African American Faces of the Civil War

Starred review from August 27, 2012
Coddington, assistant managing editor at The Chronicle of Higher Education, follows the pattern of his two remarkable albums (Faces of the Confederacy and Faces of the Civil War) with 77 succinct sketches of African Americans, illustrated with images drawn from cartes de visite, ambrotypes, and tintypes. Of the roughly 200,000 men who enlisted in the army and navy and the thousands who were servants "to officers in the Union and Confederate armies," only a few have entered the pages of more familiar history (e.g., Martin Delany, Robert Small). Coddington helps rectify that lapse, uncovering the past and honoring the service of his 77 subjects. The "types of participants" encompass Frederick Douglass's son, Lewis, and Andrew Chandler's slave, Silas, the men of the famed 54th Massachusetts Regiment and of the obscure 108th U.S. Colored Infantry (Kentucky), illiterate escaped slaves and educated free-born African Americans, drummers and undercooks, servants and seamen, even paid substitutes for draftees. Coddington's use of African American-owned newspapers and pension records is groundbreaking. It does nothing to diminish the depth and precision of Coddington's research to say that each compelling vignette prompts the reader to hurriedly flip to the next one. Photos.

November 1, 2012

About 200,000 African Americans, whether free or escaped slaves, enlisted in the Union army or navy. A dedicated collector of Civil War photographs, Coddington presents cartes de visite, ambrotypes, and tintypes that bring us startlingly face to face with many of these individuals, each with a biographical profile by Coddington.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2012
In the course of collecting photographs for Faces of the Civil War (2004) and Faces of the Confederacy (2008), Coddington constantly ran across images of black soldiers who fought for their freedom in the Civil War. In this book, he presents 77 images and the stories behind them. The subjects are mostly Union soldiers, with their poses ranging from formal to casual as they faced their chance to prove themselves at a time when confusion reigned regarding their status as citizens. With each portrait, Coddington offers a brief profile, including regimental history and campaigns and battles as well as family history and lives after the war. Among the subjects are Martin Delaney, an ardent black nationalist who wrote a novel that countered the docile images of slaves in Uncle Tom's Cabin; Robert Smalls, who commandeered an armed Confederate vessel and surrendered it to the Union in Charleston, South Carolina; and Allen Walkup, later Allen King, who served as a stand-in for Mark Twain's cousin. An engaging look at a neglected part of the history of the American Civil War.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)