Name: As If it Were Glory: Robert Beecham's Civil War from the Iron Brigade to the Black Regiments
Author: Michael E. Stevens
ISBN: 9780945612551

As If it Were Glory: Robert Beecham's Civil War from the Iron Brigade to the Black Regiments book cover

As If it Were Glory: Robert Beecham's Civil War from the Iron Brigade to the Black Regiments

Author(s): Michael E. Stevens

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (UK)
Publication Date: 28 Jan. 1998
Edition: First Edition
Language: English
Print length: 264 pages
ISBN-10: 0945612559
ISBN-13: 9780945612551

Book Description

In this powerful and moving memoir, Robert Beecham tells of his Civil War experiences, both as an enlisted man in the fabled Iron Brigade of the Army of the Potomac and as an officer commanding a newly raised African-American unit. Written in 1902, Beecham recounts his war experiences with a keen eye toward the daily life of the soldier, the suffering and brutality of war, and the remarkable acts of valor, by soldiers both black and white, that punctuated the grind of long campaigns. As If It Were Glory is an unforgettable account of the Civil War, unclouded by sentimentality and insistent that the nation remain true to the cause for which it fought.

Beechams war was a long one—he served from May 1861 through the completion of the war in the spring of 1865. With the Iron Brigade he saw action at such momentous battles as Chancellorsville and then at Gettysburg, where he was taken prisoner. Returned to service in a prison exchange, Beecham was promoted to first lieutenant of the 23rd United States Colored Troops whom he lead in fierce fighting at the Battle of the Crater. At the Crater, Beecham was wounded, again captured, and, after eight months in a Confederate prison, escaped to find his way to Annapolis just before the conclusion of the war.

In his narrative, Beecham celebrates the ingenuity of the enlisted man at the expense of officers who are often arrogant or incompetent. He also chides the altered recollections of fellow veterans who remember only triumphs and forgot defeats. In one of the most powerful parts of his memoir, Beecham pays tribute to the valor of the African Americans who fought under his command and insists that they were the bravest and best soldiers that ever lived.

Editorial Reviews

Review

An exceptional memoir by an unusually idealistic and sophisticated Iron Brigade soldier who fought from Bull Run to Gettysburg and who finished the war as an officer in a Black regiment. Beecham understood the war in terms of freedom and rejected the racist and counterfactual postwar myth of the Lost Cause. Highly recommended. — Alan T. Nolan, author of The Iron Brigade: A Military History

Robert Beecham”s outstanding memoir is marked by insight and humor. He never forgot that he was marching to history”s drum whether with the Iron Brigade at Gettysburg or on the drill field with his black regiment. This is a front-rank look at the American Civil War. — Lance J. Herdegen, author of The Men Stood Like Iron: How the Iron Brigade Won Its Name

This bold and refreshing memoir tears away at the growing shroud of myths during the postwar era of reconciliation. . . . For Beecham, like Abraham Lincoln before him, African-Americans made as good soldiers as any, and in Beecham”s eyes, sometimes better. — Joseph T. Glatthaar, author of Forged in Battle: The Civil War Alliance of Black Soldiers and White Officers

Beecham pulls no punches in this lively memoir of his service as a soldier in the famed Iron Brigade and as an officer of African-American troops. Unlike most Civil War memoirs, this one does not romanticize the war nor does it make any concessions to the Confederacy, which Beecham in 1902 considered to have been as wrong and baneful as he had four decades earlier when he gave four years of his life fighting for Union and freedom. — James M. McPherson, author of The Battle Cry of Freedom

From the Back Cover

Robert Beecham recounts his Civil War experiences, both as an enlisted man in the fabled Iron Brigade and as an officer commanding a newly-raised African American unit. In addition to telling his exciting account, Beecham describes the daily life of the Civil War soldier. His stories range from lively accounts of foraging expeditions to describing conditions in military hospitals. In his narrative, Beecham celebrates the ingenuity of the enlisted man at the expense of officers who are often arrogant or incompetent. He also chides the altered recollections of fellow veterans who remember only triumphs and forget defeats.

View on Amazon

电子书代发PDF格式价格30元我要求助

As If it Were Glory: Robert Beecham's Civil War from the Iron Brigade to the Black Regiments

As If it Were Glory: Robert Beecham's Civil War from the Iron Brigade to the Black Regiments

Book Description

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the Back Cover

About the Author

相关推荐