A Regiment of Slaves: The 4th United States Colored Infantry, 1863-1866

by Edward G. Longacre

The 4th United States Colored Troops (USCT) regiment saw considerable action in the eastern theater of operations from late 1863 to mid-1865. The regimentâ drawn largely from freedmen and liberated slaves in the Middle Atlantic and New England statesâ served in Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butlerâ s Army of the James, whose mission was to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond. From May to December 1864, the 4th saw action in the Bermuda Hundred and Richmond-Petersburg campaigns, and in early 1865 helped capture the defenses of Wilmington, North Carolina, the last open seaport of value to the Confederacy.Citing recently discovered and previously unpublished accounts, author Edward G. Longacre goes beyond the battlefield heroics of the 4th USCT, blending his unique insights into political and social history to analyze the motives, goals, and aspirations of the African American enlisted men. The author also emphasizes how these soldiers overcame what one of their commanders called â stupid, unreasoning, and quite vengeful prejudiceâ and shows how General Butler, a supporter of black troops, gave the unit opportunities to prove itself in battle, resulting in a combat record of which any infantry regiment, black or white, could be proud.

(20110302)

Genres: Civil War, History, Nonfiction, American Civil War

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I have taken issue with Shelby Foote and Alex Kershaw for being great writers but, at times, deviating from the historical record. I do understand that it can be difficult to bring history written large down to a personal and relatable scale without the taking of some liberties. However any distorting of the incidents and/or circumstances of history rankle me.

The first several chapters focus on recruiting, training, and leadership of the 4th USCI. While several well-educated freemen such as Christian Fleetwood and A. Ward Handy were offered the rank of non-commissioned officer upon enlistment, Colonel William Birney understood that freeborn recruits would not provide him with an adequate number of volunteers. He therefore "intended to augment freeborn recruits with fugitive or liberated slaves. Many of these he assisted in escaping from their masters; others he and his officers forcibly removed from farms, plantations, and slave pens" (p. 14).

The 4th USCI was headed by Colonel Samuel Duncan, and its African-American NCOs, including the formidably educated Sergeant Major Christian Fleetwood. Christian Abraham Fleetwood, reached the highest rank possible for blacks in the Union army during the Civil War and was a winner of the Medal of Honor. The unit was unusual among the U.S.""Colored"" troops, as it was drummed up partly from free men and partly from slaves. The regiment was, as is often the case, lead by officers with a wide range of capabilities and attitudes, from paternal to hostile and respectful to hateful. Some of this is somewhat understandable since for many white officers an assignment to a such a unit was a professional deathknell or a personal embarrassment.

Although the 4th spent a good part of the war on garrison duty, it saw enough combat in Virginia, particularly around Petersburg, to be considered solid combat veterans. served in Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler's Army of the James, and saw action in the Bermuda Hundred and Richmond-Petersburg campaigns. Even so, despite the unanimous support of all the officers of the regiment, Christian Fleetwood could not obtain a commission. The 4th ended its wartime career at the capture of Fort Fisher and the subsequent fall of Wilmington, North Carolina; Fleetwood later became commander of the first African-American National Guard unit, in Washington, D.C

Longacre presents the history of this regiment that saw various kinds of action from digging trenches to actual combat. Author Edward G. Longacre blends nuanced insight of political and social history in this book. Fans of Civil War and/or African-American history should find things to like in this book.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an unusual study of a regiment of the United States Colored Infantry, one of the regiments raised of a mixture of free African Americans and escaped slaves. Because the regimental sergeant major was highly educated, his memoirs provided insights missing from the record of many other such units.
The book provides a look at everything from the political reasons for the regiment's existence to the legal justification for shorting their paychecks. In a very small number of cases, the author's research failed to turn up needed information, which was odd when he was talking about the Medal of Honor, as the answer to one of his questions was readily available in other sources. [He was puzzled as to why an officer in the regiment did not receive his medal until the 1890s...it's because the medal was originally only awarded to enlisted men, and the War Department made the change retroactive, to "catch up" on officers who would otherwise have been awarded it.]
It's as if he spent a lot of effort on the hard questions, and missed some easy ones.
Still, the book has value, and is very readable. The focus is very narrow, being about the single unit, so it is easy to overlook the broader issues of how and where they were used in combat, but they were witnesses to or participants in several key actions of the war, and that part of the story is very much worth reading, for those interested more in the battles than the social issues.

[Mark Moxley-Knapp · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent summary of one unit's history during the Civil War. From formation to post-war life, it uses military records, diaries and letters of soldiers, etc., to bring the era to life. Well-written, well-edited, well-researched. Detailed but not bogged down, a pleasure to read. Made me wish for more; it's been too long since I read a good military history.