cover image On the Altar of Freedom: A Black Soldier's Civil War Letters from the Front

On the Altar of Freedom: A Black Soldier's Civil War Letters from the Front

James H. Gooding. Warner Books, $9.99 (139pp) ISBN 978-0-446-39414-7

Gooding belonged to the 54th Massachusetts, the black Union regiment celebrated in the film Glory ; here his wartime letters to the New Bedford (Mass.) Mercury are augmented with a foreword, annotations and appendixes. (Nov.)