Confederate Rage, Yankee Wrath: No Quarter in the Civil War

By George S. Burkhardt
Illustrated, maps, hardcover, index, bibliography, 338 pp., 2007. Southern Illinois University Press, c/o Chicago Distribution Center, 11030 S. Langley Ave, Chicago, IL 60628-3830, $37.95 plus shipping.

Reviewer: Paul Taylor
Paul Taylor is the author/editor of four books on the Civil War. His most recent is a 100-copy deluxe, fine press collection of unpublished Civil War letters entitled "Give My Love to All Our Folks." Visit www.paulrtaylor.com for details.

Review:
The Civil War is viewed by many as the first "good war," complete with the cherished ideal of two armies fighting for lofty principles while strenuously observing all aspects of "civilized warfare." Author George Burkhardt's aptly titled new work should help to dispel such notions.

His primary thesis makes the case that Confederate atrocities against black Union soldiers during the war's final two and a half years were not isolated, random incidents, but were part of a de facto Confederate policy that offered no quarter to surrendering or wounded black soldiers.

According to the author, Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation and the enlistment of blacks into the Union army provided the twin catalysts for the Confederates to believe such practices were necessary and even justified their use of "black flag" tactics.

To the Southerner, the Negro was barely subhuman, certainly no more than transportable chattel. These two acts threatened the social order, class structure, and cultural fabric of the South, not to mention the very manhood of the Southern male. The sight of former slaves, now clothed in Union blue and fighting their masters as battlefield equals, sparked a rage in the Confederate psyche.

Of course, the official Confederate reaction was always one of disappointment if such acts did in fact occur and it was always stressed that the Richmond government did not sanction or approve of such actions.

Surrendering enemy soldiers, be they white or black, should always be given quarter while those wounded and left behind on the battlefield would be given the proper medical treatment. Yet the Confederate government would never acknowledge that its soldiers had committed war crimes and no gray-clad officer was ever so charged and convicted. Subsequent retaliations by black soldiers only further enraged the Confederates, whose outrages started to include the execution of some captured white soldiers who were deemed as cavalry raiders, foragers or house-burners.

By 1865, it even included some captured in traditional battle, prompting a growing game of retaliatory tit-for-tat between both sides' commanding officers.

One important question raised by Burkhardt is why the Lincoln administration apparently tolerated such atrocities against its black soldiers. The author answers by asserting that had federal authorities carried out similar reprisals against Rebel soldiers, the Confederates would have responded in kind against the Union's white privates and officers.

With a dampened finger raised into the political wind, Lincoln knew the North's white populace would never have stood for white soldiers being coldly murdered for the benefit of the black man, what with racial prejudice in the North almost the equal of that in the South. Thus, the North did nothing; inaction, in effect, becoming the de facto policy of the national government.

The answer reinforces Lincoln's belief that the war was primarily about Union preservation and not justice for the Negro.

Confederate Rage, Yankee Wrath begins with the author setting the stage for the reader as to how black troops came to be in the Union army. Following a chapter that describes the Southern reaction, he then takes the reader on a 15-chapter odyssey describing the famous and not-so-famous engagements that saw significant Rebel atrocities perpetrated against black soldiers, as well as the North and South reactions both in the field and on the home front.

The book also contains numerous period illustrations, photographs and five maps that blend in well with the text. In his earlier career, the author was a news reporter, editor and newspaper publisher. Those skills served him well in the 20 years he spent researching and writing about Civil War atrocities.

Any student of the Civil War who still believes the conflict was all about glory, honor or the romanticized Confederate notion of "moonlight and magnolias" will need to consult this intriguing book.