Civil War Photo Friday: Hanging out at the cooks galley

Napoleon said an army travels on its stomach, and the Union army was no exception. Here we see Company F, Third Division of the New Hampshire Volunteers at their galley at Hilton Head, South Carolina.

The cooks are on the sides of the photograph, and in the center we can see a black teenager who was probably a runaway slave who joined up. Many runaways attached themselves to Union regiments as laborers and officers' servants. If he wanted to fight, he would have to join one of the segregated black regiments.

So what's for lunch? Probably salt pork and dried vegetables. That was what was for lunch pretty much every day!

Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

Civil War Photo Friday: Black Union soldiers kidnapped for the Neo-Confederate cause

This photo shows a unit of black soldiers and their white officer. It's obviously a Union unit because of the officer's uniform and a belt buckle saying "US" on one of the figures. I've zoomed in on him; he's the man in the center in the photo below. The uniforms on the soldiers look very light, but often Union troops wore a light shade of blue that appears gray in these old photos.

Nothing is otherwise known about this photograph or what unit it represents. That's what gave it new life.

In an article titled Retouching History, Jerome S. Handler and Michael L. Tuite, Jr., describe how a doctored version of this photo was put up for sale by a self-styled "Rebel" website as a photo of the First Louisiana Native Guard, a Confederate unit in New Orleans made up of free blacks that never saw action and was opposed by many Confederate officials. It isn't even clear if they were ever fully equipped. It seemed they were only kept around for the propaganda value. When New Orleans fell to the Union, some of these men joined the Union army.

This is retouched the photo:

As you can see, that pesky Union officer has been cropped out. A closer inspection of a larger-format version of this photo (which you can see in the original article) shows that the US belt buckle has been blurred over. Also, the font is a modern one called "Algerian", developed in 1988.

Neo-Confederates assert that thousands of blacks fought for the Confederacy. This is used to bolster their claim that the war wasn't about slavery, despite the fact that Confederate officials repeatedly said it was about slavery and that there is no evidence whatsoever for thousands of black soldiers fighting for the South. Did a few blacks (like maybe a dozen) fight for the South? Yeah, probably. Does that change what the war was about? Nope.

Since most of my readers are American, Canadian, or British, let's play an imagination game. Imagine you're surfing the net and see a photo of one of your relatives who fought in World War Two, but the photo has been doctored so he now wears a German uniform. The caption says, "An American volunteer in the Wehrmacht!" How would that make you feel?

Photos from the original article, used under the terms of "Fair Use", the justification being that they are being used for nonprofit, educational purposes and the original image is in the public domain. If the folks who doctored the photograph want to sue me for infringing on their creative copyright, feel free to expose yourselves in the comments section.

The First Kansas Colored Volunteers gets its first book (sort of)

I've written here before about the First Kansas Colored Volunteers, a unit mostly comprised of runaway slaves who had the honor of being the first black regiment in the American army to see combat when they fought (and won) the Battle of Island Mound in Missouri on October 26, 1862.

They've never had a book written about them. I've been shopping around a proposal for several years now but keep getting told the subject isn't "commercially viable" and I should go to an academic press. Well, academic presses don't pay so I can't. It's ironic that writing for a living actually limits who you can write for.

Luckily Robert W. Lull has a day job as a history professor and could afford to write a book for the University of North Texas Press. His subject: the little-known commander of the First Kansas Colored Volunteers--James M. Williams.

The blurb says: "The military career of General James Monroe Williams spanned both the Civil War and the Indian Wars in the West, yet no biography has been published to date on his important accomplishments, until now.

"From his birth on the northern frontier, westward movement in the Great Migration, rush into the violence of antebellum Kansas Territory, Civil War commands in the Trans-Mississippi, and as a cavalry officer in the Indian Wars, Williams was involved in key moments of American history. Like many who make a difference, Williams was a leader of strong convictions, sometimes impatient with heavy-handed and sluggish authority.

"Building upon his political opinions and experience as a Jayhawker, Williams raised and commanded the ground-breaking 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Regiment in 1862. His new regiment of black soldiers was the first such organization to engage Confederate troops, and the first to win. He enjoyed victories in Missouri, Indian Territory (Oklahoma), and Arkansas, but also fought in the abortive Red River Campaign and endured defeat and the massacre of his captured black troops at Poison Spring.

"In 1865, as a brigadier general, Williams led his troops in consolidating control of northern Arkansas. Williams played a key role in taking Indian Territory from Confederate forces, which denied routes of advance into Kansas and east into Arkansas. His 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Regiment helped turn the tide of Southern successes in the Trans-Mississippi, establishing credibility of black soldiers in the heat of battle.

"Following the Civil War, Williams secured a commission in the Regular Army’s 8th Cavalry Regiment, serving in Arizona and New Mexico. His victories over Indians in Arizona won accolades for having “settled the Indian question in that part of Arizona.” He finally left the military in 1873, debilitated from five wounds received at the hands of Confederates and hostile Indians"

While this isn't the regimental history that I've been hoping for, it's a great leap in the right direction. I'll be sure to buy and review Civil War General and Indian Fighter James M. Williams: Leader of the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry and the 8th U.S. Cavalry when it comes out next February.

Wild West Photo Friday: Black Cowboys

Wait, isn't this supposed to be Civil War Photo Friday? Well, I decided to mix it up a bit this week. In honor of the First Kansas Colored Volunteers getting their own state historic site, I wanted to show where some of them probably ended up.

After the Civil War, former slaves were faced with choices for the first time in their lives. Many moved to big cities, especially in the North, to look for work. Sadly, they found prejudices just as engrained there as back on the plantation. Some decided to join the great movement westward.

An estimated 15-20% of all cowboys were black. Prejudice wasn't as serious on the frontier, where everyone had to get along just to survive. In the Old West a man could work hard and maybe make a fortune regardless of the color of his skin. There was racism in the West, of course, but there was also a lot more opportunity. Some black cowboys even banded together to form towns such as West Texas City near Galveston. This town was originally called Our Settlement, showing the pride of these former slaves in finally having something to call their own. One of its founders, Calvin Bell, was the first African-American to have his own cattle brand, in 1874.

Here is one of the most famous black cowboys of them all, Nat Love, who was responsible for his own fame by being one of the few black cowboys to write an autobiography.

A faked Civil War photo

Yesterday I posted a cropped version of the above photograph. It was titled "Confederate and Union dead side by side" and was taken on April 3, 1865 at Fort Mahone, during the waning days of the siege of Petersburg.

The body in the foreground is a real corpse of a fallen soldier. While the ammo pouch he's carrying says US, he could be a Confederate since many rebels, short on gear, used whatever Union gear they could get their hands on. It's hard to tell from this photo, but the uniform could either be gray or a faded blue.

The fellow in the background is supposed to be the "Confederate" but has two things wrong with him. 1) He's black, an unlikely skin tone for a Confederate soldier, 2) He's not wearing a uniform, and 3) He's alive.

The guy was the photographer's teamster. There's another photo showing him alive if you follow this link. The Civil War Times published an article on this photo in their December 2010 issue titled "Substitute for a Corpse."

Yep, a little Election Day chicanery for you!

Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

Civil War Photo Friday: Banner of the 22nd US Colored Troops

Here's another great photo courtesy the Library of Congress. It's the regimental flag of the 22nd Regiment US Colored Troops from New Jersey. This unit was formed in January of 1864. For a time it had garrison and scouting duty until it became part of the Siege of Petersburg, a grinding nine-month attempt to cut off Richmond's railway network.

The regiment participated in numerous assaults on Confederate forts and won the honor of being among the first soldiers to march into Richmond when the rebel capital fell. You can read more of this regiment's fascinating history here.

It's interesting that the banner has the words Sic Semper Tyrannis ("thus always to tyrants"). Brutus supposedly said this while assassinating Julius Caesar and John Wilkes Booth was heard to say this after shooting Lincoln. The 22nd was one of the many regiments sent out to hunt for Booth.

Civil War Photo Friday: The Faces of Black Soldiers

This photo has been published a lot. It shows Company E of the 4th U.S. Colored Infantry, at Fort Lincoln, District of Columbia, and is freely available from the Library of Congress.

I love the faces in this photo with all their individual expressions and characters, so I downloaded the 86 megabyte version and zoomed in on some of the individuals.

The tall fellow in the center caught my attention first. . .

. . .then I noticed this determined man near him.

Others look warily at the camera. . .

. . .while others seem more relaxed. . .

. . .or even a bit amused at what's probably their first photo shoot.

The Library of Congress has thousands of hi-res images of the Civil War and other periods. Check them out to see some faces from the past!

Civil War Photo Friday: Black Sailor

A couple of days ago wargamer, blogger, and Canadian army chaplain Mad Padre asked me about black sailors in the Union Navy, so for this week's Civil War Photo Friday I'm showing this young fellow.

About 18,000 blacks served in the U.S. Navy during the Civil War. An unknown number also served in the Continental Navy during the American Revolution. Interestingly, the Navy was not officially segregated, although some individual commanders made the white and black crewmen eat and sleep separately. The Navy wasn't segregated until 1913, when President Woodrow Wilson ordered it to be.

There's not much information about this sailor, unfortunately--no name, no exact date. It's sad that so many of these old photographs have lost their context.


Photo courtesy Library of Congress.

F is for First Kansas Colored Volunteers

For me, the most fascinating unit in the Civil War west of the Mississippi is the First Kansas Colored Volunteers. Most of the soldiers for this Union unit were runaway slaves from Missouri and Arkansas, many of them "stolen" on raids by Kansas guerrillas and given their freedom in Kansas. These raids were often led by abolitionist Kansas senator Jim Lane. It was Lane who created the unit in 1862, against the direct orders of President Lincoln, who was still waffling on the issue of black soldiers.

The regiment got its "first taste of powder" on 26 October 1862 when they fought and defeated a much larger force of rebel guerrillas at the Battle of Island Mound. Until then, most white people North and South assumed that blacks wouldn't make good soldiers. The First Kansas Colored Volunteers started to change this racist mentality.

I'm shopping around a book proposal about the First Kansas and am having trouble finding a publisher or agent to take it on. This seems strange to me considering that I already have more than ten books published, including two on the Civil War. I'm no stranger to book rejections, it's part of the business, so I'll keep trying. It's a story worth telling.

Shafting the rebels in the Civil War!

I introduced a new character in the still-untitled sequel to my Civil War novel A Fine Likeness. He's a sergeant from the First Kansas Colored Volunteers, the first black unit of the American army to see combat when they beat a band of bushwhackers at the Battle of Island Mound on 29 October 1862. By late 1864, he's deserted his unit to fight an evil even greater than slavery. Of course he hooks up with the heroes from A Fine Likeness!

He's a tough gunfighter who doesn't take any crap from anyone at a time when blacks got crap on a daily basis. It took some time to think of a name until one popped into my head: Sergeant Richard Roundtree.

Two chapters later I realized where I got that name from.

Am I going to keep it? Hell yeah!

Civil War Video Friday: Rapping about the 54th Massachusetts

This is usually Civil War Photo Friday, but I just heard about this great video about the famous black regiment, the 54th Massachusetts. It's very professionally done even though the rappers look like they're in high school. Nice to see kids who know their history! Thanks to Jimmy Price over at the Sable Arm for bringing this to my attention.