The 124th New York State Volunteers was one of the great fighting regiments of the Civil War. In this thorough history, the author has used letters, diary entries, and remembrances, many of them previously unpublished, to present a view of the war as the men in the ranks saw it. At Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, Petersburg, and many more battles, the "Orange Blossoms" earned a reputation for sacrifice and bravery, eloquently put into words by Private Henry Howell. As he lay wounded, he described the charge that broke the Confederate line at Spotsylvania--"everyone was borne irresistibly forward. There was no such thing as fail." The book includes a roster of all who served in the regiment and numerous photos of individuals.
The 124th New York State Volunteers was one of the great fighting regiments of the Civil War. In this thorough history, the author has used letters, diary entries, and remembrances, many of them previously unpublished, to present a view of the war as the men in the ranks saw it. At Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, Petersburg, and many more battles, the "Orange Blossoms" earned a reputation for sacrifice and bravery, eloquently put into words by Private Henry Howell. As he lay wounded, he described the charge that broke the Confederate line at Spotsylvania--"everyone was borne irresistibly forward. There was no such thing as fail." The book includes a roster of all who served in the regiment and numerous photos of individuals.
The Army of the Potomac was a hotbed of political activity during the Civil War. As a source of dissent widely understood as a frustration for Abraham Lincoln, its onetime commander, George B. McClellan, even secured the Democratic nomination for president in 1864. But in this comprehensive reassessment of the army's politics, Zachery A. Fry argues that the war was an intense political education for its common soldiers. Fry examines several key crisis points to show how enlisted men developed political awareness that went beyond personal loyalties. By studying the struggle between Republicans and Democrats for political allegiance among the army's rank and file, Fry reveals how captains, majors, and colonels spurred a pro-Republican political awakening among the enlisted men, culminating in the army's resounding Republican voice in state and national elections in 1864. For decades, historians have been content to view the Army of the Potomac primarily through the prism of its general officer corps, portraying it as an arm of the Democratic Party loyal to McClellan's leadership and legacy. Fry, in contrast, shifts the story's emphasis to resurrect the successful efforts of proadministration junior officers who educated their men on the war's political dynamics and laid the groundwork for Lincoln's victory in 1864.
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This work provides an organizational history of the maneuver brigade and case studies of its employment throughout the various wars. Apart from the text, the appendices at the end of the work provide a ready reference to all brigade organizations used in the Army since 1917 and the history of the brigade colors.
Best remembered as the founder of Hampton Institute and mentor of Booker T. Washington, Samuel Chapman Armstrong played a crucial role in white philanthropy and educational strategies toward nonwhite people in late-nineteenth-century America. Until now, however, there has been no scholarly biography of Armstrong--his story has usually been subsumed within that of his famous protégé. In Educating the Disfranchised and Disinherited, Robert Francis Engs illuminates both Armstrong's life and an important chapter in the history of American race relations. Armstrong was the son of missionaries to Hawaii, and as Engs makes clear, his early experiences in a multiracial, predominantly non-European society did much to determine his life's work--the uplift of "backward peoples." After attending Williams College, Armstrong commanded black troops in the Civil War and served as a Freedmen's Bureau agent before founding Hampton in 1869. At the institute, he implemented a unique combination of manual labor education and teacher training, creating an educational system that he believed would enable African Americans and other disfranchised peoples to rise gradually toward the level of white civilization. Recent studies have often blamed Armstrong for "miseducating" an entire generation of African Americans and for Washington's failings as a "race leader." Indeed, as Engs notes, Armstrong's educational designs were paternalistic in the extreme, and in addressing certain audiences, he could sometimes sound like a consummate racist. On the other hand, he frequently expressed a deep devotion to the ultimate equality of African Africans and incorporated the best of his black graduates into the Hampton staff. Sorting through the complexities and contradictions of Armstrong's character and vision, Engs's masterful biography provides new insights into the failures of emancipation and into the sometimes flawed responses of one heir to antebellum abolition and egalitarian Christianity. The Author: Robert Francis Engs is associate professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Freedom's First Generation: Black Hampton, Virginia, 1861-1890.
