Fighting on McPherson's Ridge - Ranger Bill Hewitt 

I hope we're able to visit England in August! Gettysburg is great, you'll love it.

hope you’re there now. it’s a great battlefield

Will, these African American soldiers were not kidnapped. They were Union infantry division / union spies which were captured and jailed. Confederate captors then sent the men to CSAPOW units behind the southern lines. Before they were jailed, The soldiers were given the opportunity to be cooks, hospital attendants, sewers, weapon distribution / services, mail workers, or a personal handyman to upper ranked officers and generals which would provide the services I listed above. Many of them chose this over being imprisoned for the remainder of the war. None of these men were beaten, tortured, hung, shot, or victim of any war crime. They were released in trades with Union divisions in exchange for captured confederate POWs. Of course not all prisoners of either side would be freed during the civil war, in 1865, as the war ended, all POWs from both the Union and the Confederacy were released, unharmed and free to live life as they so pleased. I did research your claim, and did find a website who had headlined what you claimed as true, but as I read the article, it was stated the captured men were of union infantry and a few spies with them. I can see how they can see slavery tied with it though, but no, these were actually privileged POWs who had the option of being free to move around and write their families, and enjoy much more livable conditions than a block cell in the 1860s. It wasn’t joyful by any means, but they were POWs. Look at WW2 and WW1 POW fate and torture through the Vietnam era and you won’t feel so bad for civil war POWs.

Some records were destroyed as the Confederate government gradually learned it was going to be defeated and Richmond was going to fall. That was done to protect people who had worked for the Confederate government in case the US government decided to try them as traitors.