White Soldiers Research Articles

Minstrel-Soldiers: The Construction of African-American Identity in the Union Army

The Emancipation of Slaves during the Civil War is celebrated as the pivotal event in African-American history. But this act overshadows another milestone of the war: the mass recruitment of blacks into the Union Army. Although blacks had fought alongside white soldiers since the colonial era, the Civil War was the first conflict in which blacks were enlisted in large numbers and recognized as regular soldiers in the army. By the war's end, black soldiers numbered 180,000 men and contributed crucially to the Union victory.

COMPARISON OF RACIAL AND GENDER DIFFERENCES IN REGIONAL BODY COMPOSITION IN U.S. ARMY RECRUITS

Regional fat distribution, more than total fat mass (FM), is linked to an increased risk for cardiovascular disease and is influenced by race and gender. We hypothesized that regional distribution of soft-tissue lean mass (LM) would also be influenced by race and gender. DEXA was used to compare the regional distribution of FM and LM in Whites (men, n = 113; women, n = 189), non-Hispanic Blacks (men, n = 42; women, n = 100), and Hispanics (men, n = 18; women, n = 33) entering the Army. Regional placement of FM and LM was calculated as the percentage of the sum of the 3 regional tissue masses (arms [A], legs [L], and trunk [T]) located in each region. ANOVA (p < 0.05) with gender and race as grouping factors and height as a co-variate was used to analyze age-matched groups. Women had a greater FM in their arms and legs (A = .126, L = .427) than men (A = .097, L = .397), while men had a higher proportion of fat in the trunk (men = .511; women = .447). Blacks had a greater proportion of fat in their legs and less in their trunk (L = .430, T = .457) than did White (L = .403, T = .485) or Hispanic soldiers (L = .395, T = .495). There were no racial differences in A-FM. Men had a higher proportion of LM in their arms than women (men = .139; women = .113), while women had a higher proportion of LM in their trunk (men = .476; women = .510). There was no gender difference in L-LM (men = .385; women = .376). Whites and Hispanics had a greater proportion of LM in their trunk than Blacks (T-LM: White = .502, Hispanic = .501; Black = .476). Black soldiers had a higher arm and leg LM (A = .132, L = .392) than Whites (A = .124, L = .374) or Hispanics (A = .123, L = .375). There were significant gender differences in all measures except L-LM. In summary, men had greater FM in the trunk, greater LM in the arms, less FM in the limbs and less LM in the trunk than women. Additionally, White and Hispanic recruits had a greater proportion of FM and LM in their trunk than Blacks, while Black personnel had a greater proportion of LM in the extremities. This study demonstrates that regional distribution of fat mass and lean mass varies by both race and gender.

A Tapestry of History and Reimagination: Women's Place in James Welch's Fools Crow

In novels such as Winter in the Blood, The Indian Lawyer, and The Death offim Loney, James Welch has painted vivid and compelling portraits of the individual Native American's struggle for survival in a postmodern world. However, with Fools Crow, Welch draws on historical sources and Blackfeet cultural stories in order to explore the past of his ancestors. As a result, he provides a basis for a new understanding of the past and the forces that led to the decimation of the Plains Indian tribes. Although Fools Crow reflects the pressure to assimilate inflicted by the white colonizers on the Blackfeet tribes, it also portrays the influence of economic changes during this period. The prosperity created by the hide trade does not ultimately protect the tribe from massacre by the white soldiers. It does, however, effectively change the Blackfeet economy and women's place in their society. Thus, it sets the stage for the continued deterioration of their societal system. Although their economic value is decreased, women still represent an important cog in the economic structure. Indeed, women are central to the survival of the Blackfeet tribal community that Welch creates and in many ways this strength and centrality provide background for the strength of the women depicted in his more contemporary novels. Welch's examination of the past leads to a clearer understanding of the present Blackfeet world presented throughout his work.

The Relation Between Demographic Descriptors and Soldier-Perceived Cohesion and Motivation

This article addresses the relation of demographic variables, especially racial and ethnic group membership, to unit cohesion, soldier motivation, and unit performance. Data were obtained by questionnaire from 955 soldiers from 60 light infantry platoons. Comparisons were made between White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian soldiers in terms of their perceived cohesion and individual motivation. Comparisons were made dependent on whether the soldier had Black or White leaders. A comparison was made between the percentage of White soldiers in a platoon (i.e., racial and ethnic homogeneity) and platoon performance. No major effects were found for soldier racial and ethnic group or for the percentage of Whites in a platoon. No relation was found between marital status, the existence of children, or housing location and perceived cohesion and motivation. Results indicate that leadership and intragroup dynamics appear to be the dominant influences on unit cohesion and soldier motivation.

Peter Caulder: A Free Black Soldier and Pioneer in Antebellum Arkansas

ON JUNE 18, 1812, PRESIDENT JAMES MADISON signed into law the war bill that Congress had narrowly passed the day before. Madison, exasperated by unfriendly British actions at sea during the Napoleonic Wars, thus led his country into war against a powerful adversary. The established army numbered less than twelve thousand men, but immediately eager volunteers flocked to recruiting booths. Recruits who signed on for five-year regular army terms formed the core of the military, but campaigners counted on state militia units to provide much of the punch-if the timing of battles was right. Militiamen enlisted for three months at a time, after which most went home, even if a major engagement loomed just ahead.1 Patriotic citizens too busy or too wealthy to serve for three months could round up substitutes to join state militia. One such substitute was South Carolinian Peter Caulder, a colored who eventually came to own one hundred-sixty acres in Arkansas Territory by virtue of his War of 1812 service. Eleven days after the declaration of war, one Alexander Lane sent Caulder in his place to join the 5th (Keith's) South Carolina Regiment, where he became part of Capt. Elisha Bethea's company. Two other free colored men, Martin Turner and James Turner, enlisted in the same regiment as Caulder on the same day, June 29, 1812.2 Captain Bethea and his green recruits probably had no opportunity to march into battle, since, during that first summer of war, the nine land engagements that occurred between U.S. and British, Canadian, or Indian forces took place north of the Ohio River, hundreds of miles from South Carolina. By September 29, 1812, when his ninety days expired, Caulder had earned for Lane, a white man, nineteen dollars and ninety-eight cents, computed at a rate of six dollars and sixty-six cents per month.3 Two years later the threat of British victory motivated Congress to strengthen the army by offering cash and a one-hundred-sixty-acre land bounty for new recruits. An easing of the unwritten rule of an exclusively white soldiery enlarged the manpower pool and cracked open the door to regular army service for Caulder and other free black men.4 Caulder's state militia experience evidently convinced this young, landless mulatto that adventure and advancement awaited him in the army. He seized the opportunity, becoming one of those Americans of African descent whose service in the first quarter of the nineteenth century briefly integrated the U.S. army, including, in the case of Caulder, units along the frontier in Arkansas. On September 2, 1814, at the Marion County Courthouse, South Carolina, Caulder joined the 3rd Rifles, one of four new fifteen-hundredman regiments being readied to take on the British. Two weeks earlier, Caulder's militia comrades Martin Turner and James Turner had enlisted in the same unit. The Turner and Caulder families were neighbors whose property on Catfish Creek adjoined. While Caulder's parentage is to this point unknown, the young Turner brothers may be traced back two generations to John Turner, who had a white mother of the Irish breed and a black father. Under South Carolina law, any child born to a white woman and a black man was considered free colored, but entitled to the same privileges as whites, including rights in ownership of property and slaves.5 Caulder's regiment, raised in the Carolinas and Virginia, came into being too late and in the wrong place to see action against British troops. Only a handful of engagements occurred after September 1814, the principal one being, of course, at New Orleans, in which free black Louisianans fought with Gen. Andrew Jackson against the British. Before that famous battle Jackson had echoed the army's new racial toleration by summoning American blacks to rally round the standard of the Eagle, proclaiming: Every noble hearted free man of Color, volunteering to serve during the present contest with Great Britain, and no longer, there will be paid the same bounty in money and lands, now received by the white soldiers of the United States, namely, one hundred and twenty-four dollars in money and one hundred and sixty acres of land. …

Response Rates and Couple Type in the U.S. Army Family Research Program Survey: A Research Note

Data from 7,792 marred soldiers who participated in the 1989 Army Family Research Program survey were analyzed for the effects of age, rank, racial background, geographic location, gender, separation from spouse, marital stability, number of children, dual military status, and satisfaction with the Army on spouses' response rates. All factors were significant except age and number of children. Overall, the most important factor was rank, with 58% of the spouses of officers responding compared to only 35% of the spouses of enlisted personnel. Spouses who were civilians, females, living with their soldiers in the United States, whose marriages were stable and who were married to white soldiers or officers were more likely to have responded to the spouses' survey. While the average response rate for spouses was 42.1%, it was nearly 68% among the civilian female spouses living together in the United States in stable marriages with officers who were very satisfied with Army life ( n = 367). In contrast, response rates were only 20% among the dual military husbands of female enlisted wives ( n = 364).

Fighting on Two Fronts: African Americans and the Vietnam War

The racial tensions that have long plagued American society exist to a much lesser extent in the military where the bond of common pursuit and shared experience renders race less relevant. Or so conventional wisdom has long held. In this dramatic history of race relations during the Vietnam war, James E. Westheider illustrates how American soldiers in Vietnam grappled with many of the same racial conflicts that were tearing apart their homeland thousands of miles away. Over seven years in the making, Fighting on Two Fronts draws on interviews with dozens of Vietnam veterans--black and white--and official Pentagon documents to paint the first complete picture of the African American experience in Vietnam. Westheider reveals how preconceptions and petty misunderstandings often exacerbated racial anxieties during the conflict. Military barbers, for instance, were often inexperienced with black hair, leading black soldiers to cut each other's hair, an act perceived as separatist by their white counterparts. Similarly, black soldiers often greeted one another with a ritualized handshake, or dap, as a sign of solidarity, the unfamiliarity of which threatened many white soldiers and was a source of resentment until it was banned in 1973. Despite ample evidence of institutional racism in the armed forces, the military elite responded only when outbreaks of racial violence became disruptive enough to threaten military discipline and attract negative attention from the civilian world. A crucial addition to our understanding of Vietnam, Fighting on Two Fronts is a compelling example of the new military history at its finest.

For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War (review)

BOOK REVIEWS For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War. By James M. McPherson. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Pp. xviii, 237. $25.00.) In 1994, James M. McPherson published a slender volume entitled What They Fought For, 1861-1865, in which he concluded that political and ideological issues were important to Civil War soldiers. His new book not only reinforces that argument, it also delves deeper into soldier motivation by asking why men fought and how they maintained their will to combat. In a monumental research project, McPherson has sought answers to these questions in some 25,000 soldiers ' letters and 249 diaries. The fruits of his research have provided him with a sample group of 1 ,076 soldiers, 647 (60 percent) Federals and 429 (40 percent ) Confederates. Although his sample betrays a proportional imbalance of Confederate soldiers , who counted for only 29 percent of the three million men who fought in both armies, McPherson believes it is representative of the average Civil War soldier with respect to age, marital status, geographical distribution, and branch of service. On the other hand, he acknowledges that both African Americans and white-collar occupations are underrepresented in the Union sample and that nonslaveholders are underrepresented in the Confederate sample. Officers of both armies are vastly overrepresented. McPherson's conclusions run something like this. Distinguishing first between those impulses that prompted men to enlist and those factors that kept them in the ranks, he concludes that patriotic fervor, a sense of duty and honor, a spirit of adventure, and community and peer pressure explain initial enlistments . But by the second year of the war, as more men had seen the face of battle, new motivations were required to keep them on the battle line. The example of courageous officers inspired some men, but religious faith seems to have been more important, and honor, courage, and manhood—especially the felt need to display those attributes to one's comrades—more important still. On this last point, McPherson disagrees with Gerald Lindermann, who believes the war eroded the strength of such virtues. Ultimately, McPherson retains his view that political ideals mattered most. Duty and honor counted for much, he admits, but political ideology, patriotism, nationalism, and the cause of "liberty" (however defined) instilled both sides with virtue. Northern soldiers remained convinced throughoutthe war thatthey fought BOOK REVIEWS333 "to preserve the Union as a beacon of republican liberty throughout the world" (175). Liberty rather than slavery served to rally Confederate soldiers, McPherson maintains, while the abolition of slavery became a crucial component of Northern ideology. Indeed, McPherson goes so far as to say that by the last year ofthe war "most white soldiers" fought for "black liberty as well as Union" (128). McPherson's judgments appear to be based on firm ground. Yet he also introduces numerous qualifications and caveats in drawing his conclusions, and he would be the last person to present his book as the final word on combat motivation . For every answer, another question presents itself; for every question, a further dilemma arises. Here are some of the unresolved issues that occurred to this reviewer. Might McPherson have gained additional insights and broadened his sample by considering sources other than letters and diaries? He states his case for not using memoirs, reminiscences, and other postwar writings, yet he also acknowledges that such writings, when subjected to "critical standards" (11), can be useful. Moreover, in comparing the reactions and motivations of Civil War soldiers , he frequently relies, for the sake of comparison, on postwar statements about combat motivation made by veterans oftwentieth-century wars.Although McPherson states he is not interested in the motivation of skulkers who avoided combat, much could be learned from those men, if only for contrast. They have left an enormous amount of firsthand testimony, as have lots of nonskulkers, in the army's courts-martial records. Other concerns revolve around questions not asked. Did men who served in different theaters—-say the Trans-Mississippi as opposed to Virginia—or who hailed from different parts of their respective nations have different reasons for enlisting or fighting? Does age help to explain why a man fought, or...

"We're a Happy Family: Me, Mom, and Daddy"

“We’re a Happy Family: Me, Mom, and Daddy” Barry Shank (bio) Life’s America. By Wendy Kozol. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994. 240 pages. $49.95 (cloth), $24.95 (paper). “All happy families resemble one another,” Tolstoy began Anna Karenina; “each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” In her intensive close reading of the photo-essays that Life published each week during the post-World War II era, Wendy Kozol argues that this most popular national magazine of the time established the happy family, and especially one narrowly constrained vision of the happy family, as the goal and purpose of American life. By helping create the dominant image of the American family—white, middle-class, nuclear, and conforming to traditional gender roles— Life was a major contributor to the ideological mission of containing cultural anxieties during the cold war period. Any family that did not correspond to this image was transformed by the magazine into an Other—each different in its own way—used to represent the social and political problems that threatened the happy ideal. Relying on the powerful rhetoric of domesticity and the equally persuasive capabilities of the news photograph, the weekly photo-essays, entitled “The Week’s Events,” translated “social and political issues into narratives about representative families.” Life’s America demonstrates that, as a result, “pictures of families promoted ideals about home and private life, public issues, social identities, and ultimately, the nation itself” (viii–ix). [End Page 530] The period after World War II was a time of both social upheaval and economic growth for the United States. Recent scholarship has traced the roots of both the civil rights and the women’s movements to the experiences of African Americans and women during and immediately after the war. In order to re-employ returning white male soldiers, women were forced out of their newly gained manufacturing jobs and either into clerical positions or out of the workplace entirely, and African American soldiers who had fought for democracy abroad returned home to face unrelenting segregation. At the same time, housing and educational subsidies were proffered to veterans able to take advantage of the migration to suburbia and the opportunity of earning a college degree. 1 Powerful cultural forces had to be brought to bear in order to legitimate these decisions. Life’s America shows the complex manner wherein photo-narratives promoting consumption and domesticity helped temporarily defuse this legitimation crisis. As a result, dominant economic and social hierarchies were not significantly challenged during this time. Instead, manufacturers with an already established sense of their audiences found rapidly expanding markets for their products. This period saw the triumph of consumer culture as the predominant means for the establishment, maintenance, and display of American identity. Companies that sold home appliances and automobiles, as well as those that sold greeting cards, clothing, cosmetics and other personal items, found the demand for their goods inflated not only by increasingly available consumer credit but, perhaps most importantly, by an almost inexpressible anxiety concerning the necessary components of both national and individual identity. In order for Life to attract advertisers and readers, it had to create a cultural product that could both question the conditions of American identity and provide persuasive and reassuring answers. Life’s narrative blend of consumerism and domesticity functioned well within this social milieu. The magazine’s readership grew tremendously from 1946 to 1956, when it had 5.8 million subscribers; during the same time, its advertising revenues doubled. This market success testified to the magazine’s ability to appeal to and assuage the cultural anxieties that were accompanying the period’s social turmoil. The two most important techniques Life used in this process were the rhetoric of the photo-essay and the strategy of focusing on major public, national and international issues through the lens of the family. The photo-essay allowed Life to combine the persuasive power of photorealism with [End Page 531] a narrative that sometimes complemented and sometimes contradicted the story told in the photos. The use of the family allowed the magazine to suggest an immediate emotional resonance to larger issues that might have been beyond the personal experience of...

Grandmother to Granddaughter: Generations of Oral History in a Dakota Family

stories are reflections of more than a simple educational process. The stories handed down from grandmother to granddaughter are rooted in a deep sense of kinship responsibility, a responsibility that relays a culture, an identity, and a sense of belonging essential to my life. It is through the stories of my grandmother, my grandmother's grandmother, and my grandmother's grandmother's grandmother and their lives that I learned what it means to be a Dakota woman, and the responsibility, pain, and pride associated with such a role. These stories in our oral tradition, then, must be appreciated by historians not simply for the illumination they bring to the broader historical picture but also as an essential component in the survival of culture. Maza Okiye Win (Woman Who Talks To Iron) was ten years old at the time of the United States-Dakota Conflict of 1862. She saw her father, Chief Mazomani (Walking Iron), die from wounds suffered in the Battle of Wood Lake. White soldiers wounded him while he was carrying a white flag of truce. She also witnessed the fatal stabbing of her grandmother by a soldier during the forced march to Fort Snelling in the first phase of the Dakota removal to Crow Creek, South Dakota. For three years Maza Okiye Win stayed in Crow Creek before she moved to Sisseton, South Dakota. Finally, after more than twenty-five years of banishment from Minnesota, she returned with her second husband, Inyangmani Hoksida (Running Walker Boy) to the ancient Dakota homeland of Mni-Sota Makoce, or Land Where

Reflections on A Soldier's Story: For Blacks, A War Within the War

Long I Reflections on A Soldier's Story: For Blacks, A War Within The War Clockwise from top left,Art Evans, David Allen Crier, David Harris, Dennis Lipscomb, WilliamAllen Young, Denzel Washington, RobertTownsend and Larry Riley, in Columbia Pictures'ASoldier'sStory. Directed by Norman Jewison from a screenplay byCharles Fuller,thefilm stars Howard E. Rollins,Jr. and Alolph Caesar. Jewison, Ronald L Schwary and Patrick Palmer produced. 18 I Film & History The Black Image in Film | Special In-Depth Section Jerome H. Long Wesleyan University Reflections on A Soldier's Story: For Blacks, A War Within the War F / ^^irector Norman Jewinson transformed Charles Fuller's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama A Soldier's Play (1981) into a powerful and innovative film, A Soldier's Sto/y (1984). Ostensibly this film is not about war at all—if by war we mean armed combat with a well-defined adversary. The war ofA Soldier's StoryIs a different kind of war-one that has been fought by black soldiers throughout the history of the United States. There have been other movies depicting the role of Negro soldiers in World War II. The Red Ball Express (1952), Bataan (1943), Sahara (1943), Home of the Brave (1949) and the War Department's The Negro Soldier (1943, directed by Frank Capra) come to mind. All of these films-except The Negro Soldier- depict in combat scenes the bravery and camaraderie of Negro and white soldiers fighting side by side. The fact of the racial segregation of the U. S. Army during World War II is glossed over either by a plotthat accidentally throws Negro and white soldiers together (as in Bataan and Sahara) or by outright falsification (as the depiction of seemingly integrated units in The Red Ball Express). The portrayal of Negro soldiers is shallow and romanticized; the stories never delve into their feelings or inner conflicts, much less their attitudes toward a segregated army ostensibly fighting for the principles of democracy and freedom. In fact, segregation and prejudice are seldom mentioned. Ralph Ellison, in a 1981 introduction to Invisible Man,lawyer from the Judge Advocate General's Office in Washwrites that "most of this nation's conflicts ofarms for Afro-ington D.C, has been temporarily assigned to the Military Americans have been wars-within-wars"(x). First, there wasPolice. His mission is to investigate the murder of a Negro the war between each Negro soldier and the segregated mili-sergeant, Vernon C. Waters (Adolph Caesar), near the town tary. In addition, there was the war within each Negro sol-ofTynin, Louisiana—not far from Fort Neal. A preliminary dier as a result ofhis membership in a military thatviolatedreport concerning the murder has been filed and found unthe democratic ideals it fought to defend. It is this "war-satisfactory. Because of previous murders ofNegro soldiers within-the-war" that is the subject of A Soldier's Story.stationed at Fort Neal, there is a strong suspicion of Ku Klux On the surface A Soldier'sStoryis amurder mystery. InKlan involvementand ofa cover-up and conspiracy bywhite 1944 Captain Davenport (Howard E. Rollins,Jr.), a Negroofflcers· The case is «opened as a result ofpressure by the NAACP, the black press, and other black organizations. Vol. 25, No. 1-2, 1995 | 19 Long I Reflections on A Soldier's Story: For Blacks, A War Within The War In the process ofhis investigation, Captain Davenport conducts a series of interviews with Negro enlisted men. As Davenport interviews each man, the scene cuts to a flashback presenting a picture of the personality, character, and behavior ofSgt. Waters . With relentless patience and logic, Captain Davenport accomplishes his task. As the events leading up to the murder are reconstructed, the murderers are found out, and they confess. They are, surprisingly , two Negro soldiers, Pfc. Melvin Peterson (Denzel Washington) and Pvt. Tony Smalls (David Harris), members ofWaters' own platoon. So one interpretation of the film is that it is simply a detective story. But this is only a surface reading. Davenport wants to discover not only who murdered Sgt. Waters, but why. As the story of the soldiers' relationship to Sgt. Waters unfolds in flashbacks , it gradually becomes clear that the...

The Civil War Years: A Day-By-Day Chronicle of the Life of a Nation (review)

BOOK REVIEWS355 The African American soldiers wrote passionately about the omnipresence of racial injustice, which was their constant companion. Since racism had permeated virtually every aspect of military life, their treatment was egregious , whether prisoners of war or part of an occupying force. Black troops not only had to fight the enemy, but to endure prejudice as well. Many of them understood that the Northern army was a microcosm of American society . Despite attempts by abusive white officers and soldiers to break their spirits, black troops maintained a sense of racial pride. Moreover, they did not hesitate to criticize white commanders they considered ineffective or racist . A clear picture emerges from this engaging volume of letters of the roles, fears, hopes, and disappointments of black soldiers. Redkey has done an outstanding job of editing so as not to alter the texts or meaning of the letters. His excellent introduction to each chapter of letters places them within the context of the war. The editor provides a brief description of each entry that includes the author's name, military rank, unit affiliation, date, the purpose of writing, and the newspaper in which the letter first appeared. The addition of explanatory footnotes to identify individuals, places, events, or phrases lends clarity to the work. A Grand Army ofBlack Men adds significantly to the literature of the Civil War and is a fascinating account of military life in the Union army as seen through the eyes ofAfrican American soldiers. These letters contain valuable information on the contributions and challenges of "a grand army of black men" at war. Leonne M. Hudson Kent State University The Civil War Years: A Day-By-Day Chronicle of the Life of a Nation. By Robert E. Denney. (New York: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 1992. Pp. 606. $24.95.) This book is written with the general reader in mind. The author denies that he is trying "to prove a point, establish guilt (or innocence) for any action, political or military, that occurred during that period" (9). Rather, Denney seeks to highlight the lives of average soldiers, breathing "life into their stories by providing a perspective of the overall event—the war" (9). To achieve his purpose, Denney uses extended excerpts from the letters and diaries of the men who fought in the war. Most of the entries come from five individuals: Pvts. Julius D. Allen, D. L. Day, and John S. Jackson; CpI. Lucius W. Barber, and Maj. George W. Nichols. Indeed, the book's greatest strength is Denney's ability to paint a vivid picture of men encountering the drudgery of military life, finding humor in the experiences of camp life, and witnessing the carnage of battle through the writings of these five men. Private Day thought the pork so bad that he doubted it "would take a premium in any fair in the country unless it was for meanness" (116). The book begins with a short prologue summarizing military organization, population and economic differences, states' rights doctrine, medical and 356CIVIL WAR HISTORY military practices, logistics and communications. It then proceeds with chronological day-by-day entries, although not every day in the period 1861 through 1865 is documented. Like E. B. and Barbara Long's monumental work, Denney outlines the main events of each day. but he goes beyond the Longs by providing biographical sketches of military and civilian leaders and descriptions of ordinance. This unusual format provides a wealth of information but also becomes unwieldy. Information such as Joe Johnston's death is needlessly repeated (10, 38); events, such as the 1862 cabinet crisis, are poorly explained (244-46); errors, such as Stephen A. Douglas's burial in Springfield instead of Chicago (49), often mar this tome. The author does not mince words when describing the ability of individuals . George B. McClellan was "a legend in his own mind" (66); Henry Halleck was "a fusspot, a procrastinator, an envious man, and a fairly good administrator" (193); and Edwin M. Stanton "would draw much criticism during his tenure as Secretary of War, much of it deserved" (1 13). By compressing complex events into brief entries, traditional interpretations replace recent historiography. For example, Denney argues that the...

Military downsizing and its potential implications for Hispanic, black, and white soldiers

Current military downsizing efforts may pose a significant stressor event for service members who face involuntary separation. This may be especially the case for those who face poor prospects for employment in the civilian labor market. Focusing on male, married junior- and mid-enlisted soldiers, this article examines potential implications of involuntary separation for Hispanic, black, and white soldiers by exploring variations in their level of institutional integration and satisfaction with the Army as a way of life for families. Only partial support is found for the research hypotheses. In all cases in which significant differences are found, Hispanics report a more favorable organizational attitude than either blacks or whites. A socio-cultural and historical perspective is offered in examining these findings, and implications from the analysis are discussed for targeting soldiers for preventive intervention.

Congenital Neutropenia: How Low?

To the Editor.— The recent article by Reed and Diehl1shows clearly the difference in mean corpuscular volume (MCV) between white and black volunteer soldiers and notes the historical 7% to 8% incidence of heterozygous α and β-thalassemia in blacks. However, α-thalassemia is by far the most common in blacks, and most cases are α2- (one-deletion) thalassemia. These patients do not have an average MCV in the low seventies, but in the low eighties.2,3This explains the most striking feature in the MCV data provided by Reed and Diehl. There is a skew of the gaussian curve of MCV in the low eighties for black men and women, and not for white ones. Thus, their data in blacks are trimodal: the main peak with a mode of about 90 fL; the skew that probably represents 5% to 6% with α2-thalassemia and a mode of about 82 fL;

The republic of the Ushakovka: Admiral Kolchak and the allied intervention in Siberia, 1918-20

1918: The World War was over, but the battle against Bolshevism had barely begun. Soviet Russia was assailed on all sides, by a combination of her foreign enemies and the supporters of the old Imperial order. The most dangerous threat came not from the White armies close to Moscow and Leningrad, but from the east in Siberia. There the ambitions of the White soldiers, lead by a Czarist admiral, matched the aspirations of the former allies, Britain and the United States. In the East also, was an army of mercenaries determined to fight their way home - the legion of trained soliders formed among former Czech prisoners of the Russians. And, above all there were the hidden ambitions of the Japanese, fulfilling their plan to achieve an ever greater presence on the mainland of Asia. The Republic of the Ushakovka, the creation of Admiral Alexander Kolchak, was the facade, behind which all these contrary ambitions were played out. Kolchak was a patriot, a tragic if inadequate figure; his associates, foreign and Russian, were a seedy rag-bag ruled by self-interest, greed or political ambition. If the characters were small, the landscape on which their games were played, was immense. The skill of Charles Connaughton's narrative is that he is a master both of the detail and the wider implications of these inglorious but epic events.

South Africa's Future: A Turbulent Transition

South Africa's FutureA Turbulent Transition Pauline H. Baker (bio) Just as the Soviet Union and the countries of Eastern Europe have taken radical steps to transform their societies, so South Africa has crossed a threshold from which there is no turning back. With the February 1990 unbanning of the entire spectrum of antiapartheid opposition, the release of African National Congress (ANC) leader Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners, and the onset of formal talks in May between Pretoria and the ANC—the oldest and apparently most popular nationalist movement—President Frederik W. de Klerk launched a new political era. He legalized dissent, recognized the ANC as a legitimate negotiating partner, and allowed long-suppressed political aspirations to emerge into the open. There are many pitfalls ahead, but the status quo ante can never be restored. Even at this early stage, one can identify the key influences on the calculations of de Klerk and the leaders of the National Party (NP), which has ruled South Africa since 1948. Complex global, regional, and domestic trends that came to a head in the 1980s created unprecedented pressures and revealed some inescapable truths. Globally, the most important factor was the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. In Pretoria's eyes, it removed a perceived external threat, undermining hardliners in the security establishment who promoted the doctrine of "total strategy." Based on a belief that South Africa faced a "total onslaught" masterminded by [End Page 8] Moscow, this doctrine, which prevailed during the regime of President P. W. Botha, was used to rationalize the most repressive period in South Africa's history. The government's decision to consider the relaxation of security measures, de Klerk explained, did not mean that Pretoria was going soft on communism. To the contrary, "we remain as firmly opposed to communism as ever," he said. But we "will . . . fight it with normal democratic procedures . . . . The world has renounced communism and we don't regard it as such a threat anymore."1 Events in Eastern Europe also raised concerns about South Africa's long-term vulnerability to popular upheaval. While exuding public confidence, security analysts wondered privately how long Pretoria could resist popular demands for change when totalitarian regimes far more powerful had tumbled like dominoes, with revolutionary outcomes. Changes in the regional balance of power likewise played into Pretoria's calculations, particularly the U.S.-mediated agreement on Angola and Namibia in 1988. The independence of Namibia, the withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola, and the end of South African assistance to UNITA, the Angolan rebel movement, gave South Africa a graceful exit from regional entanglements that had overextended its security forces, incurred heavy financial obligations, and raised the political ante at home. When white soldiers began to die in bloody confrontations with Cuban and Angolan troops during the Angolan war, the government suffered an unexpected political backlash at a time when it could least afford it. For a variety of reasons, whites on both the left and the right were abandoning the governing National Party. In the September 1989 election, the NP failed to win a majority of the popular vote for the first time in 30 years, a turning point in white politics that punctured the myth that whites defect only to the right. The newly formed liberal Democratic Party (DP) captured more than a fifth of the votes while the Conservative Party (CP), although not doing as well as expected, showed by winning roughly a third of the vote that it was a formidable opposition that was not going to wither away. Analysts predicted that unless a radical change of course took place, the National Party could lose the next white election. Internal economic pressures also were taking their toll. Debt, inflation, a depressed gold price, disinvestment, and sanctions—the latter as much a psychological as a financial blow—produced protracted recession, capital flight, and a profound sense of isolation. Just as global and regional balances of power were in flux and domestic voting trends were looking gloomy, South Africa's economic outlook worsened and foreign exchange reserves plunged to an all-time low. Whites began to realize that unless they...

White Volunteer Soldiers in the American Civil War

White Volunteer Soldiers in the American Civil War

BEHIND THE BAY WINDOW: GERALD PARKER'S THE EAGLE AND THE LION

The Eagle and the Lion, a new play performed during the last week of January, 1988, in the Drama Workshop at the University of Western Ontario under the direction of its author, Professor Gerald Parker of the Department of English, begins impressively. Edwin Forrest, the nineteenth-century American actor, is performing in a separately-framed playing area the role of the Indian Chief, Metamora. It is the final scene. Surrounded by off-stage white soldiers, his wife, Nahmeokee, hands him his dead child wrapt in a white shawl as if in swaddling bands. Knowing himself defeated, Metamora stabs his wife, assuring her she will join in death her murdered father. "She felt no white man's bondage," he orates in that nineteenth-century melodramatic manner that will be with us for the rest of the evening. "She was free as the air in which she lived . . . pure she was . . . pure as the snow . . . and yet. . . and yet. . . ." The lighting now slowly shifts from red to blue. Forrest takes off his Indian head-dress and puts on Othello's robe. "Yet I'll not shed her blood," he continues with no shift of rhythm or intonation. When at last he smothers Desdemona, it is with the swaddling band encasing the dead child of Nahmeokee.

Animal behaviour: How great white sharks, sabre-toothed cats and soldiers kill

Animal behaviour: How great white sharks, sabre-toothed cats and soldiers kill

A tale of two cities: the hidden battle against venereal disease in Civil War Nashville and Memphis.

MAJOR EVENTS and names in Tennessee's Civil War history are well known and well chronicled. Dramatic stories of Shiloh and Stone River and exciting war-time biographies of Rosencrans, Forrest, and Bragg have monopolized scholars' and readers' attentions. Until recently, however, very little attention has been paid to the medical and social aspects of Tennessee's Civil War experience. As Patricia La Pointe has recognized: One contigency poorly prepared for .. .was medical care.1 Both Nashville and Memphis became important centers for logistical, supply, and medical activities during the conflict, and both cities were occupied by the United States Army. Where soldiers collected it was nearly axi- omatic that prostitutes would collect as well. Certainly, the problem presented by prostitution and disease was not planned for by the army, and it became a problem of major significance in Nashville and Memphis. According to official medical records, venereal diseases were associated with intemperence in the conditions which favored their causa- tion. Incidence was higher troops stationed in the vicinity of cities than among those on active service. Increases in the disease rate during the war corresponded with the additions of fresh levies of troops and the returns of furloughed veterans. In total there were 73,382 cases of syphilis, and 109,397 cases of gonorrhea reported among white soldiers in the Union Army resulting in 82 cases per 1,000 men. Among black troops, 34 cases per 1,000 for syphilis, and 44 per 1,000 for gonorrhea