Hinsonville’s Heroes: Black Civil War Soldiers of Chester County, Pennsylvania
By Cheryl Renée Gooch
The History Press, 2018, $21.99
Cheryl Renée Gooch has made a notable addition to Civil War This emerging historiographical approach shows the surprisingly well-documented impact of what are commonly thought of as 21st-century concerns and issues upon the participants of the war. Benefiting from the era of digitization and utilizing a vast amount of under-used primary documents, (including tax information, medical reports, military files, incarceration statements and Poor House records, and pension applications, among other holdings), Gooch explores the effects of the Civil War on the black residents of this southeastern Pennsylvania county who joined the Union Army, (both free and former slaves), by comparing their families’ lives before and after the conflict. Sifting through myriad bureaucratic records and obscure newspaper accounts, Gooch identifies patterns among Hinsonville members of the U.S. Colored Troops that resonate for contemporary military personnel and their readjustment to civilian life. Gooch deftly handles destabilizing effects such as post-traumatic stress disorder, poverty, administrative obstinance, alcoholism, the struggle for education, and relationship woes on military families and the physical/mental/sexual health of the veterans. Combined with a number of quality photographs, Gooch writes with well-balanced factualism and colorful luster. A landmark work.
