Firebrand of Liberty: The Story of Two Black Regiments That Changed the Course of the Civil War - Hardcover

Ash, Stephen V.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393065863 ISBN 13: 9780393065862

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2008

Synopsis

A nearly forgotten Civil War episode is restored to history in this masterful account.

In March 1863, nine hundred black Union soldiers, led by white officers, invaded Florida and seized the town of Jacksonville. They were among the first African American troops in the Northern army, and their expedition into enemy territory was like no other in the Civil War. It was intended as an assault on slavery by which thousands would be freed. At the center of the story is prominent abolitionist Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who led one of the regiments. After waging battle for three weeks, Higginson and his men were mysteriously ordered to withdraw, their mission a seeming failure. Yet their successes in resisting the Confederates and collaborating with white Union forces persuaded President Abraham Lincoln to begin full-scale recruitment of black troops, a momentous decision that helped turned the tide of the war. Using long-neglected primary sources, historian Stephen V. Ash’s stirring narrative re-creates this event with insight, vivid characterizations, and a keen sense of drama.

About this title

About the Author

Stephen V. Ash is a professor of history at the University of Tennessee. He is the author of several books on the Civil War, including A Year in the South: Four Lives in 1865. He lives in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Reviews

The titular firebrand in this revealing history is not an individual but a curious and ambitious project: the establishment, in March 1863, of a permanent Union outpost in Florida to serve as a haven for fugitive slaves and to help ignite the destruction of Southern slavery from within. In readable prose and relying exclusively on primary sources, historian Ash (When the Yankees Came) tells the little-known but crucial story of how 900 newly freed slaves, under the leadership of white abolitionist officers, captured Jacksonville. They fought alongside white Union troops and liberated slaves until their mission was abruptly aborted by their commanding officer, Gen. David Hunter, one of the dimmest stars in the Union Army firmament. Ash makes a strong case that the successes of the two black regiments changed the course of war by convincing President Lincoln to authorize the full-scale enlistment of African-Americans. By the end of the war, some 200,000 black troops had served in the Union Army. Without them, Ash contends, the Union might very well have failed to conquer the Confederacy. (July)
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The award-winning film Glory publicized the valor of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts and their assault on Fort Wagner. However, the Civil War’s first black regiments to see combat were the First and Second South Carolina. Ash, a professor of history, has told their story in an exciting and inspiring book. Unlike the men in the Fifty-fourth, the black soldiers in these regiments were almost exclusively liberated slaves. In March 1863, they were sent to Confederate-controlled Florida, where they quickly captured Jacksonville. The long-range goal was to create a liberated zone where runaway slaves from all over the South would flee, further draining the manpower resources of the South. The regiments were led by Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a loud, brash white abolitionist who had advocated violent resistance to slavery before the war. Although the military effects of the campaign were negligible, Ash asserts that the courage of these black troops encouraged Lincoln to recruit black regiments on a much wider scale. Ash effectively uses primary sources to provide an intense chronicle of the battlefield while illuminating an obscure but gallant episode of the Civil War. --Jay Freeman

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393065863
• ISBN 13: 9780393065862
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304