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Radio War Nerd EP #378 — The US Civil War, Part 14: The USCT (US Colored Troops) (Patreon)

Published:
2023-05-18 17:09:18
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

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Content

Recorded: May 15, 2023

In this 14th installment of the War Nerd US Civil War series, we look at the (oftentimes frustrating) history of the North's belated willingness to let African-Americans fight for the Union, and some battles that the USCT participated in when they were finally allowed to fight. Spoiler: this EP has a rare uplifting ending.

Previous episodes in the War Nerd US Civil War Series:

EP #295: The US Civil War, Part 1: Count Adam Gurowski

EP #297: The US Civil War, Part 2: Bleeding Kansas

EP #300: The US Civil War, Part 3: First Battle of Bull Run

EP #303: The US Civil War, Part 4: McClellan, Treason & The Battle of Antietam

EP #307: The US Civil War, Part 5: Vicksburg

EP #311: The US Civil War, Part 6: Buchanan's Treason & The Mormon War

EP #315: The US Civil War, Part 7: German '48ers, with Matt Christman

EP #323: The US Civil War, Part 8: Thomas, Hood & Southern Honor

EP #327: The US Civil War, Part 9: War on the Water

EP #335: The US Civil War, Part 10: Battle of Shiloh 

EP #340: The US Civil War, Part 11: The Culture Wars (Live in Brooklyn)

EP #352: The US Civil War, Part 12: Gen. John Pope & Second Battle of Manassas

EP #362: The US Civil War, Part 13: Civil War Movies, feat. Eileen Jones

Total time: 1:36:12

Direct link to this episode's mp3 here 

Sound production by Telescope Audio Studios 

Files

Comments

HarshMalarkey

Just 3 1/2 more years and then this series will have lasted longer than the confederacy

Al Goehring

Awesome episode - Just visited Petersburg in March (inspired very much by this series!) and can verify that the crater is still very visible, although eroded. The pictures put up by the park service are difficult to square with the real site in my mind’s eye. (Park service has great resources, highly recommend the battlefields) One senses that people were indeed smaller then (having visited burnsides bridge, I cannot imagine it possible to fit men 4-abreast on that thing) but that can’t quite account for the odd discrepancy of the reported dimensions of the crater vs what I saw remaining. Like, Lee was 6ft, 190lbs and while tall, wasn’t considered gigantic as far as I know. Something about the scale of Petersburg and the historical pictures just don’t seem to match. William Hogeland says something early on in “autumn of the black snake” that I like - that visiting sites can’t actually put us in that lost mental geography. Petersburg really drove that home for me (Also Nice Senator Jim Lane shoutout! Go Jayhawk(er)s!)

Tariq

Had no idea Garibaldi was the original Belle Delphine.

Dave Dolle

May this never end :)

HeyB00B00

Ames calling john James Bond for driving a stick shift was hilarious🤣

Jaime Christley

My dad's a Civil War buff but he didn't know that Garibaldi business, that's incredible.

William

White southern elites wanted war, got it, got their asses handed to them, and haven’t shut the fuck up about losing since

Breakaway

I think I recall an old eXile Kino Korner review of Cold Mountain. It was pretty funny.

Michael Schworetzky

I’m not sure I agree that the Confederacy could have raised black soldiers (at least in any serious numbers: I don’t think the thesis that *no* black men would have been willing to serve is defensible). Slaves realized pretty quickly that the war was fundamentally abolitionist a lot quicker than Northern whites did. That’s why they kept fleeing to union lines even before Butler came up with the confiscation fig leaf. Yes, previous slave powers had been able to raise slave soldiers, but the context was very different. The closest historical analogue I can think of is the Haitian Revolution, where all the major imperial European powers offered groups of slaves (usually already in arms) freedom in return for service. Touissant himself ping ponged back and forth between service to Spain and France. But the equivalent to the Confederacy freeing slaves in this context would be the local plantation owners, the grand blancs, offering freedom in return for military service. Yes, just like with the Confederacy, the grand blancs would never have done that. But also just like the Confederacy, I don’t think the slaves would ever have believed them even if they had offered. Neither group was willing to tolerate free blacks, and everyone knew it.

William Brame

It fills me with no small amount of pride thinking of my ancestors fighting for their own and my freedom. I’m only sad that so many black people still think the US military has anything but a guilty conscience to offer them.

a clash of purple

Well it's worse than that, because they didn't really lose.

Jason Thompson

I could be wrong, but about the “freeing slaves to fight in wars” thing, maybe that was more common in the past because (based on my limited reading of Clyde Brion Davis) abolition didn’t really even exist as a concept until the 1700s. There were worse places to be a slave and better ones, but not a lot of places truly free of some form of slavery, or many philosophical and religious arguments for true abolitionism (distinct from “being a slave sucks, but oh well, life sucks” or “be nice to slaves” sort of half-measures).

Cindy Carrot

I'm not contradicting what you say, just adding some related nuance: a friend of mine in North Carolina's heritage is "Mulanjun" -- a seemingly offensive portmanteau word, but the self-identifier for the group -- i.e. mixed-race deriving from Native Americans, free or escaped blacks, and perhaps poor whites -- and his family ran pro-Confederate support operations. It's certain that outside of a very small locality these people would have simply been identified as black. A sort of dubious aspiration to be accepted as white by the powers that were among marginal non-enslaved blacks, it would seem. A marginal case, to be sure, but a reminder that, especially in those earlier times, the big picture is not always determinative.

Michael

I live in the town that John Brown was born in. I think he would have been very proud that the USCT were literally singing his praises as they marched into Richmond. Then again, any rational person would be. There are still a few of us, especially those in his hometown, who believe that John acted rationally, and we are proud of John Brown.