Download Thunder at the Gates: The Black Civil War Regiments That Redeemed America AudioBook Free
Immediately after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, abolitionists began to call for the creation of black regiments. Initially, the South and the majority of the North responded with outrage; southerners promised to perform any black military captured in battle, while many northerners stated that blacks lacked the required courage. In the mean time, Massachusetts, long the guts of abolitionist fervor, launched one of the biggest tests in American record. In Thunder at the Gates, Douglas R. Egerton chronicles the development and battlefield triumphs of the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Infantry and the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry - regiments led by whites, but made up of black men born free or into slavery. He argues that the main battles of all were received on the field of general population impression, for in struggling with with difference, the regiments noticed the long-derided notion of full and equal citizenship for blacks. A stirring evocation of this transformative tv show, Thunder at the Gates offers a riveting new point of view on the Civil Battle and its own legacy.
