Campfires of Freedom

Military Review, March-April, 2005 by Jeffrey C. Alfier

We stood like obsidian panthers In a corner of the white world--Yusef Komunyakaa (1)

Monash University (Australia) history professor Keith P. Wilson outlines three broad purposes for writing Campfires of Freedom--The Camp Life of Black Soldiers during the Civil War. (2) Those purposes are: "To describe the soldiers' lives ..., bring into focus the emotional texture of military life, [and] analyze the process of cultural change that occurred within the army camps."

Why camp life? As Wilson states, camp life helped the African-American--"divided from the mainstream of American cultural life--bridge this divide, and negotiate the changes necessary to meet the demands of army life ...; reconfigure race relations ...; give black people a new definition; [and] challenge existing notions of race and relationship." In exploring these issues, Wilson achieves his purposes quite well.

African-Americans--both freemen and ex-slaves--enlisted for a variety of reasons, from patriotism to sheer poverty. Like many of their white counterparts, black soldiers attributed theological significance to the war. For those relegated to lower social classes, military service has always been a medium for social advancement, and this is how Northern black leaders envisaged such service for the black soldier.

Wilson shows that like American society at large, the African-American, although ignored or marginalized by Northern and Southern societies, grew and progressed amid the atmosphere of impending secession and subsequent war. So circumstanced, the camps evolved.

The camp varied in physical environment; leadership styles of officers and noncommissioned officers; quality of training received; and the effects of combat experiences. Each camp had chaplains, cooks, camp followers, singers, and verse writers. Ironically, the universal pastimes of gambling and drinking belied the racial barriers preventing African-Americans from joining white regiments.

Like all soldiers, the black soldier built "social bonds and friendship networks with the comrades with whom [they] shared a tent." Still, they resented stereotyping attitudes that sought to relegate them to nothing more than waiters and servants (or to fatigue duty).

Although, they formed veterans' societies after the war, most were glad to be rid of camp life. Yet, Wilson does not put the black soldier on some glorious pedestal. He notes, for instance, that like their white counterparts, some black soldiers exploited women, often as tools of revenge.

Many of the white officers who commanded all-black units joined out of patriotism. Some were abolitionist visionaries; others seemed interested only in self-promotion. Most had genuine concern for the welfare of their men, fighting for pay equality and postwar resettlement on agrarian bases. By stressing patriotism and enforcing discipline, officers and noncommissioned officers alike were able to reassure their soldiers of the particular dignity of fighting for the Union.

Still, some officers seemed only interested in their own welfare while many felt true education was beneath the black soldier's ability. (Wilson devotes an entire chapter to the black soldiers' struggle for literacy.) Some officers were even base enough to steal from their soldiers. As Wilson says, "The soldiers and officers traveled to the same destination, but they did so on different paths."

To say Wilson's work is well researched is an understatement: the book contains 85 pages of worthwhile notes, adding to the growing scholarship of studies about the African-American soldiers' experience in a formative period of American history. As such, the book is a fitting companion to Ira Berlin's Freedom's Soldiers: The Black Military Experience in the Civil War, and John David Smith's Black Soldiers in Blue: African American Troops in the Civil War Era. (3) Wilson does not explore black troops' experiences in combat; other studies cover that issue: for example, Noah Andre Trudeau's encyclopedic Like Men of War. Black Troops in the Civil War, 1862-1865. (4)

Wilson realized his work was "less a research project than a journey through history." For determined students and scholars, this thoroughly researched exemplar of historiography is well worth the price.

NOTES

(1.) Yusef Komonyakaa, "Between Angels & Monsters," Marc City (Hanover and London: Wesleyan University Press/ University Press of New England, 1992), 48

(2) Keith P. Wilson, Campfires of Freedom--The Camp Life of Black Soldiers during the Civil War (Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2002).

(3.) Ira Berlin, Freedom's Soldiers: The Black Military Experience in the Civil War (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998); John David Smith, Black Soldiers in Blue: African American Troops in the Civil War Era (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002)

(4) Noah Andre Trudeau, Like Men of War Black Troops in the Civil War, 1862-1865 (New York: Back Bay Books, 1999).

Major Jeffrey C. Alfier. U.S. Air Force, is a training officer with the 32d Air Operations Squadron. Ramstein Air Base, Germany. He received a B.A. front the University of Maryland and an M.A. from California State University. He has served in various staff positions, including air battle manager. U.S. and NATO Airborne Warning and Control System. and the EC-130 Airborne Battlefield Command and Control Center Before being recalled to active duty, he was a functional analyst for Science Applications International Corporation.