Like Men of War: Black Troops in the Civil War, 1862-1865

by Noah Andre Trudeau

Overview

Originally published in 1998, Like Men of War was a groundbreaking early study of Black troops in the Civil War that is still considered a major contribution to the literature on the United States Colored Troops (USCT). In this chronological operational history, Trudeau covers every major engagement—and a few minor ones—that the USCT participated in. By quoting generously from primary documents, including Black soldiers’ letters, Trudeau tells the combat history of African American troops in the Civil War largely through the voices of the soldiers themselves.

This fresh, expanded second edition adds material on additional engagements and other aspects of Black soldiers’ experiences, and features a new selection of photographs. The updated bibliography is extensive, providing a rich selection of source materials for further study and exploration. Like Men of War is essential reading for anyone seeking a thorough understanding of the US Civil War.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780700635580
Publisher:	University Press of Kansas
Publication date:	08/25/2023
Pages:	552
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Noah Andre Trudeau is a former executive producer at National Public Radio and the author of Lincoln’s Greatest Journey: Sixteen Days That Changed a Presidency, March 24–April 8, 1865; Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage; and Southern Storm: Sherman’s March to the Sea, among other books.

Table of Contents

List of Maps

List of Illustrations

Preface to the Revised Edition

Preface to the 1998 Edition

Acknowledgments—Revised Edition

Acknowledgments—1998 Edition

Author’s Note

Part One: 1861–1862

Prologue

1. “A Liberating Army”

Part Two: 1863

2. “Will They Fight?”

Interlude: “The Power of Fear”

Interlude: “A School of . . . Self-Reliance as Well as an Engine of War”

3. “The Old Flag Never Touched the Ground”

Interlude: “The Question of Pay”

4. “The Question That Negroes Will Fight Is Settled”

Interlude: “A Rebel Master and a Union Master”

Part Three: 1864

5. “Amid a Storm of Bullets”

6. “You Are Fighting Against Your Master”

7. “With Wild, Exultant Cheers”

8. “On to Richmond!”

Interlude: “This Disgraceful Distinction”

9. “I Am Ready to Die for Liberty”

10. “Saved the Colors”

Interlude: “A Practice Justified by No Rule of War”

11. “Into the Very Mouth of Death”

12. “Captain, I Am Wounded; What Shall I do?”

Part Four: 1865

“Ye’s Long Been A-coming”

Interlude: “We Want Black Commissioned Officers”

14. “Our Errand Through the State”

15. “The Negro Will Fight & Fight Bravely”

Interlude: “Their Enthusiasm Was Said to Be . . . Remarkable”

16. “Babylon Is Fallen”

Interlude: Nothing Has Shocked Us So Much”

17. “That Winds Up the War”

Part Five: Legacies, 1865𔃝2022

18. “This Good Work Is Only Begun”

19. Final Word(s)

20. Taps

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

"Trudeau’s work represents one of the most modern and comprehensive narrative histories of Black soldiers’ service throughout the Civil War. The new edition documents additional skirmishes and actions not included in the first, as well as a generous number of illustrations."—Emerging Civil War

“Noah Andre Trudeau’s Like Men of War became an instant classic when it was first published in 1998. No other book offered the scope and depth of the Black military experience during the Civil War era and even with all the research that we’ve seen over the past twenty-five years, the book remains essential reading. Historians and general readers will no doubt enjoy and profit from this updated and revised edition.”—Kevin M. Levin, author of Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth

“Like Men of War is important and relevant because it remains the only extant narrative history of Black troops in the Union Army aimed at both general readers and scholars and students. Not a logistical or institutional study, Trudeau’s book breathes life into the men and battles of the U.S. Colored Troops.”—John David Smith, coauthor of Soldiering for Freedom: How the Union Army Recruited, Trained, and Deployed the U.S. Colored Troops

“Two distinguishing features of this book make it the most valuable compendium of the important role of Black soldiers in the Civil War. Every combat operation in which these units participated, including major battles as well as minor skirmishes, is described. And much of the evidence consists of enlisted men’s letters, diaries, reports, and memoirs. Readers will find here the most complete account of these events.”—James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era

“Like Men of War remains the best traditional military history of the service of African Americans in the Union Army during the Civil War. It is wonderful that Noah Andre Trudeau and the University Press of Kansas are publishing a new edition of this classic work. No doubt the second edition will help acquaint a new generation of readers with the battlefield story of Black Union soldiers.”—Donald R. Shaffer, author of After the Glory: The Struggles of Black Civil War Veterans

From the Publisher

The Barnes & Noble Review
When the Civil War began, it was a war between the white army of the North and the white army of the South. While the fate of the entire black population of America was at stake, they were not allowed to enter the fray. But a year into the war, when northern generals began thinking that any soldier was a good soldier, all-black units were established.

Starting with a little history about the participation of black men in the army before the Civil War, Noah Trudeau picks up the story in 1862, when the units of freeborn black men and freed and former slaves were being formed, and gives a detailed military history of their participation in the battles of the war. Often considered second-rate soldiers by their commanding generals, the units were often relegated to minor battles in unstrategic locations. But their efforts were critical to the North's success.

Trudeau, whose Out of the Storm captures the chaos and destruction at the end of the war, is a skillful Civil War historian. He knows his material and is comfortable with the complex details of the events he describes. Like Men of War, using the personal letters and diaries of soldiers as well as the military records and newspaper accounts of their exploits, brings the men of the U.S. Colored Troops to life: Free and slave-born, literate and illiterate, brave and ill-prepared, the men Trudeau describes are a varied population of American soldiers. This is perhaps the greatest strength of Like Men of War and its greatest contribution to the historical record.

This is history not told before insuchdepth. Immediately after the war and well into this century, the contributions of black soldiers were forgotten or intentionally ignored. Only in recent decades has serious scholarship looked at the black regiments and their roles in the war. Like Men of War pulls human stories from that academic research and makes the victories and defeats of African-American soldiers part of the widely known Civil War history.

In The Sable Arm (1956), Dudley Cornish presented a pathbreaking social and political survey of the creation of black Civil War regiments, and in Forged in Battle (1990), Joseph Glatthaar focused on the complex relationship between these troops and their white officers. The story of black troops in combat during the Civil War is told comprehensively for the first time, however, in this remarkable history by Trudeau (Bloody Roads South), who takes readers into battle with the U.S. Colored Troops. Over a hundred regiments of these troops took part in at least 449 engagements. Ever since, their performance has been shrouded in myths, both negative and positive. Trudeau and his research assistants combed archives and libraries to find the stories of the men, educated or illiterate, born free or whip-scarred, who confronted the racism of their white fellow soldiers in order to face an enemy that regularly denied quarter to black men with rifles. Trudeau eschews the triumphalism often marring current treatments of blacks in the Civil War. Not every African American soldier was a principled volunteer, he explains. Some were cajoled and cozened into uniform from "contraband camps" of fugitive slaves. Some donned blue at gunpoint. The USCT saw a disproportionate amount of service as labor and garrison troops, and when committed in the front lines their successes seldom matched their valor. But in an era when standards of manhood were as high as in any other, few whites who saw black troops in action ever again questioned their courage. The legacy was long obscured, but it never disappeared, and its compelling recovery makes this book a major addition to Civil War literature.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

At last, the service of black soldiers in the Union Army during the Civil War is receiving the recognition it deserves. Building on Dudley T. Cornish's pioneering work in The Sable Arm and the detailed discussion of officer-soldier relations in Joseph T. Glatthaar's Forged in Battle, Trudeau, the author of a trilogy covering military operations during the last year of the war (e.g., Out of the Storm), presents the fullest study of the battlefield experiences of black Union regiments. Some 60 maps help the reader make sense of famous engagements (Fort Wagner and the Crater) and notorious incidents (Fort Pillow) in which black soldiers fought, as well as scores of lesser-known clashes. Rich archival research is integrated into a lively narrative that places the raising and deployment of black regiments in broader contexts. This book will become a basic source of information on the subject.
--Brooks D. Simpson, Arizona State University, Tempe

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