The comments are interesting. One of commenters points out that Shaw would have found attitudes about freedmen and slaves and liberating the enslaved very different in SC as opposed to what he saw in the Army of the Potomac. Call this a glimpse of the blindingly obvious but I am sure those differences existed across the various theaters …
The comments are interesting. One of commenters points out that Shaw would have found attitudes about freedmen and slaves and liberating the enslaved very different in SC as opposed to what he saw in the Army of the Potomac. Call this a glimpse of the blindingly obvious but I am sure those differences existed across the various theaters of the War. The US troops did encounter different attitudes about abolition,freedmen and African-American soldiers depending on where they were. It would be interesting to look at diaries and letters and the like to understand how this might have impacted the soldiers. As I finish this I wonder if someone has
already done such an analysis and I am just late to the awareness
I recommend beginning with Chandra Manning's book WHAT THIS CRUEL WAR WAS OVER. Manning argues, among other things, that the turn among Union soldiers toward embracing emancipation as a wartime goal occurred much earlier than we've thought. Other historians, especially, Kristopher Teters have looked more closely at specific theaters of war. See his book, PRACTICAL LIBERATORS for a closer look at the War in the West.
The comments are interesting. One of commenters points out that Shaw would have found attitudes about freedmen and slaves and liberating the enslaved very different in SC as opposed to what he saw in the Army of the Potomac. Call this a glimpse of the blindingly obvious but I am sure those differences existed across the various theaters of the War. The US troops did encounter different attitudes about abolition,freedmen and African-American soldiers depending on where they were. It would be interesting to look at diaries and letters and the like to understand how this might have impacted the soldiers. As I finish this I wonder if someone has
already done such an analysis and I am just late to the awareness
I recommend beginning with Chandra Manning's book WHAT THIS CRUEL WAR WAS OVER. Manning argues, among other things, that the turn among Union soldiers toward embracing emancipation as a wartime goal occurred much earlier than we've thought. Other historians, especially, Kristopher Teters have looked more closely at specific theaters of war. See his book, PRACTICAL LIBERATORS for a closer look at the War in the West.