Army Life in a Black Regiment

Description:
Introduction by Howard Mumford Jones.
Hardcover. Condition: fine. Dust jacket condition: very good+. Cover has minor shelf wear tail of spine. Jacket price-clipped, spine faded, rubbed head and tail. Octavo; xviii + 235 pp. First edition thus. Black and gilt lettering on ochre cloth boards. Binding, hinges tight; clean, bright copy; no markings. The author (1823-1911) was a native of Cambridge MA, a graduate of Harvard, and was the grandson of a member of the Continental Congress. Higginson became a minister and in the 1840s and 50s was a rights activist for various constituencies and an abolitionist. During the Civil War he served as captain in the 51st Massachusetts Infantry before becoming colonel of the First South Carolina Volunteers, the first authorized regiment recruited among freedmen for the Union cause. (During the war, Congress required that black troops be led by white officers.) Army Life in a Black Regiment is an account of Higginson’s experiences with the First South Carolina and was first published in 1870.