The Black Regulars, 1866-1898
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Published: December 2001
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 360
ISBN-13: 9780806133409
Subjects: American history; Black studies; Land forces & warfare; Military - United States; Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - Histor; Blacks In The Military; United States; History - Military / War; Military - General; Military; USA; History; African Americans; United States; Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - General; 19th century; African American soldiers; Army
First sentence: In the summer of 1866, a year after the Civil War ended and more than six months after the Thirteenth Amendment finally banned slavery throughout the country, the United States needed the largest peace-time army in its history for several tasks: to occupy the recalcitrant South, to patrol the Mexican border, to protect construction of transcontinental railroads, and to guard wagon roads to the Colorado and Montana goldfields.
Description: "Black soldiers first entered the regular army of the United States in the summer of 1866. While their segregated regiments served in the American West for the next three decades, the promise of the Reconstruction era gave way to the repressiveness of Jim Crow. But black men found a degree of equality in the service: the army treated them no worse than it did their white counterparts.

Military imperatives, limited manpower, and tight budgets demanded that the army equip, feed, clothe, house, and pay black and white soldiers equally. Making up almost ten percent of the army's forces, the black regulars helped impose order in the West, from the lower Rio Grande to the northern Rockies. Largely ignored by the country at the time, these men nevertheless helped open a door for black Americans into the nation's public life.".

"The Black Regulars uses army correspondence, court martial transcripts, and pension applications to tell who these men were, often in their own words: how they were recruited and how their officers were selected; how the black regiments survived hostile Congressional hearings and stringent budget cuts; how enlisted men spent their time, both on and off duty; and how regimental chaplains tried to promote literacy through the army's schools."--BOOK JACKET.