Black Soldiers in Blue: African American Troops in the Civil War Era.

Black Soldiers in Blue: African American Troops in the Civil War Era. Edited by John David Smith. (Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, c. 2002. Pp. xxvi, 451. Paper, $19.95, ISBN 0-8078-5579-0; cloth, $39.95, ISBN 0-8078-2741-X.)

John David Smith has edited a thoughtful and thorough book about African American soldiers during and after the Civil War. Smith has assembled an outstanding team of contributors, and while these essays perhaps do not warrant book-length studies, together they cover almost every aspect of black Americans' armed service during the war.

In addition to serving as editor, Smith is the author of the first and longest essay, wherein he traces the evolution of federal policy toward emancipation and the acceptance of African American troops into the Union Army. Smith follows Lincoln's initially cautious and incremental approach to emancipation, noting that Lincoln, "Ever the astute politician.... sought the fight moment--a military victory--to unveil his true sentiments regarding emancipation" (p.16). However, once the Emancipation Proclamation, with its crucial paragraph calling for the recruitment of black soldiers, had been made, a federal bureaucracy had to be created to recruit, equip, arm, train, and organize African American regiments. Smith carefully documents the problems associated with the efforts of the War Department's Bureau of U.S. Colored Troops. Beset with bigotry on all sides, African American troops were rarely officered by men of their own race; were paid substantially less than white troops until mid-1864; and were threatened with execution or sale into slavery if captured. Despite such daunting obstacles, Smith writes, "the U.S. Colored Troops carried out various military duties and in the process surprised a doubting Northern public and their severest and most racist critics" (p. 52). The latter part of Smith's essay discusses the major engagements in which African American troops participated.

Smith's comprehensive overview thus sets the stage for the remaining thirteen essays, seven of which are intensive treatments of individual battles. Of particular value in these battle studies are the attention to detail, including maps, and the careful reading of the sources, incorporating examinations of how events were reported at the time and how perceptions of those events changed. John Cimprich's essay on the Fort Pillow Massacre is a fine example of this, as is William Glenn Robertson's comparison of the experiences of two African American infantry divisions in the Virginia theater. While there is no conflict or contradiction in these essays, there is a divergence of opinion about what qualifies as a "massacre." Noah Andre Trudeau's detailed study of black cavalry regiments cites William Marvel's research into African American casualties at the Battle of Saltville. Trudeau contends that, according to Marvel, "perhaps a dozen [black prisoners of war] ... might have been murdered" (p. 297). "While still a telling indictment of racism," Trudeau writes, "it does not stand alongside Fort Pillow in the halls of infamy" (p 297). Yet Thomas D. Mays also cites William Marvel's research in his essay on Saltville, stating "Both Union and Confederate eyewitness accounts and regimental records demonstrate that the murders at Saltville were among the worst atrocities of the American Civil War" (p. 200).

That minor criticism aside, these essays make innovative use of sources to examine important but lesser-known individuals and experiences associated with African American troops. Edwin S. Redkey writes about Henry McNeal Turner, United States Colored Troops (USCT) chaplain and later bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Turner is shown as a skilled writer and a passionate preacher, a man of great faith, energy, and vision. Michael T. Meier's study of Adjutant General Lorenzo Thomas's efforts to recruit African Americans in the Mississippi River Valley provides important discussion of how the opinions of white troops were swayed successfully. Keith Wilson breaks new ground in his essay comparing the military service and attitudes toward African Americans of Colonels Thomas Wentworth Higginson, James Montgomery, and Robert Gould Shaw. What the author calls "the different strains of abolitionism" represented by these three commanders informs our understanding of how African American soldiers were used tactically in the South and how the war was carried to the citizens in areas occupied by the Union Army (p. 306).

The last two essays discuss the difficult transition made by the men of the USCT when the war was over. African American troops occupying Charleston were subject to more prejudice and violence from the soldiers of their own army than they were from the resentful citizens of the defeated South. After tracing events in Charleston through late 1865, Robert J. Zalimas concludes that "Because some of the most powerful figures in the Union army excused racial violence among and against their own soldiers, these commanders allowed the 1865 Charleston riot and other bloody attacks to influence military policy throughout the South" (p. 380). Using sources such as census records, military records, regimental histories, and published primary sources, Richard Reid offers a fascinating case study of veterans from North Carolina who returned home after the war. Reid seeks to answer questions about the economic success, political opportunities, and personal well-being of these veterans. Given the limitations of his sources, he does a fine job.

This book has a great deal to offer both the general reader and the dedicated student of the Civil War. I recommend it highly.

JOHN D. WARNER JR.

Archivist, Commonwealth of Massachusetts