Freedmen Regiments in The South

Does anyone know how serious the debates over if it would be wise to free, and arm slaves as regiments was if majori figures of the confederacy like Lee were weighing in on an issue that had been silenced in 1864? Furthermore, if Confederates were willing to arm newly freedslaves in order to defend themselves then what were they really fighting for? It would seem difficult to argue that a nation was fighting for it's independence in order to sustain an institution that it was willing to lessen the importance of in order to win it's right to maintain it.