I always knew that I wanted to use the famous photograph of Andrew and Silas Chandler for the cover art on Searching for Black Confederates. The design team did a wonderful job of complimenting one of my central interpretive goals of trying to untangle former camp slaves like Silas from the web of the Lost Read more

There really is nothing quite like looking at the dust jacket design for a forthcoming book for the first time. It’s the first real indication that all of the years of research and writing will soon result in something tangible that you can share with the rest of the world and that will hopefully spark Read more

Update: Looks like the post has been removed. I am going to chalk this up to another example of simply not knowing how to respond to my critique. To say that I am excited for the New Year and the publication of my book, Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth (UNC Read more

This past week I requested that the famous image of Andrew and Silas Chandler grace the cover of my forthcoming book, Searching For Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth, which will be published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2019. This should come as no surprise. Silas and Andrew have long Read more

Correction: America Through Time is an imprint of Fonthill Media, not The History Press. Arcadia Publishing & The History Press distributes these titles for Fonthill. A few weeks ago I briefly mentioned the forthcoming release of Phillip T. Tucker’s book Blacks in Gray Uniforms: A New Look at the South’s Most Forgotten Combat Troops 1861-1865 Read more

Today I woke up to learn that historian Phillip Thomas Tucker is slated to publish a book on black Confederate soldiers next month with America Through Time publishing, a division of Arcadia and The History Press. This is any author’s worst nightmare. Here I spent years trying to complete a book manuscript on the subject Read more

I have to admit to being slow in fully embracing the new world of podcasts. It’s only been in the last year that I have learned to appreciate this particular format. One of my favorite new podcasts is Uncivil, which explores different aspects of Civil War memory and other unusual or obscure narratives from the Read more

Update: Here is another clip in which Ms. Berry shares that thousands of black men fought as soldiers with the Confederate army. The full segment can now be viewed (begin at 10:30 mark), which does a better job of handling the history of James and Charles Dearman. We all remember the debacle that took place Read more

This morning BuzzFeed published an extensive and thoughtful essay about Silas Chandler and his place in the black Confederate narrative by Adam Serwer. Serwer carefully explores the available sources related to Silas’s time in the war, but he also does an excellent job of untangling the many myths that have surfaced in connection with the Read more