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The mail continues to come in, and I thank the readers of the column. Let me answer some of the questions that have been raised by some very well-informed readers.

Terry Edwards of Dublin wrote that he "noticed like most recent times historians are making the slave issue the main and only issue causing bloodshed in the War Between the States. As a matter of fact, there were over 30,000 free blacks intermixed into the white Confederate regiments, this never happened in the Northern regiments until after the Korean conflict."

Points of information: I have found no record that "30,000 free blacks were intermixed into white Confederate regiments." If any reader can point me in the direction and offer reference, I shall be most appreciative.

On the issue of integrating the American military: President Harry Truman called for the integration of the U.S. military in January 1950; the Korean War began June 25, 1950. The Department of Defense stated in January 1951 that all basic training in the United States had been integrated.

In his letter, Edwards makes a key point that is often overlooked by casual readers of history: the Emancipation Proclamation of Jan. 1, 1863, did not free all slaves. The only slaves freed on that date were those who were slaves in the states then in rebellion against the federal government. Thus, slaves in Mississippi were declared free by presidential proclamation. Slaves in Maryland were still held in bondage.

Recent columns have included information about the Marine Corps during the Civil War, and W.E. Crocken of Roanoke wrote that his "ancestors have a long record with the U.S. Marine Corps, and I thought it appropriate to share some family history with you. In brief, my great-grandfather, James Henry Crocken, served in the Corps for 20 years (1834 54). Following his discharge from his fourth re-enlistment, he was employed by the Virginia Military Institute as a musician (fifer), Ordnance and Quartermaster Sergeant and Manager of the Sutlers Store. He was the fifer at the Battle of New Market" on May 15, 1864.

New Market was the introduction to combat of the 258-man Cadet Corps of Virginia Military Institute. The young gentlemen of the corps acquitted themselves with distinction. They filled part of the line of attack and came under murderous fire from Union artillery. The cadets refused to stop their attack, in spite of suffering about 20 percent casualties: 10 cadets were killed and 47 wounded. The Confederate forces ended a threat to the Shenandoah Valley and Gen. Robert E. Lee's source of food for his Army.

Crocken's account continues: "When VMI reopened after the war, he [great-grandfather James Henry Crocken] established and managed the Sutlers Store at the Institute until July of 1882. He left VMI in July of 1882 to return 17 Dec., 1884, again as Ordnance and QM Sgt. He replaced a Mr. Hook. His salary ... was set at $35 per month. He terminated his affiliation with VMI on 1 August, 1886, when his bid for the Sutler's concession was not accepted."

The story of a life well-spent ends, "Finally, James Henry Crocken raised his family of 10 children in Lexington, Virginia. His son, William Jacob Crocken (my grandfather), graduated from VMI in 1887 -- his diploma hangs on a wall in my office."

Bob Vogler of Martinsville e-mailed some comments, also about the Marine Corps and its performance during the Civil War. He quotes from "The U.S. Marine Corps Story" by J. Robert Moskin: "The truth is that the Civil War Marines had no consistent function in battle. Many fought as shipboard gun crews and sharpshooters. Some were hastily thrown together as landing battalions, but they had neither the doctrine nor the training for amphibious assaults under fire. When this war ended, their failure to evolve a real wartime function would threaten the Corps' life."

Vogler adds that Civil War leadership of the Corps was in the hands of "68-year-old Lt. Col. John Harris who had been in uniform for 44 years. He lacked the energy to lead the Corps to meet the challenge of the times. ... On May 12, 1864, Commandant Harris died ... eight days shy of his 74th birthday."

The duties of the Marine Corps are briefly defined as naval infantry, and their earliest assignments starting Nov. 10, 1775, included protecting naval officers on the vessels they commanded from attack by seamen. Another key assignment tasked them with "such other duties as the president may direct."

During several periods in its existence, the Marine Corps was the target of the other services, and the Civil War was one of them; the Army and the Navy saw the budget provided for the Marines as fair game, and there were many other periods in our history when that funding was coveted by the other services. The Marine commandant in the 1860s was careful to act within the limits of his assignment as stated in 1775.

During World War I, Marines fought in France as American infantry, and their record was one of attack and success and valor. But after the war, they were faced with the other services that again said that Marine assignments could be done better within the Army and the Navy, that there was no need for a separate Marine Corps.

It wasn't until the inter-war period that the Marines built for their own service their national defense reason for being: amphibious assault onto a hostile shore. And just in time, too -- with Japan the presumptive enemy, assault from the sea became the American attack model. American Marines attacked Japanese-held islands all across the Pacific, and their names mark the American drive west toward Tokyo. The battles for each island are a tribute to superb planning and execution: Tarawa, Kwajalein, Eniwetok, Saipan, Tinian, Guam. And if the attack on Peleliu in November 1944 was a mistake, it was not a mistake made by the Marines: Peleliu was one of the few mistakes made by American high command during the Pacific War, and it was a bad one.

The next invasion was the 1944 landings in the Philippines, followed in 1945 by Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

At Iwo Jima, it was Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal who said that our victory on that miserable rock guaranteed "an American Marine Corps for the next 500 years."

My thanks to all who wrote to comment on the columns.

WANT TO WRITE? Ned Harrison is a Greensboro, N.C., writer who specializes in military history and writes a monthly Civil War column for The Roanoke Times. He wants to hear about your ancestors who were part of our Civil War. Write him at News & Record / RT, P.O. Box 20848, Greensboro, NC 27420 or e-mail him at: n-b-h@mindspring.com.