The African-American Military Experience in the Civil War

Between 1865 and the early 1950s, American history by and large (with only a handful of exceptions) consciously ignored the fact that during the Civil War nearly 200,000 African-Americans served in the Union army and navy, that as soldiers they participated in 449 engagements, thirty-nine of which are listed as major battles, that approximately 37,000 lost their lives in the conflict, and that in April 1865 more than one in ten soldiers in the Union army were black men in blue uniforms.

Beginning in the mid-to-late 1950s, with the desegregation of American society, African-American social history was redefined and rediscovered. Over the following decades well-researched, scholarly, and critically acclaimed full-length studies revolutionized historical interpretation and reclaimed the black Civil War experience. These full-length studies have been augmented by a steady stream of equally important and often pioneering articles.

This work provides an annotated bibliography of these articles, complete with critical and descriptive commentary. The articles are listed in alphabetical order by author or editor. They address a wide range of subjects concerning the African-American military experience in the Civil War including but not limited to battles and campaigns, the reaction of Union and Confederate soldiers to black troops, the contentious issue of army pay, recruitment, prisoner treatment, racial atrocities, shipboard race relations, racial prejudice, medical treatment, and the often mind-numbing routine of garrison duty. Each article is presented in standard bibliographical format that includes the name of the author, article title, journal name, volume number and issue number, date of publication, and pages on which the article appears. This is followed by an annotation. If appropriate, supplemental information regarding maps, tables, charts, illustrations, appendixes, and additional bibliographical data is also provided. A subject matter index is included.