Rita Roberts is a professor at Claremont Scripps College and has a B.S., M.A., and a Ph.D, and specializes in American History, specifically African American experiences during the Civil War era. She reviews Campfires of Freedom: The Camp Life of Black Soldiers during the Civil War By Keith R Wilson in this article that focuses how black soldiers were trained and treated during the American Civil War. It is stressed that due to prevasive racial ideologies of that time, despite black soldiers technically being free men in the army, white officers often believed that a long history of slavery has robbed black men of their humanity and their manhood, thus focusing training efforts on teaching black soldiers how to become good soldiers, and good men. Other white officers only trained black soldiers to advance in their career, and were often sadistic and cruel to their black subordinates. This source has a broader application than the second source I have found since it did not name specific regiments in the army, but it is useful to my research because it provides more info about the lives of black soldiers during the civil war and the racism they were faced with.
Powers Jr., Bernard E. "Freedom For Themselves: North Carolina's Black Soldiers In The Civil War Era." Georgia Historical Quarterly 93.2 (2009): 206-209. Academic Search Complete. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.
Bernard Powers is currently a professor at the College of Charleston, with an M.A and a Ph.D in American History. He has received numerous awards and recognition for his works on African American social and cultural evolution. This is a review for Richard Reid's book Freedom for Themselves: North Carolina's Black Soldiers which examines specifically the lives of four different black regiments in North Carolina during the Civil War. This informative study gave scholars and students insight of the challenges that confronted black soldiers and veterans of that time, despite being just as competent as their white counterparts. One of the regiments had a more progressive white officer in charge and thus were able to actually fight in battles and eventually received recognition for their sacrifices. However, other regiments were not as lucky, some were understaffed, some were not allowed on the battlefield, some were forced to replace white soldiers when yellow fever broke out. Even after the war, there was high levels of racial tension and black soldiers still could not achieve the equal status they fought for. This source provides evidence that even in the Union's army, black soldiers were not given equality and respect.
Overall, I think both sources prove useful to my essay, since they are both on the topic of black soldiers during the civil war. However, since I have to choose between the two, I would choose the second one because it has more specific and concrete examples that I can use to prove that black soldiers in the North during the civil war were mistreated, despite the war being fought partially for anti-slavery causes. Many people like to think of the North as "anti-slavery saviors", as strong abolitionists and humanitarians, while the trust is the North was often simply the lesser of two evils. This secondary source should provide me more information and evidence to support my thesis.
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