ARLINGTON, Va. (WUSA) - It's well known, thanks to the movie Glory, that black soldiers fought for the Union. In the Confederate Army, historians say thousands of slaves worked as laborers, not as soldiers, but a new fourth grade textbook, "Our Virginia: Past and Present," has a different take.
"The people in Richmond who approved this book should be fired," said Jeremy Mayer, George Mason University Public Policy Associate Professor. "What do you have a credentialling board for textbooks for if not to catch howling errors?"
He and many historians are outraged about this line in the book, "Thousands of Southern blacks fought in the Confederate ranks, including two black battalions under the command of Stonewall Jackson."
