Firebrand of Liberty: The Story of Two Black Regiments That Changed the Course of the Civil War

by Stephen V. Ash

A nearly forgotten Civil War episode is restored to history in this masterful account. In March 1863, nine hundred black Union soldiers, led by white officers, invaded Florida and seized the town of Jacksonville. They were among the first African American troops in the Northern army, and their expedition into enemy territory was like no other in the Civil War. It was intended as an assault on slavery by which thousands would be freed. At the center of the story is prominent abolitionist Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who led one of the regiments. After waging battle for three weeks, Higginson and his men were mysteriously ordered to withdraw, their mission a seeming failure. Yet their successes in resisting the Confederates and collaborating with white Union forces persuaded President Abraham Lincoln to begin full-scale recruitment of black troops, a momentous decision that helped turned the tide of the war. Using long-neglected primary sources, historian Stephen V. Ash’s stirring narrative re-creates this event with insight, vivid characterizations, and a keen sense of drama.

Genres: History, Civil War, Nonfiction, American History, Military History, American, American Civil War

304 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2008

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Without the 1st and 2nd South Carolina Regiments, we might not have had the 54th Massachusetts Regiment so ably depicted in the film “Glory” or any of the other nearly 200,000 black soldiers eventually recruited, making the difference for the Union in the American Civil War. This is a 4 Star account of the first black troops to engage the Confederacy on their home territory. I really enjoyed hearing about this very seldom covered theater of the war, the barrier islands off Charleston and Florida. Much of the book is about the struggle to get the units recruited, trained, armed and sent to battle. They only had a few weeks of actual fighting but this is a great story.

I was not aware of the Direct Tax Law before this book but it made sense. But “Commissioner” Stickney was one of the worst people you could imagine. Originally started in New Orleans supporting the South, he moved to the North when opportunity came, weaseled his way into an official position. From that point on, he used his authority for personal wealth generation exclusively. He had carte blanche and used it. In the end, he will come to justice!

Stickney’s official title was direct tax commissioner for Florida. Congress had passed the Direct Tax Law in June 1862. Its ostensible aim was to enable the government to collect directly in Rebel territory a federal tax levied on the states in August 1861; in fact, it was a device to confiscate secessionists’ land. Under this act, the secretary of the treasury appointed a three-man commission for each seceded state that Union forces had entered. The commissioners would assess all real properties in areas under federal control and announce the tax due on each. If the tax was not paid in sixty days, as was probable, for the owner was likely to be a fugitive Rebel or someone else unable or unwilling to render unto the federal Caesar, the commissioners would condemn the Property in the government’s name and then sell or lease it.

Col Higginson was a committed abolitionist. A financial supporter of John Brown, a forceful advocate for the end of slavery. He is given command of the 1st South Carolina Regiment. He moved through his camp and listened to his soldiers.
(The colonel) heard one soldier pray, “--dat if I die at de muzzle of de musket, die in de water, die in de land, I may know I hab de blessed Jesus in my hand, and hab no fear.” The livelier songs were accompanied by a percussive stamping of feet and a rapid castanet like clapping of hands. Sometimes the singer would be surrounded by a circling, chanting, shuffling, whirling ring of men, in what was known as a shout. Many of the songs, however, were slow, plaintive spirituals in a doleful minor key, often with a responsive refrain sung by a chorus of soldiers. Some of these struck Higginson as true poetry, among them:

I know moon-rise, I know star-rise, Lay dis body down.

I walk in de moonlight, I walk in de starlight, To lay dis body down.

I ’ll walk in de graveyard, I ’ll walk through de graveyard, To lay dis body down.

I’ll lie in de grave and stretch out my arms; Lay dis body down.

I go to de judgment in de evenin’ of de day, When I lay dis body down;

And my soul and your soul will meet in de day When I lay dis body down.

The men thought of themselves as a “gospel army,” the colonel wrote…

Col Higginson had been the Jacksonville area commander but a superior officer arrived with additional white regiments. The Confederate forces in the area had a Blakely rifled cannon and began to shell the town. The Blakely was mounted on a rail car and pushed into position, fired rounds and then was pulled out of range of the gunboats moored in Jacksonville. Initially a small force of the white troops had gone out a destroyed the rails about 2 miles out. Not far enough as further shelling occurred. So a new force was assembled to go farther out and destroy more rails. Col Higginson takes his forces out:
Now he could go forth and lead in battle. The units he assembled on the morning of March 25 would constitute, as far as he knew, the first racially integrated US. Army force to go into action in this war. There were four companies of the 6th Connecticut, four of the 8th Maine, and five of the 1st South, a good two-fifths of the expeditionary force. The troops were ordered to take one day’s rations, full canteens of water, and sixty rounds of ammunition. A handcar on which was mounted a ten-pounder rifled cannon would go with them, pushed and pulled along the railroad track by human power behind the advancing infantry. This little flatcar was big enough to hold the gun, its crew, some ammunition, and Colonel Higginson, but small enough to be manhandled past the stretch of track destroyed yesterday by the white troops. Higginson’s mission was to advance four miles west from Jacksonville, gather intelligence, tear up track, and return. Colonel Rust forbade him to go farther for fear that the Rebels might attack Jacksonville from another direction while it was lightly defended. An hour or two before noon Higginson gave the command…

The force completes its mission but the Confederates show up with the cannon. The Union force conducts a fighting retreat and suffers some casualties from shelling. Overall, a major event that will help the Union decide to recruit black regiments.

With Jacksonville secured with additional (white) troops, a mission force from the 1st South Carolina is sent further south. After a mini-Sherman’s style March through the area near Palatka, the small force is recalled. On the way back they stop at a location suspected to have cotton, lumber and other supplies to be confiscated. But they also stumble upon something else:

After trudging six miles inland, they spotted, some distance ahead, the red embers of what appeared to be a campfire. There was no reason to think enemy troops were in this vicinity, but Montgomery, having been taken by surprise at Palatka, was now doubly cautious. Quietly he split his force into several squads and sent them forward to surround the presumed campsite. The men closed in with muskets at the ready.

This resulted in no farce like the 1st South’s Battle of the Clothes Line. Lying around the fire, sound asleep, with their rifles stacked nearby, were a Confederate army lieutenant and fourteen of his men. Montgomery shook one of them awake. “What is it?” the man mumbled groggily. “You are prisoners,” the colonel told him. “No,” came the reply, “we belong to Westcott’s company.” “Yes,” said Montgomery, “but we don’t”

When the force returned to Jacksonville, the white soldiers suddenly gained respect for the black units. The white units hadn’t captured any Confederate forces since they arrived and here the black unit had captured 15 Rebels without any losses.

[Jerome Otte · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pretty interesting book about two black regiments of the Union army that aren’t as well known as others, such as Robert Shaw’s more famous 54th Massachusetts. The author indicates that the capture of Jacksonville and the related raids carried out by the regiments had much greater military significance than was considered at the time. Basically, his case is that the moderate success of the mission heavily influenced the decision for the full-scale employment of black soldiers to go ahead. The evidence, while pretty good, seems mostly circumstantial to me.

At first, it was assumed, even by their commander, Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, that perhaps it wasn't the best idea because the white soldiers had issues with fighting alongside black ones. The White soldiers entertained themselves at the expense of blacks and using racial slurs. A strong reaction from the black soldiers could have caused many problems. The black troops, however, tended to ignore them and go about their business of freeing their fellow slaves. In addition, in the towns that black troops entered , the White citizens frequently had issues, such as white women complaining of being insulted by the black soldiers. It hardly ever panned out as described and more frequently, the black soldier had reacted to some slur from the white person.

Higginson's men carried themselves bravely through the capture of Jacksonville, Florida and there was not one incident of personal cowardice among them. Even though General Hunter withdrew the troops before the mission was complete, their outstanding performance encouraged President Lincoln to rethink the idea of regularly enlisting black soldiers, thus changing the face of the Civil War.

Ash has written a sensitive, interesting history of black soldiers during the civil war. He writes of their hardships, their courage when everything was against them, the racial discrimination they had to endure and their determination to win. He describes how they attempted to find others like themselves and free them, bringing them back to their encampments. It is a history well worth reading to understand just how this country operated during the Civil War.

Not only does Ash describe how Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson took charge of these men and molded them into a competent and disciplined military unit, but he shows how the colonel developed his plans to put these men to the test in terms of their military ability. This book demonstrates that Higginson hoped that these troops would prove that the idea of recruiting African-Americans was not folly and that these men could and would fight as well as anybody else. He hoped this local campaign would have national consequences.

The book is not long, at 204 pages, plus an epilogue and an appendix, but it covers the subject very well and in-depth, especially once it got into the story of the expedition, yet it does so in a pleasing, readable way. It is good scholarship, but without the purely academic style of writing that many history books feature.

[Jacob Lines · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an exciting book. I greatly enjoyed the stories about the battles and raids that the South Carolina First and Second participated in. The fought well and successfully. But the real significance of these regiments, of course, was that they showed that freedmen could be good soldiers, just as good and even better than their white counterparts. They fought bravely, they didn’t desert, they didn’t rape and burn, and they won engagements. I hope that the descendants of these remarkable men find this book so they can hear a scholar’s detailed story of why they mattered so very much.

[Joe Bordonaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books relating to the American Civil War that I've read. It told me about a part of the war I'd never heard of and made the story come alive because of the human interest that was woven into the story.

[Joe Keefhaver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a particularly thrilling book, but it was an insight into the formation of the United States Colored Troops. I saw some details that re-enforced episodes about the black troops as depicted in the movie "Glory." Quite frankly, such detail was lacking in the book "One Gallant Rush," on which the film was supposedly based.

[RK Byers · Rating 4 out of 5]

forget the Civil War, it actually seems very MODERN government that a plan, on it's way to working, would suddenly be discarded and abandoned.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone vaguely familiar with the Civil War history of Jacksonville, Florida, probably already knows that the city changed hands four times during the conflict, trading back and forth between Union and Confederate occupation like a shuttlecock in the world's bloodiest badminton game. What's less well-known (read: completely unknown, if you came up through the Duval County Public School system) is that the third capture was executed by the 1st and 2nd South Carolina, two of the first black units to see action in the Civil War, whose successful Floridian foray likely swayed Lincoln's decision to begin the full-scale recruitment of black troops into the Union Army. Stephen Ash's Firebrand of Liberty follows these ground-breaking units from their origins at Port Royal Island through their time in a Bay Street barracks and back north after their mission is summarily, and inexplicably, canceled.

Ash, a history professor at the University of Tennessee, gives his thoroughly researched and fantastically well-endnoted work an almost novel-like sense of narrative, something largely possible due to his decision to focus on the expedition's commander, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who wrote extensively about his experiences during the war. In his preface, Ash admits the limitations of using the lens of a white Union male, acknowledging that it is one-sided, and expresses the hope that future historians choose to examine the same incidents from different perspectives. It's a depressing fact of American history that the perspective most relevant here, those of the people of color who fought under Higginson, is unlikely to ever be fully heard due to the era's lack of educational opportunities for African-Americans and a general disinterest in preserving their personal narratives. Still, Ash does his best to call out the latent biases of even the most abolition-minded of army command, ameliorating where he can the effects of his limited focus.

As fascinating and well-written as this account is, it may be disappointing to readers who expect...well, more Jacksonville. While Ash's descriptions of the city in 1863 are detailed and evocative, they're far too brief for the simple reason that the Union pulled their troops back after only a few weeks, which means most of this book focuses on the creation of the regiments, their journey from South Carolina to the St. Johns, and the aftermath of their mission. In other words, the major fault of this history is the fault of General David Hunter, who ordered the unexpected withdrawal, for reasons which Ash speculates on but cannot prove.

Still, there's more than enough here to hold the attention of any Jaxson curious about their history, including at least one character (Charlotte Forten, a young black teacher who carried on an affair with the regiment's surgeon) whose life deserves an Oscar biopic, stat. Brief as it is, Firebrand of Liberty sheds a welcome light on a forgotten - or more accurately, ignored - episode of Jacksonville and Civil War history, and is well worth a read for locals and non-locals alike.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

During the American Civil War the enlistment of black regiments was finally approved after the Emancipation Proclaimation as the North started suffering manpower shortages. This work discusses two of the early black regiments, exploring service, motivation, and the physics of the commanders and men. It traces their organization in South Carolina to service in Florida. A good addition to the library of the Civl War buff.

[Craig Bolton]

Firebrand of Liberty: The Story of Two Black Regiments That Changed the Course of the Civil War by Stephen Ash (2008)