Army Life in a Black Regiment

A stirring account of wartime experiences from the leader of the first regiment of emancipated slaves

Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a Unitarian minister, was a fervent member of new England’s abolitionist movement, an active participant in the Underground Railroad, and part of a group that supplied material aid to John Brown before his ill-fated raid on Harpers Ferry. When the Civil War broke out, Higginson was commissioned as a colonel of the black troops training in the Sea Islands off the coast of the Carolinas.

Shaped by American Romanticism and imbued with Higginson’s interest in both man and nature, Army Life in a Black Regiment ranges from detailed reports on daily life to a vivid description of the author’s near escape from cannon fire, to sketches that conjure up the beauty and mystery of the Sea Islands. This edition also features a selection of Higginson’s essays, including “Nat Turner’s Insurrection” and “Emily Dickinson’s Letters.“

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.