A History of the Negro Troops in the War of Rebellion, 1861-1865

George Washington Williams

May 2012 · Fordham University Press

About this ebook

The pioneering history of African-American involvement in the Civil War, with a new introduction by the renowned Civil War historian John David Smith. A History of the Negro Troops in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865 (originally published in 1887) by pioneer African American historian George Washington Williams remains a classic text in African American literature and Civil War history. In this powerful narrative, Williams, who served in the U.S. Colored Troops, tells the battle experiences of the almost 200,000 black men who fought for the Union cause. Determined to document the contributions of his fellow black soldiers, and to underscore the valor and manhood of his race, Williams gathered his material from the official records of U.S. and foreign governments, and from the orderly books and personal recollections of officers commanding Negro troops during the American Civil War. The new edition of this important text includes an introductory essay by the award-winning historian John David Smith. In his essay, Smith narrates and evaluates the book's contents, analyzes its reception by contemporary critics, and evaluates Williams's work within the context of its day and its place in current historiography.

About the author

George Washington Williams (1849-1891) was a Pennsylvania-born soldier, legislator, and historian whose History of the Negro Race in America, 1619-1880 (1882) became the first work of serious scholarship by an African American. Dr. John David Smith is Charles H. Stone Distinguished Professor of American History at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He edited Black Soldiers in Blue: African American Troops in the Civil War Era (2002).