The Dance of Freedom: Texas African Americans during Reconstruction (review)

2??8Book Reviews351 black troops to retaliate, killing Confederates who attempted to surrender. However, as Burkhardt notes, efforts by Union black troops to kill Confederate captives occurred less often, lagging "far behind the much more proficient enemy" (p. 2). While die audior describes some occasions when black soldiers killed Confederates trying to surrender, this is essentially a description ofinstances where Confederates failed to take African American prisoners. Tragically, troops from Texas were involved in a number of such affairs. Texas Confederates first encountered black Union troops inJune 1863 when Henry E. McCulloch's brigade defeated four black regiments at Milliken's Bend in northern Louisiana. In die batde some of McCulloch's troops gave no quarter, killing dozens of black soldiers who attempted to surrender. Approximately eighty black troops were taken prisoner but some of these were killed after capture, and others were returned to slavery. Burkhardt points out that the refusal of Confederates to take black prisoners ofwar became more commonplace in the latter part of the war. At Poison Spring in soudiern Arkansas dozens ofblack troops attempting to surrender were slain by Texans and Confederate Indians commanded by Samuel Bell Maxey. As retribution, black troops killed some Texas Confederates attempting to surrender in fighting at Jenkins' Ferry in 1864. One of the worst examples of refusal to take black prisoners of war occurred at Saltville, Virginia, in October 1 864 when Confederate troops of a Kentucky brigade commanded by Texan Felix Robertson killed dozens of black Union troops who attempted to surrender. As the author points out, Gen. Robert E. Lee ordered charges brought against the Texan but Robertson took his troops to Georgia before action could be taken against him. Although much ofthe material contained in Burkhardt's work will be familiar to Civil War readers, the author has done a creditablejob in bringing together the story of Confederate (and to a lesser extent Union) failures to take prisoners of war. An extensive bibliography demonstrates the author's thorough examination of pertinent primary and secondary material, although Texas readers will note the absence of Richard Lowe's excellent Walker's Texas Division, C.S.A. (Baton Rouge, 2004). And although die author has examined most material on Fort Pillow, he fails to list Albert Castel's pioneering article, "A Final Examination of the Evidence," Civil WarHutory (1958). But diese are minor criticisms of a commendable work. Readers will find much value in Confederate Rage, Yankee Wrath. Lamar UniversityRalph A. Wooster TL·DanceofFreedom: TexasAfricanAmericans duringReconstruction. By BarryA. Crouch, edited by Larry Madaras, foreword byAmoldo De León. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2007. Pp. 288. Table, notes, bibliography ofworks by audior, index. ISBN 0292714637. $60.00, clodi. ISBN 029714874. $21.95, paper.) TL· Dance ofFreedom is a collection of die most well-known (and some lesserknown ) essays on the African American experience during Reconstruction in Texas 352Southwestern Historical QuarterlyJanuary by the late BarryA. Crouch. Constituting die core ofCrouch's work on Reconstruction , diis anthology is an invaluable research tool for scholars of die period and ofTexas, generally. The foreword by Amoldo De León and introduction by Larry Madaras not only highlight Crouch's extensive academic career but also pay tribute to a respected colleague and mentor to a generation ofTexas historians. Number nineteen in theJack and Doris Smodiers Series in Texas History, Life, and Culture, TL·Dance ofFreedom includes previously published essays written over the last quarter century. The collection is organized topically and divided into four parts: Historiography, Freedom, Reaction, and Freedmen's Bureau Agents and African American Politicians. Most Texas historians will be familiar with Crouch's influential essay on Reconstruction historiography, "'Unmanacling' Texas Reconstruction : ATwenty-Year Perspective" (chapter one) . Likewise, die essay on the Texas Freedmen's Bureau agents and the black community (chapter nine), originally published in 1992, was incorporated that same year into Crouch's seminal work, TL·Freedmen's Bureau and Black Texans. Probably less familiar, however, are the essays on African Americans and the Texas penal system (chapter eight) and the three essays on black politicians (chapters ten, eleven, and twelve). A prodigious researcher and prolific writer, Crouch relied heavily upon the Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and...