Thomas Morris Chester, Black Civil War Correspondent: His Dispatches from the Virginia Front

by R.J.M. Blackett (Editor)

In 1864 the Philadelphia Press commissioned Thomas Morris Chester, son of an ex-slave to cover the activities of black troops on the Virginia front. The only black correspondent for a major daily during the Civil War, Chester covered the crucial final year of the war around Richmond. His dispatches constitute the most sustained and extensive first-hand account of black soldiers in existence. As the war came to a close, Chester richly described the responses of Confederate troops and civilians to encounters with black soldiers, as he joined the black troops of the 25th Army Corps as they led the victorious Union forces into Richmond. In this volume, R.J.M. Blackett provides a concise biography of Chester and reproduces in annotated form his Civil War dispatches, which are remarkable for their detail and their graphic accounts of the destruction, the excitement and the liberation of theCivil War experience.

376 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1989

About the author

R. J. M. Blackett is the Andrew Jackson Professor of History at Vanderbilt University and the author of several books about nineteenth-century history.

Reviews

[Nick]

This book tells an unusual story. Part biography, part journalistic writings, this book is about the first African American war correspondent hired by a major newspaper. His news reports from the field, from the summer of 1864 until after the end of the Civil War, provide a different insight into the life of the soldiers, and the actions late in the war. Among other things, he was assigned to cover regiments of the United States Colored Troops during those final months, but he was also writing articles from Richmond after that city fell.
The first third of the book tells about the life of this flamboyant and controversial man who, in addition to two widely different careers in journalism, was an attorney and educator on both sides of the Atlantic. Among other things, he put himself through law school in England by being a part-time diplomat for the nation of Liberia, visiting the royal courts of Europe in that capacity on his term breaks...

[Shannon Judisky]

The first chapter is a little rough to read as it is long and it is Mr. Chester's entire life. That said, his life is amazing!
His dispatches are also great, worthwhile and well written.