Carpetbagger of Conscience
A Biography of John Emory Bryant
Fordham University Press
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This is a biography of John Emory Bryant, a veteran of the Civil War who became a Carpetbagger in Georgia during the Reconstruction era. A member of the Eighth Maine Infantry Regiment during the Civil War, Bryant fought at the Battle of the Crater. After his service in the war, he returned to Maine to study law. But, before he finished his degree, he was contacted by his former commander and friend, General Rufus Saxton, to join him in "new work . . . among former slaves in the South" with the Freedmen’s Bureau, an organization designed to protect and assist the newly freed slaves.
"Gracefully written, abreast of current scholarship, the book is abundantly documented and equipped with a good bibliography." —---—Choice
Currie-McDaniel provides a convincing portrait of Bryant the man and the politician. . . . This sound biography will be of interest to students of . . . Reconstruction history. . . .---—The Journal of American History
The book boasts an impressive, up-to-date array of primary and previously published sources. Currie-McDaniel uses these materials skillfully. . . .---—Civil War Times
Ruth Douglas Currie is Professor of History and Political Science at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, NC.