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Best regards, Andrew Stewart - - - Subscribe to the Washington Babylon newsletter via https://washingtonbabylon.com/newsletter/ Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: March 19, 2020 at 8:58:49 AM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-War]: Fialka on Mendez, 'A Great Sacrifice: > Northern Black Soldiers, Their Families, and the Experience of Civil War' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > James Mendez. A Great Sacrifice: Northern Black Soldiers, Their > Families, and the Experience of Civil War. New York Fordham > University Press, 2019. 262 pp. $35.00 (paper), ISBN > 978-0-8232-8249-4. > > Reviewed by Andrew Fialka (Middle Tennessee State University) > Published on H-War (March, 2020) > Commissioned by Margaret Sankey > > Despite emphasizing "sacrifice" in the title, James G. Mendez > ultimately tells a positive story of black Union soldiers and their > families, one of resilient devotion and service in the face of > racism, financial strain, and atypical violence. The statistics on > Northern black volunteers who enlisted "in proportionately greater > numbers than white volunteers ... [or] 15 percent of the [North's] > entire black population," are all the more impressive when juxtaposed > with their family's empty bank accounts, rumbling bellies, fear from > race riots, and desperate pleas for relief (p. 43). Combined with the > Confederacy's threats to send black troops into slavery or execute > black prisoners of war and the very well-documented massacres of > black soldiers, Mendez shows how great these men and their families' > sacrifices were, indeed. > > Mendez's work is soundly structured, following current trends in the > field to meld the battlefield and home front and take seriously Union > occupation during Reconstruction. Mendez's inclusion of black women's > voices throughout an expanded time frame is particularly intriguing. > He devotes time to explain Northern blacks' prewar "activist > environment" in which they confronted the "white establishment and > actively work[ed] to secure their rights" (p. 13). He also unveils > dozens of black women's struggles to secure their husbands' bounty > payments and back pay during the war, as well as widow pensions long > after the war. In doing so, Mendez stacks up more evidence in support > of black soldiers, veterans, and their families "asserting what they > felt were their rights" and achieving "nearly full participation as > citizens" (p. 6). > > Along with family, money (or the lack thereof) plays a central role > in _A Great Sacrifice_. Three issues in particular permeate the book: > unequal pay with white soldiers, the army's failure to pay on time, > and blacks' inability to secure their volunteer bounties. All three > drastically affected black soldiers' family's precarious financial > situations while they already dealt with the loss of their main > breadwinner and limited access to philanthropic and state relief > funds (as with the three hundred black Philadelphians who rushed to > join the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Colored Regiments and therefore > "became ineligible for financial relief from their home state," p. > 70). Problems with money dominate black family members' letters to > the Union military; Mendez's pages are full of quotes from letters > asking for discharges so soldiers can come home to work, requesting > information on when their husbands could expect their paychecks, and > submitting documentation for pensions. > > The book is at its best when sticking to its intended purpose of > analyzing "the effects of the Civil War on northern black families as > they sacrificed for a Union victory" and drawing from its largest > primary source base of letters Northern black women wrote to Union > military officials (p. 2). Alas, the book is less successful in > presenting "the interrelation of the battlefront and the Union home > front," mainly because it is unclear what audience Mendez is > targeting (p. 3). The forcefully written introduction clearly lays > out a historiographical argument for an academic audience while > entire chapter's worth of historical context from secondary sources > is much better suited for a popular audience. Long descriptions of > the 54th Massachusetts's regimental history, the inner workings of > the Fugitive Slave Act, and traditional military history feel > redundant to the Civil War historian. In trying to appeal to both > audiences, Mendez has done full service to neither. However, my > issues with these editorial decisions should not take away from > Mendez's important contributions. > > Citation: Andrew Fialka. Review of Mendez, James, _A Great Sacrifice: > Northern Black Soldiers, Their Families, and the Experience of Civil > War_. H-War, H-Net Reviews. March, 2020. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=54126 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
