Putting arms into the hands of free blacks and slaves

http://digital.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=harp;cc=harp;idno=harp0028-5;q1=Mississippi;size=l;frm=frameset;seq=713 - Harper's New Monthly Magazine Volume 0028 Issue 167 (April, 1864) Title: Monthly Record of Current Events: Monthly Record of Current Events [pp. 702-707]

"The Confederate Government had provided for putting arms into the hands not only of free blacks but of slaves; arming them was of necessity liberating them. The republicans will have armed the negroes. They were consistent in this; for they had changed the war into an Abolition war, and therefore the blacks should be called out. He implored them to make the war as short as possible." -- MONTHLY RECORD OF CURRENT EVENTS, PAGE 703