nelson. As Nelson lived until 1934, Winbush had a few years as a young boy to absorb his vivid first-person accounts of slavery and service as an enslaved person under his enslavers, ER and Sidney Oldham, while the brothers served in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

Louis Napoleon Nelson, grandfather Louis Napoleon Nelson (1847–1934) was an enslaved cook and body servant during the American Civil War. In 1862, Louis was a 14-year-old illiterate slave on James and Helen C. Oldham's plantation in Lauderdale County, Tennessee.

The Oldhams were a prominent Episcopalian family who owned over 40 slaves. Nelson was one of 19 enslaved children under the age of 16 on the plantation according to the United States Census (1860 Slave Schedule). James and Helen had 3 sons, E.R. (18), Sidney (16), and James (12).

Experience during the Civil War E.R. and Sidney enlisted in Company M, Tennessee 7th Cavalry (Duckworth’s) in April 1862. At 14 years old, Louis' owner sent him to serve as a personal servant for his sons. Based on the memoir of a member of Company M, Charles Stephen Olin Rice, the Oldham sons brought along another slave named Auterick.

As a Confederate slave, Louis was responsible for duties such as cooking breakfast, cleaning, brushing uniforms, taking care of horses, foraging for food, shaving, delivering messages or any other task the owner needed. Sometimes slaves were also allowed to hire out their services if their owner permitted.

Company M was one of many Confederate cavalry formations that fell under the overall command of the noted slave trader, planter and Confederate cavalry Lieutenant General, Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Louis later served as a cook for Company M, but there is no record of how this service came about. It is unknown whether Louis was hired out by E.R. Oldham to the Confederate Army or ever received pay for his labor during this time.

Lore about Louis' life In Winbush's speeches and writing he frequently discusses Nelson. Winbush claims that Nelson was allowed to serve as a rifleman and later as chaplain to both blacks and whites; he had already memorized the King James Bible by heart.

In a 2007 Florida Today interview, Winbush stated that his grandfather served as a chaplain in 1862 after the Battle of Shiloh for 4 campaigns. There are no sources which corroborate any of these claims.

In contrast to the story that Winbush tells his grandfather was quoted in a June 6, 1929 Charlotte Observer article entitled, "Forrest's valet admits Lee and Jackson were good too". "I looked a’ter dem houses when Cap’n Bedford wuzn’t ridin’ em an’ when he wasn’t too close to de fightin’. I always stayed as far away from de fightin’ as I could an’ wit’ all dat. I had to do some powerful good runnin’ ever now an’ den. " - Louis Napoleon Nelson

The September 10, 1863, issue of The Religious Herald is often used to bolster Louis' bonafides as the first black chaplain of the CSA. The story, which was reprinted in several newspapers, notes that a Confederate Tennessee regiment did not have a chaplain, but instead had services led by an "old negro" slave named "Uncle Lewis". Louis Nelson would have been around 15 years old at this time. Company M is not named in the articles. This lore directly contradicts the reality of the CSA's racial dynamics. But were African American laborers in the Confederate army formally enlisted in the army, equipped with uniforms, arms, and accoutrements, and paid for their own work, as were African Americans in the U.S. Army? No. Their status was that of enslaved or marginally free laborers serving in capacities in a military setting analogous to their roles in civilian life. Referring to such men as “soldiers” ignores a fundamental distinction between forced labor and military service. - Jim Coski, American Civil War Museum The CSA did not allow blacks to enlist and as a policy did not arm them. Confederate Army Regulations from 1861 to 1865 state that soldiers must be "free white males" and cannot be "the servant of a soldier". The first black soldiers enlisted in the CSA in March 1865 just a few weeks before the war's end and Louis was not in this number. Oldham and the rest of Company M surrendered in Gainesville, Alabama on May 12, 1865. All existing records classify Louis as a cook and servant. Louis' pension application and obituary were absent of any mention of duties as a chaplain, rifleman or soldier.

His widow was denied pension as the State of Tennessee only paid a pension to veterans, their widows, and ex-servants, but not to the widows of ex-servants.

As a descendant of Nelson, Winbush qualified for membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans. 1921 was the first year that black cooks and servants were allowed to file.

Legacy Louis was one of more than 280 men who appeared before the Tennessee pension board to receive the pension created to "provide for those colored men who served as servants and cooks in the Confederate Army.”

Not every cook or servant qualified for a pension. Eligibility requirements included an inability to support oneself and proof they stayed in the war until the end. The pension paid $10 a month.

Family Both Winbush's mother Ganelle and his maternal grandmother were teachers, and education was prized in their family. Winbush and his siblings all earned college degrees and some, like his sister Mary, also earned graduate degrees. She became a teacher and principal.

Opinions on Confederate history

Membership in Sons of Confederate Veterans In 1991, after the NAACP began a campaign against the Confederate flag being celebrated on public buildings, Winbush disagreed with such sentiment and efforts, and decided to join the Sons of Confederate Veterans. He is a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Jacob Summerlin Camp #1516 in Kissimmee, Florida.

In the article, "In defense of his Confederate pride" which appeared in the Tampa Bay Times, highlighting Winbush, one young SCV member is quoted as saying Winbush's story "wipes out" the whole "segregation and racism argument", describing the Winbush's story as a way to neutralize critique of the Confederacy. He has been known to sing a Confederate song including the line, "....Black is nothing other than a darker shade of rebel gray."

Interview with Edward C. Smith, Black Southern Heritage In 1998, Winbush participated in making a video on Black Southern Heritage, directed by Edward Smith of American University, who is also an African-American SCV member. The video covers his grandfather's Confederate military service and qualification for a Confederate pension after the war, as well as elements of other African-American heritage. Smith has made these claims since the early mid-1990s, but has never provided evidence.

Community reactions The NAACP and similar organizations have criticized Winbush for his support of what they believe are neo-Confederate causes; they think he misunderstands the history of the South.