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As If It Were Glory
Robert Beecham's Civil War from the Iron Brigade to the Black Regiments
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Publisher:
2007
Summary
In this powerful and moving memoir, Robert Beecham tells of his Civil War experiences, both as an enlisted man in the fabled Iron Brigade of the Army of the Potomac and as an officer commanding a newly raised African-American unit. Written in 1902, Beecham recounts his war experiences with a keen eye toward the daily life of the soldier, the suffering and brutality of war, and the remarkable acts of valor, by soldiers both black and white, that punctuated the grind of long campaigns. As If It Were Glory is an unforgettable account of the Civil War, unclouded by sentimentality and insistent that the nation remain true to the cause for which it fought.
Beecham's war was a long one—he served from May 1861 through the completion of the war in the spring of 1865. With the Iron Brigade he saw action at such momentous battles as Chancellorsville and then at Gettysburg, where he was taken prisoner. Returned to service in a prison exchange, Beecham was promoted to first lieutenant of the 23rd United States Colored Troops whom he lead in fierce fighting at the Battle of the Crater. At the Crater, Beecham was wounded, again captured, and, after eight months in a Confederate prison, escaped to find his way to Annapolis just before the conclusion of the war.
In his narrative, Beecham celebrates the ingenuity of the enlisted man at the expense of officers who are often arrogant or incompetent. He also chides the altered recollections of fellow veterans who remember only triumphs and forgot defeats. In one of the most powerful parts of his memoir, Beecham pays tribute to the valor of the African Americans who fought under his command and insists that they were "the bravest and best soldiers that ever lived."
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Bibliographic data
Copyright year
2007
ISBN-Print
978-0-945612-55-1
ISBN-Online
978-0-7425-7082-5
Publisher
Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
237
Product type
Edited Book
Table of contents
ChapterPages
CONTENTS No access
Introduction No access
ONE "As if it were glory and not years of bitter war" Bull Run and a Winter of Idleness :: May 1861-Apri11862 No access Pages 3 - 20
TWO "I was pretty sick" Surviving the Military Hospitals :: April 1862-December 1862 No access Pages 21 - 36
THREE "A campaign of adventure" From the Mud March to Chancellorsville :: January 1863-June 1863 No access Pages 37 - 58
FOUR "We were all boys then" The First Day at Gettysburg :: July 1, 1863 No access Pages 59 - 84
FIVE "The living prepared for the morrow" The Second Day at Gettysburg :: July 2, 1863 No access Pages 85 - 100
SIX "Into thefiercest hell of battle" The Third Day at Gettysburg :: July 3, 1863 No access Pages 101 - 120
SEVEN "Thescenes I witnessed there" Life in a Southern Prison Camp :: July-August 1863 No access Pages 121 - 142
EIGHT "My first promotion" Becoming an Officer with the U.S. Colored Troops :: August-December 1863 No access Pages 143 - 160
NINE "Soldiers till the last man falls" With the Twenty-third U.S. Colored Troops :: January-June 1864 No access Pages 161 - 176
TEN "We'll show the world today that the colored troops are soldiers" The Battle of the Crater :: June-July 1864 No access Pages 177 - 190
ELEVEN "We were a sorry-looking set" Prisoner of War Again :: July 1864-March 1865 No access Pages 191 - 218
TWELVE "The paths and the vocations of peace" March-June 1865 No access Pages 219 - 228
