Blacks in the American Armed Forces, 1776-1883: A Bibliography, and: The Civil War in the North: A Selective Annotated Bibliography (review)

BOOK REVIEWS361 Bhcks in the American Armed Forces, 1776-1883: A Bibliography. Compiled by Lenwood G. Davis and George Hill. (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1985. Pp. xvii, 232. $35.00.) The CivilWarinthe North: A SelectiveAnnotated Bibliography. Edited by EugeneC. Murdock. (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1987. Pp. xx, 761. $58.00.) Bibliographies can behelpful to readers seeking to find abook or article and unsure of what has been published. To judge the merit of a bibliography one must evaluate the type of materials that the compiler has included ; the annotation, if any; the organization of the citations; and, most significantly, the ease with which one can access the citations. Because of their flaws, these two works are only partially useful for the reader and scholar. Davis and Hill have compiled a pioneering bibliography on blacks in the American armed forces. There are more than 2,300 citations organized into ten chapters, each covering a chronological period from the American Revolution through the post-Vietnam era. The citations are arranged in alphabetical order by author. In addition, thebook contains several brief appendices including a list of black general officers, ships named after blacks, and black institutions. There is an author index. The works cited include some contemporaneous with the events described and others which are the result of recent scholarship. The bibliography contains citations from monographs, dissertations, materials published by the government, and articles from popular publications and scholarly journals. Eugene Murdock's bibliography is somewhat different, for it focuses on a shorter time period, includes annotations, and has over 5,500 entries . There are sections on a variety of topics such as the Union army, campaigns, politics, biographies, Abraham Lincoln, soldier life, and minorities . Each entry includes a one or two sentence annotation. There is an author and a subject index. The items included come from a somewhat narrower range of sources than those of the Davis bibliography. Each bibliography has strengths and weaknesses. The annotations in Murdock arehelpful as far as they go, but they do not reveal much about the quality of the item nor its point of view. The topical arrangement in placing citations is not always followed. The problem is compounded because the subject index is inadequate. On the other hand, Davis and Hill's bibliography suffers from the absence of any annotations. Another problem arises from the omission of a subject index. The reader has to scan an entire chapter in order to see if there are any items on a topic of interest. A major difference between the two works is their inclusiveness. Davis and Hill have included more types of sources, incorporating dissertations and popular journals, but the authors really do not make it clear 362CIVIL WAR HISTORY why works were included or excluded. In addition, citations from contemporary newspapers seem oflittleuse. Murdock rejected avariety of sources, such as dissertations and obscure journals. With interlibrary loan available to most people interested in these topics, this does not seem a valid reason to exclude items. Both of these bibliographies can be helpful to readers interested in the literature on their topics. Murdock's bibliography fills a gap for students of the Civil War, but would have been much more useful if the annotations had been more analytical, the scope of sources broader, and the subject index more complete. Davis and Hill's work is a pioneering attempt , but is hurt by the lack of annotations and the inclusion of newspaper articles. The appendices are useless and the space would better have been utilized with a good subject index. Theseworks demonstrate some of the possible flaws in published bibliographies . They can serve as object lessons to those interested in producing the needed new works in these fields. Marvin E. Fletcher Ohio University The Army in Texas During Reconstruction, 1865-1870. By William L. Richter. (College Station, Texas: Texas A & M University Press, 1987. Pp. 280. $28.50.) From the time that Federal troops, under the command of General Gordon Granger, first entered Texas following the Civil War until the full restoration of civil government, on March 31, 1870, the United States Army played a pervasive and critical role in the reconstruction of the Lone Star State...