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“de Fus’ Souf” - The Story of America’s First Officially Recognized African-American Regiment.
“de
Fus’ Souf”
The
Story of America’s First Officially Recognized
African-American
Regiment.
During the Civil War over 170,000 "colored" troops served in the
Union Army. While there were two earlier attempts at getting an
all black unit started, the first one to be officially recognized by
the U.S. government was the First South Carolina Volunteers.
While the unit was all black and composed of former slaves, the
officers, by decree of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, had to be all
white. The first commanding officer, therefore, was Thomas
Wentworth Higginson, the author of this book.
Higginson in civilian life was a minister and a fiery
abolitionist. As a captain in the 51st Massachusetts Infantry he
was wounded and undergoing convalescence when he was offered the job of
commanding officer of the newly formed First South Carolina. He
jumped at the chance and this book, a diary of his observations, was
the result.
But in addition to simply recording his military experiences,
Higginson went a step further. He was able to document the
amazing dialect of his black soldiers, called Gullah, a dialect that
survives even today. At night he would listen to the men sing
spirituals, record the words and how they were sung, and try to find
out what the songs meant. In effect, Thomas Higginson was
functioning as a social anthropologist long before the field was even
invented.
His observations of his soldiers, his struggle with the
government to bring them equity in pay and conditions, his capturing of
the Gullah language, his memorializing of the spirituals and marching
songs they sang—it’s all here in
Black
Soldiers / Blue Uniforms:
The
Story of the First South Carolina Volunteers
|
Manufacturer:
Fireship Press | | SKU: |
978-1-934757-71-0
| | ISBN: |
978-1-934757-71-0 |
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