In 1982, the image was again published in volume 3 of Embattled Confederacy: The Image of War, 1861-1865. In the decades that followed, the image was heavily edited to crop out the white officer and much of the background. The words “1st Louisiana Native Guard, 1861” were superimposed at the bottom and the image was used to erroneously claim that the Confederacy, were first to organize blacks troops. While this claim has been discredited, it continues to be manipulated by those who argue that enslaved people willingly took up arms to aid their captors as a show of fidelity.
