Army Life in a Black Regiment is Thomas Wentworth Higginson's firsthand account of commanding one of the first Black regiments mustered into United States service during the Civil War. Written from Higginson's experience as colonel of the First South Carolina Volunteers, the book records camp life, military discipline, raids, danger, courage, illness, religious feeling, songs, speech, and the daily realities of Black soldiers fighting for the Union and for their own freedom.
First published in 1870, Higginson's account is both a Civil War memoir and a major historical document of African American military service. He writes as a white abolitionist officer, but his deepest subject is the character, endurance, intelligence, humour, bravery, and moral force of the men he commanded. The book preserves details of Black soldier life that might otherwise have been lost, including spirituals, camp customs, conversations, and the transformation of formerly enslaved men into armed participants in the struggle against slavery.
This SMK Books edition is suited to readers of Civil War history, African American history, abolitionist literature, military memoirs, primary-source documents, and nineteenth-century American writing. Direct, observant, and historically important, Army Life in a Black Regiment remains an essential record of the United States Colored Troops, the war against slavery, and the men whose service helped change the meaning of the Civil War.
