A Great Sacrifice
Northern Black Soldiers, Their Families, and the Experience of Civil War
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A Great Sacrifice is an in-depth analysis of the effects of the Civil War on northern black families carried out using letters from northern black women—mothers, wives, sisters, and female family friends—addressed to a number of Union military officials.
Collectively, the letters give a voice to the black family members left on the northern homefront. Through their explanations and requests, readers obtain a greater apprehension of the struggles African American families faced during the war, and their conditions as the war progressed. The original letters that were received by government agencies, as well as many of the copies of the letters sent in response, are held by the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
This study is unique because it examines the effects of the war specifically on northern black families. Most other studies on African Americans during the Civil War focused almost exclusively on the soldiers.
A Great Sacrifice offers readers new insight into the lives of African American men and women from the North in the era of the Civil War. It will make an important contribution to the literature on the Civil War in general, as well as to the literature on African Americans in the Civil War era and on the northern home front.---Liz Regosin, Charles A. Dana Professor of History, St. Lawrence University
Author James G. Mendez... has allowed his readers an enlightening ear to the voices of black families left at home during the Civil War. They are an essential part of the northern homefront and deserve this attention. A Great Sacrifice goes a long way toward this effort.---Civil War News
In this deeply researched and revealing book, James G. Mendez seeks to recover the experience of northern black soldiers and their families during the Civil War era in order to discover the ways they engaged the governments of their day both to recognize and respect their service and sacrifice during the war and to count the costs northern blacks paid out in impoverished families, wartime casualties, and unfulfilled promises... Mendez’s book deserves our attention and appreciation.---American Historical Review
Mendez’s work is soundly structured, following current trends in the field to meld the battlefield and home front and take seriously Union occupation during Reconstruction.---H-Net Reviews
Civil War scholarship frequently overlooks the lives of northern-born USCT soldiers, and there is even less attention paid to their kin. In A Great Sacrifice: Northern Black Soldiers, Their Families, and the Experience of Civil War by James G. Mendez, those soldiers' families are the central focus.---The Civil War Monitor, "The Five Best Books on the African-American Civil War Experience"
In A Great Sacrifice, Mendez contributes to the necessary work of excavating the black Civil War experience. His research is essential reading for those seeking to deepen their knowledge of African Americans’ wartime struggles and accomplishments. His work also offers unique perspectives to those examining the Northern home front and women’s experiences. Mendez’s scholarship further points to the need to continue exploring black life during the war, for it... demonstrates that as significant as black soldiers’ fighting was, there is more to the story than mere glory.---Civil War History
A Great Sacrifice strives to explore and explain the impacts of the Civil War on Northern black soldiers and their families... readers will learn more about Northern black Americans in this era thanks to this book's sweep and to the compelling letters of women who wrote as mothers, wives, sisters, and female family friends.---The Journal of American History
List of Figures xi
List of Abbreviations xiii
Introduction | 1
1 Life in the North: Before the War | 11
2 A Grand Opportunity: 1861 and 1862 | 19
3 The Forming of Black Regiments and Success in Battle | 28
4 The Unequal Pay Issue | 44
5 Violence on Two Fronts | 81
6 Information Requests | 98
7 Discharge Requests | 120
8 The Conclusion of the War | 130
9 After the War: A Different Kind of Battle | 135
10 Even Farther Away from Home: Occupation Duty Continues | 156
11 Home Again | 178
Appendix: Northern Black Regiments 185
Acknowledgments 187
Notes 189
Cited Literature 237
Index 249