Black Soldiers in Blue: African-American Troops in the Civil War Era (review)

This volume adds depth and texture to the picture of African-American soldiers in the Civil War that has emerged in the recent past. Its fourteen essays (including John David Smith's perceptive overview) treat different aspects of the black soldiers' experience but with special emphasis on their performance under fire. They neatly supplement Noah Andre Trudeau's benchmark study, Like Men of War (1998). Trudeau himself contributes an essay on the frequently overlooked seven cavalry regiments that served.

Smith both recounts the key events in the history of the U.S. Colored Troops (the War Department's collective designation of the African-American units) and summarizes recent scholarship. Without denying that the experiences of men born free differed from those freed from slavery, he finds no connection "between free or slave status and military performance" in combat (p. 54). Essays by Lawrence Lee Hewitt, Richard Lowe, Arthur W. Bergeron, Jr., John Cimprich, and Thomas D. Mays scrutinize the actions at Port Hudson, Milliken's Bend, Olustee, Fort Pillow, and Saltville, respectively, with careful attention to detail and sympathy for the men. William Glenn Robertson compares how two black divisions, one in the Army of the Potomac and the other in the Army of the James, fared under commanders of vastly different temperaments.

The remaining essays range more widely. Michael T. Meier appraises Army Adjutant General Lorenzo Thomas's role in advocating the use of black troops and promoting their enlistment. Keith Wilson compares the leadership styles of three antislavery regimental commanders: Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Robert Gould Shaw, and James Montgomery. Edwin S. Redkey explores how the military experience of Chaplain (later Bishop) Henry McNeal Turner influenced his advocacy for civil rights both during and after the war. Robert J. Zalinas, Jr., studies the use of black troops as occupation forces in Charleston, S.C., during the spring and summer of 1865.

Anne J. Bailey's treatment of the colored troops who served among General William T. Sherman's forces offers a cautionary perspective on the heroic tone of the volume. Alone among the major field commanders, Sherman steadfastly refused to incorporate black men into his front-line forces, deploying them instead in support and other rear echelon capacities. Ironically, when George H. Thomas organized the defense of Nashville in December 1864, he had little choice but to deploy Sherman's outcasts and by the end of the battle had concluded that "negroes will fight" (p. 232).

Richard Reid's study of African-American veterans in post-Civil War North Carolina adds additional shading to the heroic portrait, concluding that the men's wartime struggles and triumphs did not neatly transfer into their daily lives after the war. Among the burdens they bore were service-related disabilities that often "permanently impaired" them from working effectively in later life (p. 408).

In summary, this volume contributes fresh insight into the black military experience. Students of the Civil War no less than those of the African-American military experience will find value in this collection.