Duty, Honor and Country: The Civil War Experience of Captain William P. Black, Thirty-seventh Illinois Infantry
Edited by Michael E. Banasik
(December 2008 Civil War News)

Illustrated, maps, appendix, footnotes, bibliography, index, 511 pp., 2006. Camp Pope Bookshop, P.O. Box 2232, Iowa City, IA 52244, $24.95 plus shipping.

Reviewer: Nicholas Kurtz
Nicholas Kurtz graduated from the University of Colorado-Denver in 2001 with a BA in History. He loves wandering battlefields and is an aspiring author. Although he finds all aspects of the war interesting his primary interest is the Western theater. 

Review:
Duty, Honor and Country is the sixth volume in Camp Pope’s Unwritten Chapters of the Civil War West of the River series.

Through the letters of William P.  Black we learn about the combined experiences of the Black brothers of the 37th Illinois. Both brothers initially enlisted in the 11th Indiana, but after three months of service they were discharged and recruited Co. K of the 37th Illinois.

William’s brother John Charles (always referred to as Charles by William) eventually rose to the rank of colonel of the regiment and was brevetted a brigadier general after the war. William spent the war as captain of Co. K, although numerous times he tried to secure promotion within the regiment and a few times he asked his politically connected father to try to secure a promotion in another unit.

The letters cover all aspects of William’s war service. There seems to be no topic that William does not discuss in his letters. The 37th did not see much combat, its major battles were Peas Ridge and Prairie Grove, so battle descriptions comprise only a minor portion of the letters.

Most of them focus on regimental politics as William discusses how the infighting among the higher ranking officers. While his brother Charles was colonel, the lieutenant colonel was engaged in a behind-the-scenes battle to discredit Colonel Black.

The colonel spent a significant amount of time at home recuperating from a severe wound suffered at Prairie Grove. Lt. Col. Henry Frisbie did his best to portray Black’s actions at Prairie Grove as less than honorable. Eventually this led to a court-martial against Frisbie and the story of this infighting dominates a good portion of William’s letters home.

Colonel Black was the victor of this bickering and in 1893 was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Prairie Grove. William also received a Medal of Honor in 1893 for his actions at Pea Ridge. The Blacks are one of five sets of brothers that were awarded the Medal of Honor.

William writes about the role of company commander and all the reports he must fill out. When he first learns he has a bunch of reports and vouchers to process he’s been in the service quite awhile and has a hard time filling out the old reports for clothing. By the end of his service he’s well caught up and, while he finds the task tedious, he seems to have a good handle on it.

William also writes about women. In fact, late in the war he nearly became engaged through a misunderstanding and his attempts at explaining it to his brother and mother are quite humorous.

William’s internal struggle over whether or not he should reenlist or be mustered out at the end of his three-year enlistment is quite interesting. Although these are letters to his family back home they almost read as a diary as William struggles with his decision.

At one point he decides that he will not reenlist because he thinks the war will be over soon and he also wants to return home. He then changes his mind and decides to reenlist.

Michael Banasik has done a masterful job in editing these letters. His footnotes fill in all the gaps and provide a good amount of background detail. On many pages the amount of footnotes is greater than the letters’ text.

Banasik also does a wonderful job with the appendices where he provides a complete regimental roster, biographies of some of the leading generals, additional supplemental letters and official reports, and some organizational charts.

I would not recommend this book as a regimental history of the 37th Illinois as there will be too many gaps; at one point William served on detached duty as an ordnance officer.

I do think this is a good book for someone wanting a personal glimpse into the life of a captain in general, and specifically into the inner workings of the high command of the 37th Illinois.