Private No More: The Civil War Letters of John Lovejoy Murray, 102nd United States Colored Infantry (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780820363448)

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
ISBN-10: 0820363448
ISBN-13: 9780820363448
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Language: English
Published: 03/15/2023
Pages: 162
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.81lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.56d