The Confederate army went to war to defend a nation of slaveholding states, and although men rushed to recruiting stations for many reasons, they understood that the fundamental political issue at stake in the conflict was the future of slavery. Most Confederate soldiers were not slaveholders themselves, but they were products of the largest and most prosperous slaveholding civilization the world had ever seen, and they sought to maintain clear divisions between black and white, master and servant, free and slave. In Marching Masters Colin Woodward explores not only the importance of slavery in the minds of Confederate soldiers but also its effects on military policy and decision making. Beyond showing how essential the defense of slavery was in motivating Confederate troops to fight, Woodward examines the Rebels' persistent belief in the need to defend slavery and deploy it militarily as the war raged on. Slavery proved essential to the Confederate war machine, and Rebels strove to protect it just as they did Southern cities, towns, and railroads. Slaves served by the tens of thousands in the Southern armies-never as soldiers, but as menial laborers who cooked meals, washed horses, and dug ditches. By following Rebel troops' continued adherence to notions of white supremacy into the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras, the book carries the story beyond the Confederacy's surrender. Drawing upon hundreds of soldiers' letters, diaries, and memoirs, Marching Masters combines the latest social and military history in its compelling examination of the last bloody years of slavery in the United States.
Colin Edward Woodward attended Trinity College, Hartford, and Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge (where he graduated in 2005 with a Ph.D. in American history). He is the author of Marching Masters: Slavery, Race, and the Confederate Army during the Civil War and Country Boy: The Roots of Johnny Cash (University of Arkansas Press, 2022), winner of the 2023 Ragsdale Award for best book on Arkansas history. Since 2007, he has worked at archives in Virginia, Arkansas, and Massachusetts. His currently is co writing and editing the memoirs of Outlaw Country legend Billy Don Burns.
... [R]ichly researched, intellectually cogent and prolifically documented. By combining the skills of a historian with those of a sociologist, Woodward explains the symbiotic cultural relationship between slavery, race, and the Confederate Army. -- "America's Civil War" Marching Masters contains several key insights that should encourage scholars of the Civil War to reconsider the role that Confederate armies played in protecting slavery. -- "Arkansas Historical Quarterly" Marching Masters is based on extensive research and contains substantial documentation of the attitudes and values of many Confederate soldiers. In effective prose, it adds to a new and growing body of scholarship that applies the approaches of new social history to military topics. --Paul D. Escott, Wake Forest University, author of "What Shall We Do with the Negro?" Lincoln, White Racism, and Civil War America Marching Masters makes a strong point that beliefs in slavery and racial difference outlived their natal institution, and that some of the most important repositories for those long-lasting ideas were those who soldiered for the Confederate nation. Crisply written and well argued, this is a very good and important book that opens up new understanding about the Confederate war and its aftermath. --Susan Eva O'Donovan, University of Memphis, author of Becoming Free in the Cotton South I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the political causes of the Civil War, African Americans in the Confederacy, the Confederacy's slave policy, or black-white relations in the South. This book should stand the test of time and become a primary reference source for those teaching the political dimensions of the Civil War. --Charles H. Bogart "Civil War News Book Review" Offers a meticulous depiction of the role of slavery in the Confederate armed forces during the Civil War. Singlehandedly, this book effectively reveals that slavery comprised an essential component of white southerners' identity even as the Confederate States of America experimented with something approaching unconventional warfare. At the same time, slavery shaped Confederate military strategy as leaders sought to manipulate impressment and planter patriotism to raise an adequate number of slave laborers. Woodward recovers the ways that Confederates rallied behind defending slavery, and as a result, academic historians will find the book an important addition to the literature on slavery and the Civil War. -- "American Historical Review" Woodward's careful research, intriguing insights, and brisk prose all combine to make Marching Masters an important contribution to scholarship on the Confederacy. -- "Civil War Book Review"
