Freedom for Themselves: North Carolina's Black Soldiers in the Civil War Era (review)

Richard Reid has produced the best study of an African American unit during the American Civil War. Reid's accomplishment is both in spite of and because of his decision not to study just one regiment, as is typical, but to examine all four of North Carolina's African American regiments. The material could easily overwhelm a scholar, but Reid did a prodigious amount of research in manuscripts, pension records, official records, contemporary newspapers, and other primary sources. Importantly, he understands the limitations of different primary sources and the best methodologies to exploit them, as seen in his discussions of the selection process for black noncommissioned officers and finding soldiers after their service (38–39, 300–302). Mastering so many primary sources and a thorough command of the field's historiography enables Reid to contrast the regiments' extremely different experiences. He makes a variety of arguments throughout the book but correctly recognizes that "the real value of this study lies in the fact that the activities, abilities, and utilization of these four regiments were sufficiently varied to encompass the experiences of most black soldiers" (326, 328). While we simply do not know enough to determine whether the regiments cover the full spectrum of black service, by exploring the variety of experiences in such detail Reid provides a new and much fuller understanding of how African American soldiers experienced the Civil War.

Union general Edward Wild began forming African American regiments as a progressive attempt to demonstrate the value of black soldiers and this showed in the 1st North Carolina Colored Volunteers (NCCV). Wild chose James Beecher—Harriet Beecher Stowe's half-brother—as commander, veterans from Massachusetts regiments with abolitionist credentials as officers, and African Americans as noncommissioned officers. While the regiment received old weapons, a couple months of intensive training enabled it to perform admirably at the Battle of Olustee in Florida and impress white comrades. Wild tried to repeat the formula for the 2nd NCCV, but delays in getting officers and training problems were compounded with a racially charged first assignment of guarding Confederate prisoners. After the initial tribulations, however, the 2nd NCCV fought well in a couple of battles and manned the trenches around Petersburg. The 3rd NCCV had a rougher time than its sister units, both because Wilder could not supervise its formation and the army rushed it into combat with only half its allotted companies, and none adequately trained. The predictable poor result in its initial combat haunted the regiment, and Reid argues that even by the end of the war it "had not proven itself an effective fighting regiment" (184). Increasing tensions between white officers and black soldiers that had dogged it since its inception exploded in September 1865 when soldiers mutinied over the perceived excessive punishment of a comrade. In contrast to the infantry regiments, the 1st North Carolina Colored Heavy Artillery was conceived neither with a progressive vision nor as a combat unit. With many whites seeking to be officers in the regiment for less than idealistic motives, internal divisions constantly wracked the unit as it performed fatigue duty throughout North Carolina.

While the formation and activities of the four regiments constitute the majority of the book, Reid takes seriously his intention to ensure that "the wartime experiences of African American soldiers could not, and should not, be isolated from their own communities" (xiv). In addition to integrating the larger black community into each chapter, an entire chapter is dedicated to the families of soldiers during the war. Reid likewise fulfills his promise of the book "fitting into the more recent studies of the impact of the war on all aspects of society," particularly with chapters on Reconstruction and black veterans (xiv). Considering the book's vast research and wide coverage, it is probably churlish to mention that this reviewer wishes there had been something on the antebellum lives...