Discover the men of color who fought for their freedom during the
Civil War through profiles illustrated with original wartime
photographs.
A renowned collector of Civil War photographs and a prodigious
researcher, Ronald S. Coddington combines compelling archival images
with biographical stories that reveal the human side of the war. This
third volume in his series on Civil War soldiers contains previously
unpublished photographs of African American Civil War participants--many
of whom fought to secure their freedom.
During the Civil War, 200,000 African American men enlisted in the Union
army or navy. Some of them were free men and some escaped from slavery;
others were released by sympathetic owners to serve the war effort.
African American Faces of the Civil War tells the story of the Civil
War through the images of men of color who served in roles that ranged
from servants and laborers to enlisted men and junior officers.
Coddington discovers these portraits--cartes de visite, ambrotypes,
and tintypes--in museums, archives, and private collections. He has
pieced together each individual's life and fate based upon personal
documents, military records, and pension files. These stories tell of
ordinary men who became fighters, of the prejudice they faced, and of
the challenges they endured. African American Faces of the Civil War
makes an important contribution to a comparatively understudied aspect
of the war and provides a fascinating look into lives that helped shape
America.
