The Won Cause: Black and White Comradeship in the Grand Army of the Republic

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Overview

In the years after the Civil War, black and white Union soldiers who survived the horrific struggle joined the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR)—the Union army's largest veterans' organization. In this thoroughly researched and groundbreaking study, Barbara Gannon chronicles black and white veterans' efforts to create and sustain the nation's first interracial organization.
According to the conventional view, the freedoms and interests of African American veterans were not ...

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The Won Cause: Black and White Comradeship in the Grand Army of the Republic

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Overview

In the years after the Civil War, black and white Union soldiers who survived the horrific struggle joined the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR)—the Union army's largest veterans' organization. In this thoroughly researched and groundbreaking study, Barbara Gannon chronicles black and white veterans' efforts to create and sustain the nation's first interracial organization.
According to the conventional view, the freedoms and interests of African American veterans were not defended by white Union veterans after the war, despite the shared tradition of sacrifice among both black and white soldiers. In The Won Cause, however, Gannon challenges this scholarship, arguing that although black veterans still suffered under the contemporary racial mores, the GAR honored its black members in many instances and ascribed them a greater equality than previous studies have shown. Using evidence of integrated posts and veterans' thoughts on their comradeship and the cause, Gannon reveals that white veterans embraced black veterans because their membership in the GAR demonstrated that their wartime suffering created a transcendent bond—comradeship—that overcame even the most pernicious social barrier—race-based separation. By upholding a more inclusive memory of a war fought for liberty as well as union, the GAR's "Won Cause" challenged the Lost Cause version of Civil War memory.

Honorable Mention, 2012 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize, Gettysburg College and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

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Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher
"A welcome addition to the literature on the Civil War, its veterans, and its collective memory in American society between the 1860s and 1920s."
-Civil War Book Review

"The Won Cause is a unique and important contribution to the slowly growing literature on Civil War veterans and will help inspire historians to take closer looks at the ways that veterans and their communities responded to the decades following the war."
-Journal of the Civil War Era

"An insightful examination of the ways individual memory and historical fact meld together to create an organization's and a nation's public identity."
-Civil War Times

"Gannon's innovative research method, the logical rigor of her argument, and the persuasiveness of her evidence make this an invaluable contribution to the literatures on the Civil War, emancipation, race, and memory."
-American Historical Review

"A concise and provocative book. . . . [it] will force historians to reconsider many aspects of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century race relations and to listen more carefully to the voices of the veterans."
-Register of The Kentucky Historical Society

"Gannon presents an original and absorbing account . . .countering current scholarship. . . . A compelling corrective to common misconceptions. . . . Pertinent and persuasive; highly recommended for Civil War specialists."
-Library Journal

"Uncover[s] the extent of African American participation and integration in the GAR. . . . The Won Cause brings an important new perspective."
-The Annals of Iowa

"This book will force readers to reconsider their assumptions about 19th-century race relations. Recommended. All levels/libraries."
-Choice

"Barbara Gannon has written a fine piece of scholarship with highly impressive, groundbreaking research. This important study will be a major contribution to the literature on the Civil War."—Donald R. Shaffer, author of After the Glory: The Struggles of Black Civil War Veterans

Library Journal
Gannon (military history, Univ. of Central Florida) presents an original and absorbing account of the ways black and white Union veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) created communities of comradeship based on their shared wartime sacrifices for liberty and Union. She shows that GAR veterans persisted in deeming secession treason, slavery a curse, and emancipation the redemption that released the great republic to realize its God-anointed promise to become a world power. Countering current scholarship, Gannon insists that, although Southerners' Lost Cause mythology won the struggles in public memory, Union veterans did not accept the terms of sectional reconciliation that forgot blacks' roles in saving the Union and that celebrated white courage regardless of sides. A compelling corrective to common misconceptions that still posit an abstraction such as states' rights as the cause of secession rather than the concrete fact of slavery. Pertinent and persuasive; highly recommended for Civil War specialists.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780807834527
  • Publisher: University of North Carolina Press, The
  • Publication date: 5/30/2011
  • Series: Civil War America Series
  • Pages: 288
  • Sales rank: 1,056,471
  • Product dimensions: 6.00 (w) x 9.30 (h) x 1.20 (d)

Meet the Author

Barbara A. Gannon is assistant professor of military history at the University of Central Florida.

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Sort by: Showing 1 Customer Review

  • Posted June 10, 2011

    more from this reviewer

    A new look

    We accept the idea that segregation and discrimination is the norm between the Civil War and the Civil Rights Era. Most history is full of examples supporting this idea. We often cite the Grand Army of the Republic as an example of anti-Black and anti-Catholic sentiment. This is the era of Jim Crow, the Klan, lynching and race riots. What should we make of a book that says the GAR was an integrated organization?
    During the Civil War, the North recruited thousands of Black men from 1862 to 1865. These men were the United States Colored Troops, USCT, officered by Whites they fought in all theaters. These men lived in a segregated military that reflected society. Their service resulted in the retention of Black regiments in the regular army that existed until after World War II. This book is not a history of the USCT's service in the Civil War or until they were abolished. This book is a history of USCT veterans that joined the Grand Army of the Republic and their experiences.
    The GAR never officially separated in Black and White posts. The GAR never refused to allow Blacks to attend meetings, conventions, campfires or reunions. They were unique in this respect and from time to time refused to separate on race. In this book, the author advances the idea that the GAR overcame "contemporary racial mores'. It is a difficult position to take and a challenge to defend. The author presents a picture of an organization with a mixed record. There are White posts, Black posts and mixed posts. Posts enjoy presentations from veterans with little regard for race. Members address conventions from the floor without regard for race. However, officers above the post level are white. Black veterans, while nominated seldom are elected.
    This well researched book has excellent notes and is easy to read. This is an interesting book with good information, presenting a different view of the GAR. While not convinced the author is correct, I cannot completely dismiss her position.

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