After the Glory: The Struggles of Black Civil War Veterans (review)

For decades, the historiography of the black military experience was driven by the need for validation. Because of the instrumentalist and integrationist slant of African American historiography, studies emphasize the contributions and heroic accomplishments of black vets. In this new study, After the Glory, however, Donald Shaffer shifts the focus of analysis beyond instrumentalism to interrogation of what happened after the glorious military experience. Perhaps the most significant singular consequence of the war for black vets was the realization of an existential aspiration—manhood. Manhood, however, did not bring full equality. Black vets quickly realized that real manhood required the satisfaction of other conditions as well, such as civil and political rights, economic solvency, family life, and social rights and benefits. Lacking viable means of sustenance, some vets reenlisted and continued in service. The vast majority, however, opted out and sought other avenues of exploring the promises of manhood.

Shaffer emphasizes the optimistic underpinnings of the war. Black vets came out feeling good about themselves and the future. The postwar context was one of rising expectations. Wartime service made the acquisition of civil and political rights by blacks probable, especially in the North. Black vets embarked upon solidifying their manhood, and, with a renewed sense of responsibility and obligation to the black community, they became actively involved in building structures of community survival and helping other blacks fully exercise manhood. Unfortunately, according to Shaffer, their ambitions, leadership, and assertive roles appeared subversive when viewed against the established norms of white hegemony. Whites, especially in the South, reacted angrily and violently. Consequently, attempts by black vets to explore avenues of exercising full and unfettered manhood failed. Politically, they achieved only marginal roles and never developed into a viable political force. Black vets sought and were denied equal access to social welfare programs and other benefits and institutions established specifically for vets. In comparison with white vets, Union and Confederate alike, Shaffer argues, black vets gained little upward mobility as a result of the war. The vast majority lived in poverty and misery. In all directions, black vets encountered rejection and discrimination, underscoring the limitations and fragility of their manhood.

Military service had provided a sense of equality and manhood and had discredited notions of black inferiority. However, service did not have a lasting transformative impact on black vets. The disposition of white vets is particularly revealing. As Shaffer suggests, although wartime service created the condition for interracial harmony and camaraderie, white vets simply refused to bond with blacks. They responded negatively to the civil and political aspirations of blacks and seemed more receptive to, and accommodating of, the values, interests, and aspirations of their erstwhile enemy combatants—Confederate vets. Thus, the two groups that fought on the same side in the war remained at odds in its aftermath. They also conceptualized the war Differently. While white vets saw the war essentially as a rebellion, black vets identified freedom as its defining essence. By emphasizing freedom, black vets thus underscored the significance of their ofin contributions, a fact that had been minimized and trivialized in the collective national memory. This conflicting consciousness meant that black vets and white vets were unable to establish a meaningful alliance. The failure of white vets to support black civil rights was both a reflection and a consequence of a developing rapprochement with Confederate vets in the 1890s. The eventual reconciliation underscored the North's willingness to accommodate legalized discrimination and violence against blacks.

Overall, Shaffer contends, black vets could only claim incomplete and ephemeral success in their quest for manhood as a result of their military service. Despite this limitation, they did not struggle in vain. Increased scholarly interest has resulted not only in the rediscovery of the efforts of black vets but also in their integration into mainstream scholarship on the Civil War. Furthermore, their achievements have become potent tools in ongoing conflicts on the true meaning of the war. This posthumous recognition...