The Black Regulars 1866-1898 - by William Dobak (Paperback)

About the Book

In The Black Regulars, 1866-1898, the authors shed new light on the military justice system, relations between black troops and their mostly white civilian neighbors, their professional reputations, and what veterans faced when they left the army for civilian life.

Book Synopsis

Black soldiers first entered the regular army of the United States in the summer of 1866. While their segregated regiments served in the American West for the following three decades, the promise of Reconstruction gave way to the repressiveness of Jim Crow. But black men found a degree of equality in the service: the army treated them no worse than it did their white counterparts.

The Black Regulars uses army correspondence, court-martial transcripts, and pension applications to tell who these men were, often in their own words: how they were recruited and how their officers were selected; how the black regiments survived hostile congressional hearings and stringent budget cuts; how enlisted men spent their time, both on and off duty; and how regimental chaplains tried to promote literacy through the army's schools. The authors shed new light on the military justice system, relations between black troops and their mostly white civilian neighbors, their professional reputations, and what veterans faced when they left the army for civilian life.

Review Quotes

"The Black Regularsis a fine examination of a military experience shaped and defined by prejudice and discrimination. . . . [T]his is the best single volume on the lives of black soldiers in the frontier Army."--Frank N. Schubert, in Army History

"The beauty of this study is that it overturns a number of long-held assumptions regarding the black regiments of the late nineteenth century. . . . [The book] fill[s] a most signifucant gap in the scholarly literature of the black regulars in the West."--John H. Monnett, in Pacific Historical Review

"Within the black regiments were congregated a few saints and a few sinners, but the vast majority were simply men who chose the soldier's profession and performed their duties remarkably well. Their stories are now given new voice in this exceptionally fine synthesis that complements all previous book-length studies of the topic."--Michael L. Tate, in the Journal of Southern History