Description
The John Lovejoy Murray collection of letters contains insights into the experiences of an African American soldier and his regiment during the Civil War. John Lovejoy Murray, a private in Company E, 102nd USCT, died of disease in a Charleston hospital on April 12, 1865. Through John Murray's letters, readers can experience the war through the eyes of a literate northern Black soldier.
His is the story of the soldiers who did not receive accolades for their heroic actions in battle, the ones who spent more time on picket and fatigue duty than on the front lines, the ones who died from disease more than they did of battle-related wounds. Murray's letters are significant because they are ordinary in some respects yet extraordinary in others. Some of the activities and sentiments portrayed in the letters are hardly distinguishable from those described in letters written by White soldiers. In other ways, the letters represent a perspective distinctly from a Black soldier in the Union army. Although many of his experiences may have been typical, John Lovejoy Murray himself, a literate, freeborn, northern Black man, was atypical among Union Black soldiers.Author: Sharon A. Roger Hepburn
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Published: 03/15/2023
Pages: 162
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.45lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.41d
ISBN13: 9780820363455
ISBN10: 0820363456
BISAC Categories:
- Biography & Autobiography | General
- History | United States | Civil War Period (1850-1877)
- History | African American & Black
About the Author
SHARON A. ROGER HEPBURN is professor of history at Radford University. She is the author of Crossing the Border: A Free Black Community in Canada, which received the 2008 Albert B. Corey Award. She lives in Christiansburg, Virginia.