Customer Reviews

The Black Regulars, 1866-1898

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The Black Regulars is an excellent book. Drs. Dobak and Phillips have told this story well, with truly exhaustive research that never suffers from what I call "academic" writing. It is lively and interesting from beginning to end. Along the way, they debunk an old myth that the black regulars were given the poorest equipment, garrisons, quarters, etc. They point out that in the post Civil War army, all soldiers suffered from the above difficulties. The lot of the black man was difficult, but the army did offer more equality. My only quibble is that the book ends with 1898. Perhaps we can look forward to black regulars from the Spanish American War to the present. I heartily recommend The Black Regulars.

This book offers a detailed survey of the black enlisted men in the regular army who served from the end of the Civil War to the Spanish-American War in 1898. It is not concerned with the campaigns of the black soldiers (the authors do not use the term Buffalo Soldiers, deeming the designation an insult and one the black soldiers never used themselves), but more with their enlistment, organization, and treatment within the regular army ranks.

When the Civil War ended, most of the soldiers returned to civilian life. The army needed men and one place to get them was from the newly-freed black population. A bill was passed in Congress in July 1866, after much debate, that provided for six black regiments (two cavalry, four infantry), to be on equal footing with the other 54 white regiments. Ironically, the equality of treatment in terms of duty and responsibility was greater for post-Civil War black regiments than it was for black army regiments in the first half of the 20th century. Equally ironic, many blacks thought the army a safer place with more opportunity than what civilian life offered them, especially in the South.

The authors hope to correct two misconceptions regarding their subject: that the army itself discriminated against the black regulars, and that they "had become elite units . . . and the most professional, experienced, and effective troops in the service." The bottom line, and it's an important one, that the authors reinforce over and over with specific examples, is that both black and white regiments were treated pretty much the same, and that one group did not out-perform the other. Prejudice did exist against the blacks, but it was on an individual basis and not universal or policy generated. And if life was a combination of the dull, the dangerous, the brave, and the incompetent, it was so for everyone in the army.

The book is a scholarly account but not deadly dull. The authors write clearly and with style. The book is well-annotated, with many of the footnotes presenting further examples or deeper explanations to things mentioned in the text. The book is an excellent reference resource on the subject of the black regulars. Highly recommended.

This complex, richly documented treatment of the activities, lives, and relationships of black soldiers in the West during the generation after the Civil War is the single best book on the subject. It is one of only three books on the frontier army singled out for recommendation on my website. ...