ebooks Arkansas: A Narrative History by Jeannie M. Whayne; Thomas A. DeBlack; George Sabo in History

Description

On February 14; 1863; twenty-six-year-old seaman James Henry Gooding volunteered to serve in the Massachusetts 54th; the first regiment of black soldiers ever recruited for the Union army. Over the next twelve months; he posted a series of remarkable letters from the front to his hometown newspaper; the staunchly abolitionist New Bedford Mercury. Written with insight and literary flair; his letters provide a vidid portrait of the war as seen through the eyes of a black volunteer.From basic training at Camp Meigs in Readville; Massachusetts; through campaigns in Georgia; South Carolina; and Florida; Gooding faithfully records the activities of the 54th; including the legendary storming of Fort Wagner. He also voices the injustice felt by soldiers of his regiment over the issue of unequal pay; the refusal to promote deserving black enlistees to officer rank; and the deeply ingrained racism of whites in both the North and South.Wounded and captured during the battle of Olustee; Florida; in February 1864; Gooding died later that year in Andersonville Prison.In her introduction; Virginia M. Adams provides biographical details on Gooding's life and examines the antebellum history of New Bedford's large and articulate community of free blacks.