Freedom by the Sword - US Army Center Of Military History

Foreword
The impetus for Freedom by the Sword came from Brig. Gen. (Ret.) John S.
Brown, the U.S. Army’s Chief of Military History from 1998 until his retirement in
2005. William A. Dobak, an authority on the history of black soldiers in the nineteenth
century and an award-winning historian at the Center of Military History,
took charge of the project beginning in 2003.
The years since then have seen the U.S. invasion of Iraq and our country’s subsequent
involvement there and in Afghanistan. These events, as well as a year that
Dobak spent drafting chapters for a book in the Center’s Vietnam series, helped
to shape his view of the Civil War, the importance of guerrilla operations in that
conflict, and the role of the U.S. Colored Troops in it.
This is primarily an operational history of the Colored Troops in action. Other
works have dealt with such subjects as the Colored Troops and racial discrimination,
the soldiers’ lives in camp and at their homes, and how these men fared as
veterans during Reconstruction and afterward. Instead, Freedom by the Sword tells
what they did as soldiers during the war. This book is about American soldiers,
fighting under the flag of the Union to preserve that Union and to free their enslaved
brothers and sisters. Despite formidable obstacles of poor leadership and
deep prejudices against the very idea of African Americans being armed and sent
into battle, these men rallied to the colors in large numbers and fought. It is thus
a quintessentially American story. It is also perhaps the only book to examine the
Colored Troops’ formation, training, and operations during the entire span of their
service, and in every theater of the war in which they served. By doing so, it underscores
the unique nature of their contributions both to Union victory and to their
own liberation. That there are lessons here for the modern soldier goes without
saying, for however much the technology of war evolves, its essence changes little.
Washington, D.C. RICHARD W. STEWART
31 March 2011 Chief Historian
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