Booknotes: Colonels in Blue - U.S. Colored Troops, U.S. Armed Forces, Staff Officers and Special Units

New Arrival:
• Colonels in Blue—U.S. Colored Troops, U.S. Armed Forces, Staff Officers and Special Units: A Civil War Biographical Dictionary by Roger D. Hunt (McFarland, 2022).

The concluding volume of the Colonels in Blue reference book series, Roger Hunt's Colonels in Blue—U.S. Colored Troops, U.S. Armed Forces, Staff Officers and Special Units: A Civil War Biographical Dictionary "covers Civil War Union colonels who commanded regiments of the U.S. Colored Troops, the U.S. Regular Army, the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Sharpshooters." Filling out the rest of the volume are,"(c)olonels who served as staff officers or with special units, such as the U.S. Veteran Volunteer Infantry, the U.S. Volunteer Infantry, the Veteran Reserve Corps and various organizations previously undocumented."

The eighth and last book in the series, the volume caps off Hunt's massive project that provides us with an authoritative collection of "photographs and biographical sketches of that diverse group of motivated citizens who attained the rank of colonel in the Union Army but failed to win promotion to brigadier general or brevet brigadier general."

As is the case with all series volumes, "(b)rief biographical sketches cover each officer's Civil War service, followed by pertinent details of their lives. Photographs are provided for most, many published for the first time. Rosters of the colonels in each category include those promoted to higher ranks whose lives are documented in other works."