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In 1862, Thomas Wentworth Higginson was commissioned as a colonel to head the first regiment of emancipated slaves. A Civil War memoir written by an abolitionist, this text is the stirring history of the first regiment of emancipated slaves formed to fight in the Civil War. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Best non-fiction work to come out of the Civil War
Several years ago I urged John Seelye to edit this work for Penguin.A couple of years after that, he asked me to do it instead, and I did.This is a remarkable book about a literate Yankee (Higginson"discovered" the poet Emily Dickinson) who "discovers"the South. It's also "about" Black soldiers in a white war, whiteofficers in a Black regiment, self-discovery, rivers, and hope.Much ofthe imagery and characterization in the movie GLORY seems to have beenlifted from this book: it is, after all, a first-hand narrative of war byan idealist sorely tested by politics and physical hardship.Higginson'swriting of the book is in part his attempt to deal with what today we wouldcall Post-Traumatic-Stress Disorder, and it is no wonder that the tonesometimes reminds the reader of Hemingway's "Big Two-HeartedRiver."Because the teller of this story emerges as an interestingperson per se, this edition includes some of his other essays, ranging fromhis fascination with slave rebellion to his appreciation for poetry. ... Read more

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"Army Life in a Black Regiment has some claim to be the best written narrative to come from the Union [side] during the Civil War," wrote historian Henry Steele Commager. "Higginson's picture of the battle which was the origin of 'praise the Lord and pass the ammunition' and his reading of the Emancipation Proclamation to the black regiment are unsurpassed for eloquence." This book--originally a series of essays--was written by a Union colonel from New England, in charge of black troops training on the Sea Islands off the coast of the Carolinas. A lively and detailed wartime diary, it offers a refreshing portrait of life in the Union Army as the narrator captures the raw humor that develops among the men in combat. His portraits of the soldiers, routines of camp life, and southern landscapes are unforgettable. Unabridged republication of the edition published by Fields, Osgood, & Co, 1870. Appendices. Index.
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GLORY II
Those familiar with the critical role that the recruitment of black troops into the Union Armies in the American Civil War usually think about the famous Massachusetts 54th Regiment under Robert Gould Shaw which has received wide attention in book, film and sculpture. And those heroic fighters deserve those honors. Glory, indeed. However, other units were formed from other regions that are also noteworthy. And none more so than the 1st South Carolina Volunteers commanded by the arch-abolitionist Theodore Higginson one of John Brown's most fervent supporters and an early advocate of arming the slaves during the Civil War. He desperately wanted to lead armed blacks in battle and got his wish.

I have remarked elsewhere (in a review of William Styron's Confessions of Nat Turner)that while the slaves in the South, for a host of reasons, did not insurrect with the intensity or frequency of say Haiti, the other West Indian islands or Brazil that when the time came to show discipline, courage and honor under arms that blacks would prove not inferior to whites. And Higginson's book is prima facie evidence for that position.

One should note that, unlike the Massachusetts 54th which was made up primarily of freedman the 1st South Carolina was made up of units of fugitive and abandoned slaves. Thus, one should have assumed that it would have been harder to train and discipline uneducated and much-abused slaves. Not so. After reading a number of books on the trials and tribulations of various Union regiments, including the famous Irish Brigade, the story Higginson tells compares very favorably with those units. While Higginson's use of `negro' dialect in the telling of his story which may not be to the liking of some of today's `politically correct' readers of this book it is nevertheless a story worth reading told by a `high' abolitionist and Civil War hero.
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"I desire to record, as simply as I may, the beginnings of a momentous military experiment, whose ultimate results were the reorganization of the whole American army and the remoulding of the relations of two races on this continent. . . . I can only hope that the importance of the subject may save me from that egotism which makes great things seem little and little things seem less in the narrating."

So wrote Thomas Wentworth Higginson about his role in one of the most compelling and fascinating episodes in the history of the United States. As the colonel of the first regiment of black men in the Union army during the Civil War, Higginson was an early, articulate, and powerful crusader for civil rights, and his journal and letters, collected for the first time in this volume, present some of the most extraordinary documents of the Civil War.

Higginson was a politically engaged intellectual at the forefront of radical antislavery, labor, and feminist causes. Born in 1823 to a formerly wealthy but still prominent Brahmin family, he became one of America's leading social activists and a prominent writer, minister, and reformer. With the publication in 1869 of his classic Army Life in a Black Regiment, which drew on this journal, Higginson became one of the most important chroniclers of the Civil War. The Complete Civil War Journal and Selected Letters of Thomas Wentworth Higginson is the first comprehensive edition of his journal. Sensitively and thoroughly annotated by Christopher Looby and supplemented by a large selection of Higginson's wartime letters, this volume offers the most vivid and intimate picture of the radical interracial solidarity brought about by the transformative experience of the army camp and of Civil War life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Fascinating journalofCivil War life.
Bravo to Christopher Looby for recognizing the importance of these diaries and bringing them to our attention.Higginson's thoughts and feelings about war and the men under his command unfold to portray a quiet hero. Against the dual backdrops of military horror and social conflict, Higginson's discussions of his men and his relationships with them are sensitive and surprising.Letters to his family offer an interesting glimpse of family roles while underscoring Higginson's essential humantity.

Looby's notes provide thoughtful comment. Stunning job. This is an excellent book. ... Read more

Product Description
Originally published in 1914.This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

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This reproduction was printed from a digital file created at the Library of Congress as part of an extensive scanning effort started with a generous donation from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.The Library is pleased to offer much of its public domain holdings free of charge online and at a modest price in this printed format.Seeing these older volumes from our collections rediscovered by new generations of readers renews our own passion for books and scholarship. ... Read more