Army Life in a Black Regiment

The author, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, recounts the adventures of the First Carolina Volunteers, a black regiment mustered into the Army of the United States during the Civil War. Colonel Higginson was convinced that these eight hundred men could drill and perform as well as the best of the white regiments. Transformed from slaves into soldiers, many of whom could not read or write when enlisted, this battalion was watched with microscopic scrutiny by friends and foes as a spectacle of daring innovation.Appendices include a list of the Officers, General Saxton's Instructions, and their struggle for pay.