In response to Dolores Janiewski's inquiry about "Glory" and the
experience of African American soldiers:
There are several excellent sources on African American soldiers during
the Civil War. These include Joe Glatthaar's _Forged in Battle: The Civil
War Alliance of Black Soldiers and White Officers_ (1990); Ira Berlin, Joe
Reidy and Leslie Rowland, eds., _The Black Military Experience_ (1982),
part of the multi-volume series _Freedom: A Documentary History of
Emancipation_, and an excellent resource not only for its documents but
also for its essays; three additional collections of documents, Edwin
Redkey, ed., _A Grand Army of Black Men_(1992); Virginia Adams, ed., _On
the Altar of Freedom: A Black Soldier's Civil War Letters from the
Front_(1991); R.J.M. Blackett, ed., _Thomas Morris Chester: Black Civil
War Correspondent_ (1989), which includes commentary on camp life. In
Catherine Clinton and Nina Silber's collection of essays on gender and
the war (_Divided Houses_), see Jim Cullen's essay on gender and African
American men. Older but still useful: McPherson's _The Negro's Civil
War_, Dudley Taylor Cornish's _The Sable Arm_; Wiley's _Southern Negroes,
1861-1865_.
These sources--esp. _The Black Military Experience_--put soldiering in a
more realistic context than "Glory" ever intended.
Hope these help--if you want to discuss this material at greater length,
feel free to contact me privately at lschwalm@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu
Leslie Schwalm
Dept. of History
University of Iowa