num_pages: 64
description: This small book contains the names of more than a thousand black soldiers who did not serve in the USCT (United States Colored Troops) during the Civil War. Rather, they served in white regiments, mainly as cooks. However, they were not mere hired "contrabands," the name by which General Benjamin Butler called runaway slaves who fled to the Yankees penetrating the South. They were bona fide soldiers, as their discharge and pension papers substantiate. The primary purpose for this book is to reveal to many the existence of black men who have been forgotten by historians. If mention is made at all in history books of the black soldiers who had served during the Civil War, the reference is only for those having served in the USCT. Following the war, the black men in white regiments were mustered out of the Union Army with their company and then went on their way. Most were illiterate; therefore, no journals, diaries, or letters had been written to preserve their place in history. In fact, many ex-slaves just wanted to forget their former lives completely as did the great-grandfather of the author, Juanita Patience Moss. Therefore, their stories were lost. In 1998, she was shocked to discover that her great-grandfather's name was not to be engraved on the stainless steel plates surrounding the monument in Washington, D.C., created to honor the black soldiers who had served during the Civil War. His name is not there because he served in a white regiment, and not in the USCT. Shocked after being told by several historians that there had been no black soldiers in white regiments when she knew of at least one, the author was determined to find out if there had been more. The military records of her great grandfather, Crowder Pacien, indicate that he had enlisted at Plymouth, N.C., on January 1, 1864. So she began there, discovering that prior to the Confederate victory at the Battle of Plymouth on April 20, 1864, ten "Col'd" cooks were recorded on muster rolls of several Union regiments garrisoned there. "The Forgotten Black Soldier" contains only an introductory list, for there are more names yet to be uncovered. Although the total may not be large, still it is of black men who also were willing to risk their lives for freedom. Their story must be told, too, even one hundred thirty nine years later.
title: The Forgotten Black Soldiers in White Regiments During the Civil War
titlecomplete: The Forgotten Black Soldiers in White Regiments During the Civil War
publisher: Heritage Books Inc