BLACK EXPERIENCE IN THE UNION ARMY: THE OTHER CIVIL WAR

Abstract

Viewed from an international perspective, one of the distinctive features of the American Civil War, especially given the widespread material destruction and the bloody loss of life, was the restraint and control exercised by the armed participants on both sides. It stood in sharp contrast to many of the wars, civil and international, in Europe, Asia and Africa, where the line between combatants and noncombatants blurred and where atrocities became all too frequent. A major factor contributing to this restraint had been the Union decision at the War's start, "to treat the Confederate forces as if they were the army of a legitimate belligerent" even though the Union denied legitimacy of the Confederate government.1 As long as the rebel army and the Southern population observed the laws and usages of war they were effectively treated as a foreign power. Moreover, courage, combat, and a common background, as Gerald Lindeman and James Robertson have recently shown, helped create a bond between Johnny Reb and Billy Yank which acted "to contain violence within the limits of formal battle."2