Publisher's Weekly Review
This study, using information garnered from personal letters and official documents, explores the racial tension encountered by and the unsung heroism of the 180,000 African-Americans who fought in the Union Army during the Civil War. Photos. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Choice Review
Relying on many hitherto unused personal letters as well as government documents, Glatthaar (University of Houston), author of The March to the Sea and Beyond (CH, Dec'85), very adroitly explores the uneasy balance between some 180,000 Afro-Americans who served in the US Colored Troops and the 7,000 white officers who volunteered, against ridicule and abuse, to transform them into an effective fighting force. Divided by racial tension and racist ideology yet united by the bonds of war, black and white fought side by side to achieve a record of valor at many battlegrounds during the Civil War. Better than any other study, this one clearly demonstrates how the war to save the Union gave way to a war for freedom and equal rights. Yet this is not a complete success story, as Glatthaar poignantly demonstrates, for in the war's aftermath the gallant efforts of black troops slowly faded as the racism of the Reconstruction era provoked a troubling selective memory on the part of many Americans, North and South. This is a fine study and should be a part of all college and university collections. -J. H. Silverman, Winthrop College