Amongst My Best Men: African Americans and the War of 1812

by Gerard T. Altoff, Robyn Opthoff Lilek (Illustrator), Joseph P. Reidy (Introduction)

The War of 1812 is without a doubt one of the least known of all of America's wars. Mere mention of the war conjures in the average American's mind a series of illusions, misconceptions, and false assumptions. Chief among those fallacies is that the US won the war. Thus it is not surprising that the role of African Americans in the War of 1812 is as misunderstood as the war itself. The principle goal of this book is two fold; to acknowledge that African Americans played a much greater role in the War of 1812 than most people know or suspect and to place that role in context with other campaigns of the War of 1812.

181 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1996

Reviews

[M · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent narrative of the campaign in the North west. This compelling story draws out a little known and often misunderstood history of military diversity during the War of 1812.

This short history is both informative and we'll told. An absolute must read for the casual historian, sages of military history, and everyone in between.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This a great resource! Admittedly, I found the land movements part a bit of slog, but that's more a reflection of my interest haha

[Dan Bates]

I understand there isn't much documentation on African-Americans in War of 1812, but the author doesn't have to say it multiple times. The reader got it the first five times. Not much on substance.

[John Hively · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Extremely well written, great narrative, and difficult to put down.