Additional information about this movie can be found here.
Response to Critics
August 14, 2010 By 9 Comments
I received my author copies of the most recent issue of Civil War Times magazine, which includes my feature story on the Crater, so I assume it is now available at your local newsstand. A few days ago Dana Shoaf passed on an email and asked me to respond for the next issue. It’s an interesting comment and one that I suspect others have struggled with.
I was very disappointed in Kevin M. Levin’s article on the execution of black Union soldiers by the Confederate Army after the Battle of the Crater during the Petersburg siege. Mr. Levin gives quite a good accounting that explains the motivation of the Confederate troops. However, he utterly fails to differentiate between explanation and excuse. The Confederate troops perpetrated a war crime, as there is no other way to describe the wanton murder of captured American soldiers in uniform. As such, these Confederates join the ranks of the German SS troops who murdered American prisoners at Malmedy during the Battle of the Bulge and those Japanese soldiers who did the same on countless occasions to captured Americans in the Pacific Theatre. I fail to see any difference between these incidents. I can only imagine the disgust felt by your African-American readers; mine is fairly high.
PS: I view slave revolts as the legitimate right of the enslaved.
Sincerely,
Jack
Response:
Thanks to Jack for the thoughtful response to my essay. The reader criticizes me for failing to distinguish between an explanation and an excuse in my analysis of why Confederates massacred black Union soldiers at the Crater. While the essay received a positive assessment for the explanation offered, this reader was left with the impression that I had excused the actions of Confederates at the Crater. Nothing could be further from the truth. My essay was intended as an explanation of what happened and why and should not be interpreted in any way as condoning or condemning what took place. Such conclusions and/or comparisons with related incidents from other wars are best left to the readers of this essay. That said, I suggest that this reader runs the risk of obscuring the complexity of historic events by reducing the killing of black Union soldiers to the murder of American soldiers by foreign soldiers. I consider this article a success if it assists readers in better understanding the nature of fighting at the Crater in July 1864. Finally, it may be helpful to point out that this article is part of a much larger project on the Crater and historical memory, titled, Remembering Murder As War: The Battle of the Crater.
The Intersection of Historical Memory, Hollywood, and Commercialism
July 29, 2010 By 11 Comments
This full-page advertisement appeared in the February 1991 issue of Ebony magazine. There was clearly a resurgence of interest in the history of black Civil War soldiers following the release of Glory. Numerous articles/reviews of the movie can be found in Ebony and Jet magazines.
George Washington Williams’s Crater
July 28, 2010 By 19 Comments
One of the most important sources within the early historiography of the early black counter-memory of the Civil War and the Crater is George Washington Williams’s, A History of the Negro Troops in The War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865 (1888). Williams benefited from publication of the Official Records and includes entire reports to supplement the narrative. [Click here for a short biographical sketch.] A History of the Negro Troops is an incredibly detailed history of black volunteers that covers all of the major engagements from the Civil War in which they were involved. Williams discusses discrimination in the army, the difficult relationship between enlisted men and white officers, as well as their performance on the battlefield. Along the way Williams takes every opportunity to wax poetic about the significance of his subject:
The part enacted by the Negro in the war of the Rebellion is the romance of North American history. It was midnight and noonday without a space between; from the Egyptian darkness of bondage to the lurid glare of civil war; from clanking chains to clashing arms; from passive submission to the cruel curse of slavery to the brilliant aggressiveness of a free soldier; from a chattel to a person; from the shame of degradation to the glory of military exaltation; and from deep obscurity to fame and martial immortality. No one in this era of fraternity and Christian civilization will grudge the Negro soldier these simple annals of his trials and triumphs in a holy struggle for human liberty. Whatever praise is bestowed upon his noble acts will be sincerely appreciated, whether from former foes or comrades in arms. For by withholding just praise they are not enriched, nor by giving are they thereby impoverished. (xiii-xiv)
On the Crater
At the critical moment, when the enemy could not only hold this opening in his works, but threatened to sweep through and rout Meade, the Black Division was ordered to charge and gain the crest beyond the crater. Three veteran white divisions had been hurled back in confusion, but these Negro troops were sent forward to contend with an infuriated, brave, and numerous foe. They were gallantly led, and nobly followed where duty and devotion were terribly tested…. They had borne themselves with conspicuous gallantry, and having done all that was required of them were withdrawn to their works….(249) The Negro soldiers’ valor was, after this engagement, no more questioned than his loyalty, and the reputation secured at such a high price was kept untarnished to the end of the campaign. (250)
What I find interesting is that Williams does not reference the slaughter of black soldiers after the battle. Based on the sources utilized for his study it is clear that he was aware of it. Perhaps Williams wanted to keep the focus on the bravery and manliness of the men, which would have been lost with descriptions of helplessness at the hands of angry Confederates. I am going to have to give it some more thought.
Of course, I refer to Williams in my manuscript, but it is sad to think of just how much of what I have collected over the past few years will not make it into the book. Oh well, I guess that is what the blog is for.
Remembering the Crater at Virginia State University
July 26, 2010 By 2 Comments
Today I made what I hope to be the final research trip for my Crater manuscript. I recently came across an M.A. thesis at Virginia State University by Travis J. L. Stephens and decided that I couldn’t risk not taking a look at it. In 1967 Stephens completed a thesis with the title, “Participation of Negro Troops in ‘The Battle of the Crater,’ July 30, 1864.” I wasn’t so much interested in the tactical details of this essay; rather, I was hoping that the author would comment on the broader social and political context on the 1960s and how this influenced the decision to focus on such an important moment in black history. [For those of you who do not know, Virginia State University is a historically black college in Petersburg.] Unfortunately, there was very little commentary beyond the confines of the event in question. I should have known better. It’s an incredibly well written thesis and is one of the best tactical studies of the Fourth Division at the Crater.
I was pleased to find that Stephens dealt briefly with the massacre of black soldiers following their surrender.
The Battle of the Crater was, in addition to being of the most crucial, also the most sanguine and inhuman of the Civil War. Never before had troops of the Army of Northern Virginia, Lee’s army, clashed with colored soldiers. The very appearance of these former slaves in uniform agitated the Confederate troop’s hatred to a degree never previously encountered in any campaign. Though the Confederate soldiers recognized the discipline of these Negro troops by admitting that they conducted a better assault, and gained more ground than their white contemporaries on July 30, it was also stated that these Negro troops could not endure bayonet and close-in fighting as well as the latter. The frenzy of the Confederate troops upon being opposed by Negro soldiers was such that the rules of land warfare, previously observed when fighting white troops, were discarded. The Negro troops were brained and butchered until even veteran soldiers became ill at the sight of the mutilated bodies…. When called upon to perform at Fort Hudson, Fort Wagner, and at Petersburg, the Negro units utilized were confronting the enemy for the first time. One need no longer question the ability of the Negro to fight, for at each of the battles described, he not only fought, but died valiantly.
I’ve spent a great deal of time over the past few weeks surveying the way in which black Americans remembered USCTs and the Crater specifically. It’s no surprise that this aspect of the war proved to be so attractive. First, it provided a necessary corrective to the history of the Civil War, but it also worked to empower black Americans at at time when it was clear that a more assertive posture would be necessary in the cause of civil rights. In other words, it allowed Americans to see themselves as soldiers in one continuous struggle that stretched back to the Civil War. This emerges most clearly during the centennial celebrations of emancipation in 1963. A quick survey of popular magazines such as Ebony and Jet include a wide range of colorful comparisons between the battlefields of the 1860s and 1960s.
On my way home I stopped at the Library of Virginia to check out a few scattered sources, which included a Civil War Centennial pamphlet published by the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and featured the famous painting by John Elder. As you can see it attests to the importance that local government and businesses attached to the Crater. It clearly reflects the interpretation of the battle that the white power structure wished to celebrate.
Another Black Confederate Bites the Dust
July 25, 2010 By 16 Comments
The outrageous claims made by the Sons of Confederate Veterans and others about so-called “black Confederates” would hold up just fine if it weren’t for that little thing called evidence. Thanks to David Woodbury for bringing this story to my attention. He suggests that once we have finished counting we may find 7 or 8 black Confederate soldiers. I think that is much too generous. 
My guess is that at the end of the day we may find 4 or 5 legitimate black Confederate soldiers and their stories will tell us much more about how they managed to evade identification rather than as examples of some ludicrous notion of Confederate civil rights. In this case a little bit of digging into the available primary sources revealed that Scott Brown was, in fact, a soldier in 137th Colored Infantry and not, as previously indicated on his head stone, in the “Confederate States Army.”
[See Dead Confederates for a follow-up post.]
The Battle of the Crater and Slave Rebellions in Civil War Times
July 24, 2010 By 6 Comments
I am very excited about the next issue of Civil War Times, which should be hitting the newsstands very soon. The October issue will include an essay of mine, titled, “‘Until Every Negro Has Been Slaughtered’: Did Southerners See the Battle of the Crater as a Slave Rebellion?”. I am hoping that readers will find it to be a thought provoking analysis of what happened to a large number of USCTs following the battle. All too often the massacre of these black men is reduced to some vaguely defined rage. I argue that this Confederate rage was a function of a cultural outlook that stretched back into the antebellum period. Acknowledging the long-standing fears among white southerners regarding the management of a slave society and the dangers of slave rebellions (real and imagined) helps us to better understand the treatment of USCTs following the battle. From this perspective there is very little that is surprising about the massacre of upwards of 200 black soldiers.
I also like the fact that this article came directly out of a blog post from last summer. As you can see it received a great deal of attention and I immediately emailed Dana Shoaf about the possibility of turning it into a magazine article. It’s also an opportunity to thank all of you who commented on that post, which I think is a perfect example of how this format can help in the process of actually doing history. I go into much more detail in the first chapter of my Crater manuscript, which I am happy to say is almost completed. No doubt, this article will upset some, but I hope it forces readers to think about this battle from a completely different perspective. That is what good history should do. Thanks once again to Dana Shoaf, who expressed enthusiasm for this piece from the beginning. This is my second article in Civil War Times this year and it’s been a pleasure working with the magazine’s staff.
