Longstreet at Gettysburg; Black Union Soldiers in the Civil War; More Than Just Grit

In “BLACK UNION SOLDIERS IN THE CIVIL WAR”, Hondon Hargrove refutes the ugly historicalslander that black soldiers did not fight for their emancipation from slavery. Initially rejected intheir enthusiasm to fight on the side of the Union, Blacks were eventually accepted into theservice, often via the efforts of individual generals who, frustrated with bureaucratic inaction inthe face of dwindling forces, overrode orders from the Secretary of War and Abe Lincoln,himself. By the end of the Civil War, black soldiers had numbered over 187,000. By all accounts,when the book was first published, it was greeted with priceless praise, i.e., “Excellent,scholarly analysis”, “Fact-filled . . . extensive”, “Best-ever history of the black soldier in the CivilWar”, including references that Hondon B. Hargrove, lest we have forgotten, was the author ofthe popular, “Buffalo Soldiers in Italy”, which received awards and ovations across America.In “MORE THAN JUST GRIT – Civil War Leadership, Logistics and Teamwork in the West,

1862”, Richard J. Zimmermann zeroes in on the six strategic goals of winning:

1. A clear objective;
2. Mobilization of effective lieutenants;
3. A competent staff;
4. Seizing and holding the initiative;
5. Deploying all available resources;
6. Realizing a successful strategic outcome. In short, the more goals achieved, the greaterthe victory.It should be noted that Cory Pfarr’s “Prologue: Abandoned by History”, is magnificent, somuch so it is perhaps the most supporting, heartfelt, and teary-eyed acknowledging-tributethis reviewer has ever read. As for the book itself, it addresses and ultimately uses specificcriticisms of Longstreet’s Gettysburg actions and modern writings for an entirely new

   perspective of the great Confederate general.