"de Fus' Souf" The Story of America's First Officially Recognized African-American Regiment. During the Civil War over 170,000 "colored" troops served in the Union Army. While there were two earlier attempts at getting an all black unit started, the first one to be officially recognized by the U.S. government was the First South Carolina Volunteers. While the unit was all black and composed of former slaves, the officers, by decree of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, had to be all white. The first commanding officer, therefore, was Thomas Wentworth Higginson, the author of this book. Higginson in civilian life was a minister and a fiery abolitionist. As a captain in the 51st Massachusetts Infantry he was wounded and undergoing convalescence when he was offered the job of commanding officer of the newly formed First South Carolina. He jumped at the chance and this book, a diary of his observations, was the result. But in addition to simply recording his military experiences, Higginson went a step further. He was able to document the amazing dialect of his black soldiers, called Gullah, a dialect that survives even today. At night he would listen to the men sing spirituals, record the words and how they were sung, and try to find out what the songs meant. In effect, Thomas Higginson was functioning as a social anthropologist long before the field was even invented. His observations of his soldiers, his struggle with the government to bring them equity in pay and conditions, his capturing of the Gullah language, his memorializing of the spirituals and marching songs they sang-it's all here in Black Soldiers / Blue Uniforms: The Story of the First South Carolina Volunteers

Inspired and informed by the latest research in African American, military, and social history, the fourteen original essays in this book tell the stories of the African American soldiers who fought for the Union cause. An introductory essay surveys the history of the U.S. Colored Troops (USCT) from emancipation to the end of the Civil War. Seven essays focus on the role of the USCT in combat, chronicling the contributions of African Americans who fought at Port Hudson, Milliken's Bend, Olustee, Fort Pillow, Petersburg, Saltville, and Nashville. Other essays explore the recruitment of black troops in the Mississippi Valley; the U.S. Colored Cavalry; the military leadership of Colonels Thomas Higginson, James Montgomery, and Robert Shaw; African American chaplain Henry McNeal Turner; the black troops who occupied postwar Charleston; and the experiences of USCT veterans in postwar North Carolina. Collectively, these essays probe the broad military, political, and social significance of black soldiers' armed service, enriching our understanding of the Civil War and African American life during and after the conflict. The contributors are Anne J. Bailey, Arthur W. Bergeron Jr., John Cimprich, Lawrence Lee Hewitt, Richard Lowe, Thomas D. Mays, Michael T. Meier, Edwin S. Redkey, Richard Reid, William Glenn Robertson, John David Smith, Noah Andre Trudeau, Keith Wilson, and Robert J. Zalimas Jr.

In this new, extensively researched volume, U.S. Army uniforms - including enlisted soldiers, officers, insignia, and headgear - from the years 1848-1873 are examined in exacting detail. For the first time, original accounts from official reports, diaries, and other primary sources will be combined with color photographs of extraordinary surviving specimens, hundreds of important black and white images, as well as artwork from the period to tell the story of what the American soldier wore during these years. Army Blue represents more than twenty years of research in major institutions and private collections throughout the United States, and offers a concise overview of a topic which promises to be must reading for collectors, modelers, and curators alike.

In this new book, the development of an altogether new uniform for troops of the United States Army, a few years after the Civil War, has never been told so well or so comprehensively. In this volume, the sequel to the authors highly praised Army Blue: The Uniform of Uncle Sams Regulars, 1848-1873, John Langellier continues the story of the evolution of American army uniforms during a critical period that saw experimentation and innovation finally surmount conservatism to produce some of the more practically functional and aesthetically appealing martial clothing in American history. The breadth of Langelliers research, coupled with his years of accumulated expertise in the study of historical army uniforms, is evident throughout, and together make this book the most thorough and precise accounting the topic has ever received.

Shattering the myth that the Civil War was fought between soldiers in blue or in gray, this history details the many colors and styles worn by members of the Federal and Confederate armies. 108 illustrations.

This ground-breaking book takes an insightful and close "New Look" at one of the most fascinating subjects of the Civil War--the long-overlooked battlefield contributions of the most forgotten fighting men of the Civil War, Black Confederates. With the release of the popular 1989 film Glory, the American public first learned about the heroism of the black troops of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry and their courageous assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina, in July 1863. But what the American public failed to learn in viewing this popular film was the equally compelling saga of Black Confederates, including at least one defender, a free black soldier of the 1st South Carolina Artillery who defended Fort Wagner in July 1863. Significantly, large numbers of Black Confederates, slave and free, had already been fighting on battlefields across the South for more than two years before the famous assault of the 54th Massachusetts on Fort Wagner, including the war's first major battle at Bull Run. Although the vast of majority blacks served the Confederacy in menial and support roles, Black Confederates, free and slave, fought from 1861 to 1865 in regiments (infantry, cavalry, and artillery) that represented every Southern state.