Book Review: Freedom Soldiers: The Emancipation of Black Soldiers in Civil War Camps, Courts, and Prisons
Freedom Soldiers: The Emancipation of Black Soldiers in Civil War Camps, Courts, and Prisons. By Jonathan Lande. New York: Oxford University Press, 2024. Hardcover, 328 pp. $35.00.
Reviewed by Tim Talbott
While in some respects service as Civil War soldiers was similar for Black and white men in the Union armies, in other ways it was worlds apart. For the most part, the United States military provided food rations, clothing, and weaponry on an equitable basis. However, due to period prejudices, Black men experienced limited advancement opportunities—the highest rank most African American field soldiers could attain was sergeant major. This restriction cut doubly. It not only did not recognize and reward the deserving merits Black men earned through their actions in camp and on the battlefield, it also meant they would often serve under white officers who sometimes had difficulty relating to the formerly enslaved enlisted men and non-commissioned officers under their command. Similarly, unequal pay (initially at least) created situations that made Black soldiers feel less valued by their government despite enduring equal—and some might argue much greater—risks as their white comrades.
In Freedom Soldiers: The Emancipation of Black Soldiers in Civil War Camps, Courts, and Prisons, historian Jonathan Lande examines the experiences of some few of the almost 200,000 African American men whose soldier situations left them less than satisfied and who sought ways to express agency within their means to deal with it. “Freedom Soldiers shows that, as they fought for the US Army, once enslaved men continued using their feet and their words to fashion lives after slavery.” (3) As was the case for many of those with enslaved backgrounds, some also ran away from their new military strictures. In the army, desertion, like running away from their enslavers, was a highly punishable offense. And while desertion in the United States Colored Troops (7 percent) was less than that of white Union and Confederate soldiers (between 10 to 15 percent), according to Lande, the conviction rate was extremely high for Black soldiers, 96 percent. (5)
Black soldiers’ reasons for leaving the army varied widely, but often hinged on family concerns. As Lande explains in the book’s introduction: “In full, this book is not a history of combat-hardened freedom fighters but of enlisted freedom seekers within the highly disciplined world of the US Army. The freedom soldiers of this history were men who nurtured parents during garrison duties only to be ripped from wives when the latest campaign demanded it. Men who escaped tyrants on the cotton fields only to suffer brutal officers in camp. Men who abandoned hours stooped over caldrons of boiling sugarcane only to succumb to diseases sweeping through the South. Men who had evaded provost marshals tasked with ensnaring deserters only to be enslaved by Confederate pickets. Men who honored their commitments to children only to find themselves on trial for desertion. Men who recuperated under trusted care at home only to wind up in blighted prison cells. Men in short who contributed to the Union cause on their march to freedom yet also reacted to obstacles inhibiting their pursuit with the tools they had brandished to soften the daily tyranny of bondage.” (12)
Lande organizes Freedom Soldiers into two parts, each containing three chapters. Part 1, “Freedom in Camp,” discusses topics like, “Enlisting and Emancipating Men in the US Army,” “Adapting and Reacting to US Army Discipline,” and “Escaping Camp and Taking Leaves of Freedom.” The term “leaves of freedom” is an interesting one, but applicable in these instances. As Lande explains, “The men’s leaves were not sanctioned, making them distinct from furloughs, yet to the soldiers, their leaves were also not criminal. The formerly enslaved men took such leaves to assert power over their lives and labor, making their unauthorized leaves ‘leaves of freedom.’” (61)
Part 2, “Freedom in the Military Justice System” examines, “Policing War Workers and Emancipation in the Courts-Martial,” “Defending Flight and Freedom in the Courts-Martial,” and “Petitioning State Officials for Freedom during Incarceration.” In some cases convicted Black soldiers had been enticed to leave their regiments by white Union soldiers to work for them in servant roles. In others, they had been impressed into the army against their wills. And in yet others, they claimed they had been lied to by recruiting officers about what army life would be like. Often from their military prison cells, these men wrote high-ranking officers, and even President Abraham Lincoln, telling their stories and explaining their situations in effort to regain their nominal freedom within their regiments.
In a thoughtful conclusion, Lande explains, “They thought service liberated them. Yet for many, military service proved to be an exceptionally controlling occupation.” (161) An appendix provides a list of 653 United States Colored Troops soldiers tried for desertion, giving their regiment, name, age, birth state, enlistment date and state, date of and state from where they left camp, state of imprisonment, and their court files.
In addition to numerous private papers, newspapers, and period government records, Lande makes extensive and judicious use of the above mentioned court martial files as evidence for his arguments. Lande’s 85 pages of notes and bibliography are an impressive show of his depth of research.
Freedom Soldiers provides an important perspective to emancipation studies and to Black military service historiography. Lande’s contention that “On and off the battlefield, they marched toward freedom, fighting a war for liberation against enslavers—and within the ranks” is well argued and backed by impressive evidence. (166)
