The black Civil War soldier : A visual history of conflict and citizenship
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references (pages 215-228) and index.

"Though both the Union and Confederate armies excluded African American men from their initial calls to arms, black men eventually made up 10 percent of the Union Army. Photography culture blossomed as the war progressed, marking the Civil War as the first conflict to be extensively documented through photographs. In The Black Civil War Soldier, Deb Willis explores the crucial role of photography in re-telling and shaping African American narratives of the Civil War, frawing on a dynamic visual archive that has gone largely unacknowledged. With ninety-nine images, The Black Civil War Soldier contains a huge breadth of rarely seen primary and archival materials: photographs supplemented with handwritten captions, letters, and other personal materials. Willis not only dives into the lives of Black Union soldiers, but also includes stories of other African Americans involved with the struggle--from left-behind family members to female spies. The Black Civil War Soldier offers a kaleidoscopic yet intimate portrait of the African American experience. Through her multimedia analysis, Willis pinpoints the importance of African American communities in the development and prosecution of the war and demonstrates how photography helped construct a national vision of Blackness, war, and bondage. A captivating memoir of photographs and words, The Black Civil War Soldier traces themes of love and longing, responsibility and fear, commitment and patriotism, and--most significantly--African American resilience."-- Page [4] of cover.