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Army Life in a Black Regiment

Thomas Wentworth Higginson

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Army Life in a Black Regiment | Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Army Life in a Black Regiment

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These pages record some of the adventures of the First South Carolina Volunteers, the first slave regiment mustered into the service of the United States during the late civil war. It was, indeed, the first colored regiment of any kind so mustered, except a portion of the troops raised by Major-General Butler at New Orleans. These scarcely belonged to the same class, however, being recruited from the free colored population of that city, a comparatively self-reliant and educated race.
avery novel has described a man of such marked ability. He makes Toussaint perfectly intelligible; and if there should ever be a black monarchy in South Carolina, he will be its king.

January 15.

This morning is like May. Yesterday I saw bluebirds and a butterfly; so this whiter of a fortnight is over. I fancy there is a trifle less coughing in the camp. We hear of other stations in the Department where the mortality, chiefly from yellow fever, has been frightful. Dr. —— is rubbing his hands professionally over the fearful tales of the surgeon of a New York regiment, just from Key West, who has had two hundred cases of the fever. "I suppose he is a skilful, highly educated man," said I. "Yes," he responded with enthusiasm. "Why, he had seventy deaths!"—as if that proved his superiority past question.

January 19.

"And first, sitting proud as a lung on his throne, At the head of them all rode Sir Richard Tyrone."

But I fancy that Sir Richard felt not much better satisfied with his following than I to-day. J. R. L. said once that nothing was quite so good as turtle-soup, except mock-turtle; and I have heard officers declare that nothing was so stirring as real war, except some exciting parade. To-day, for the first time, I marched the whole regiment through Beaufort and back,—the first appearance of such a novelty on any stage. They did march splendidly; this all admit. M——'s prediction was fulfilled: "Will not —— be in bliss? A thousand men, every one as black as a coal!" I confess it. To look back on twenty broad double-ranks of men (for they marched by platoons),—every polished musket having a black face beside it, and every face set steadily to the front,—a regiment of freed slaves marching on into the future,—it was something to remember; and when they returned through the same streets, marching by the flank, with gu

Matt 03/07/2020
I wanted to read this contemporary account, written first hand by Col. Higginson, to get "eye witness" narratives of the Civil War. This book describes the 1st South Carolina Volunteers (the first federally authorized black regiment) ...their time training in the Sea Islands off the coast of the Car
Marti 12/04/2019
Although certainly well meaning, the author -- a white Harvard educated abolitionist -- comes off as paternalistic. There is not much you can really criticize because that's just how it was back then and he was certainly light-years ahead of his contemporaries; nevertheless, the number of times Higg
Kim 06/27/2018
I thought this was really interesting. There were a lot of things in this book that I can use in my class. For some reason, I had thought that Higginson was with the 54th Massachusetts. It took me awhile to readjust my thinking. However, I enjoyed reading about what the black regiments were like fro
Fredrick 04/14/2018
A Union colonel writes a series of essays regarding his service in a black regiment during the American Civil War. It is written from a white officer's point of view. Educational for the Civil War buff.
Thom 02/06/2012
Army Life in a Black Regiment by Thomas Higginson is a story, aided by diary notations, of daily life in the first Negro regiments in the Union Army. The First South Carolina Regiment was formed in 1862 on the orders of Treasury Secretary Edwin M. Stanton. This regiment and I dare say all of these N

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