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James G. Mendez

“Offers readers new insight into the lives of African American men and women from the North in the era of the Civil War. ” —Liz Regosin, Charles A. Dana Professor of History, St. Lawrence University

A Great Sacrifice is an in-depth analysis of the effects of the Civil War on northern black families carried out using letters from northern black women—mothers, wives, sisters, and female family friends—addressed to a number of Union military officials.

Collectively, the letters give a voice to the black family members left on the northern homefront. Through their explanations and requests, readers obtain a greater apprehension of the struggles African American families faced during the war, and their conditions as the war progressed. The original letters that were received by government agencies, as well as many of the copies of the letters sent in response, are held by the National Archives in Washington, D. C.

This study is unique because it examines the effects of the war specifically on northern black families. Most other studies on African Americans during the Civil War focused almost exclusively on the soldiers.

“In this deeply researched and revealing book, James G. Mendez seeks to recover the experience of northern black soldiers and their families during the Civil War era in order to discover the ways they engaged the governments of their day both to recognize and respect their service and sacrifice during the war and to count the costs northern blacks paid out in impoverished families, wartime casualties, and unfulfilled promises … Mendez’s book deserves our attention and appreciation. ” —American Historical Review

Fordham University Press

The North's Civil War

A Great Sacrifice: Northern Black Soldiers, Their Families, and the Experience of Civil War

Ryan W. Keating

“An exceptional book that should make an immediately positive impact on the study of Irish Americans in the Civil War.” —The Journal of Southern History

 Drawing on records of about 5,500 soldiers and veterans, Shades of Green traces the organization of Irish regiments from the perspective of local communities in Connecticut, Illinois, and Wisconsin and the relationships between soldiers and the home front. Research on the impact of the Civil War on Irish Americans has traditionally fallen into one of two tracks, arguing that the Civil War either further alienated Irish immigrants from American society or that military service in defense of the Union offered these men a means of assimilation. In this study of Irish American service, Ryan W. Keating argues that neither paradigm really holds, because many Irish Americans during this time already considered themselves to be assimilated members of American society.

 This comprehensive study argues that the local community was often more important to ethnic soldiers than the imagined ethnic community, especially in terms of political, social, and economic relationships. An analysis of the Civil War era from this perspective provides a much clearer understanding of immigrant place and identity during the nineteenth century.

 The author focuses on three regiments not traditionally studied—rather than those of New York City and Boston—and supports his argument through advanced quantitative analysis of military service records and a wealth of raw data, an unusual and exciting development in Civil War studies. Shades of Green’s impressive research provides a significant contribution to scholarship sure to bring something valuable to several fields of study.

Shades of Green: Irish Regiments, American Soldiers, & Local Communities in the Civil War Era

William B. Kurtz

“Concise, engaging … A superb study of the US Catholic community in the Civil War era. ” —Civil War Book Review

Anti-Catholicism has had a long presence in American history. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, many Catholic Americans considered it a chance to prove their patriotism once and for all.

Exploring how Catholics sought to use their participation in the war to counteract religious and political nativism in the United States, Excommunicated from the Union reveals that while the war was an alienating experience for many of the 200,000 Catholics who served, they still strove to construct a positive memory of their experiences—in order to show that their religion was no barrier to their being loyal American citizens.

“A masterful interrogation of the fusion of faith, national crisis, and ethnic identity at a critical moment in American history. This is a notable and welcome contribution to Catholic, Civil War, and immigrant history. ”? Journal of Southern History

Excommunicated from the Union: How the Civil War Created a Separate Catholic America

David G. Smith

This groundbreaking Civil War history illuminates the unique development of antislavery sentiment in the border region of south central Pennsylvania.

During the antebellum decades every single fugitive slave escaping by land east of the Appalachian Mountains had to pass through south central Pennsylvania, where they faced both significant opportunities and substantial risks. While the hundreds of fugitives traveling through Adams, Franklin, and Cumberland counties were aided by an effective Underground Railroad, they also faced slave catchers and informers.

In On the Edge of Freedom, historian David G. Smith traces the victories of antislavery activists in south central Pennsylvania, including the achievement of a strong personal liberty law and the aggressive prosecution of kidnappers who seized African Americans as fugitives. He also documents how their success provoked Southern retaliation and the passage of a strengthened Fugitive Slave Law in 1850.

Smith explores the fugitive slave issue through fifty years of sectional conflict, war, and reconstruction in south central Pennsylvania and provocatively questions what was gained by emphasizing fugitive protection over immediate abolition and full equality. Smith argues that after the war, social and demographic changes in southern Pennsylvania worked against African Americans’ achieving equal opportunity. Although local literature portrayed this area as a vanguard of the Underground Railroad, African Americans still lived “on the edge of freedom.”

Winner of the Hortense Simmons Prize

On the Edge of Freedom: The Fugitive Slave Issue in South Central Pennsylvania, 1820–1870

Steve Longenecker

This Civil War era cultural history examines how religious diversity in the Border North region foretold larger changes in American life.

Gettysburg remains among the most legendary Civil War landmarks in the borderland between freedom and slavery. A century and a half after the great battle, Cemetery Hill, the Seminary and its ridge, and the Peach Orchard remain as powerful reminders of the past. They embody the small-town North and touch on themes vital to nineteenth-century religion. 

In Gettysburg Religion, author Steve Longenecker explores the religious history of antebellum and Civil War–era Gettysburg, shedding light on the remarkable diversity of American religion and its complex relationship with the broader culture. Longenecker argues that Gettysburg religion revealed much about American society, demonstrating that trends in the Border North mirrored national developments. In many ways, Gettysburg and its surrounding Border North religion belonged to the future and signaled the coming of modern America.