W.G.

A brother and sister uncover a lost Civil War–era history of an ancestor in this biography.

During the “idle hours” and “imposed stillness” of quarantine during the Covid-19 pandemic, sibling authors Donna Burtch and William Burtch filled their hours looking through 19th-century records as they conducted meticulous research into the life of their great-great-great-grandfather, William Gould “W.G.” Raymond. Born on July 4, 1819 in rural New York, his life as a young adult was defined by his pursuit of “earthly pleasures” until a religious conversion at a revival (accompanied by “several visions”) kicked off a lifetime vocation as a preacher. During the Civil War, Raymond served as a Union soldier and was selected by Abraham Lincoln as the initial commanding officer responsible for raising the 1st United States Colored Troops of the District of Columbia—the country’s first federal regiment of Black soldiers. This task would only take a few weeks, but the book argues that Raymond was essential to its success, even fronting hundreds of dollars of his own money for uniforms and provisions. Accompanying him in the formation of the regiment, “against a backdrop of fierce resistance and the threat of death,” was famed Black preacher and activist Henry McNeal Turner. Lincoln would later appoint Raymond as chaplain of the Washington, D.C., hospitals. Raymond’s story, the authors convincingly write, was “swept under a bureaucratic rug,” despite his service to his country, when the U.S House of Representatives Committee on War Claims in the 1880s refused to acknowledge his contributions to the USCT. In particular, the committee rebuffed his efforts to recover the personal funds he used during its formation, despite dozens of letters from influential Black figures of the time endorsing his claim.

Based largely on Raymond’s unpublished autobiography—a loose-leaf volume held together with rubber bands, passed down within the Burtch family. They tell of how they fact-checked his claims and corroborated nearly all his assertions with the historical record, as noted in the press, the correspondence of elected officials, and online information from government departments, among other sources. Because of the dearth of published materials on Raymond’s activities, the book’s endnotes rely heavily on passages from the memoir, which will offer even veteran historians a novel perspective on the events of the Civil War. However, although the narrative notes Raymond’s troubles, including his opium addiction, it tends to skew toward hagiography, rather overselling his interesting life and admirable work during the Civil War as “incredible” and “inconceivable.” With fewer than 100 pages of narrative text, and many chapters with fewer than five, the book focuses on simply presenting the facts of Raymond’s life, rarely pausing for historical context or critical analysis. Despite this, it remains an engaging history, written by authors who know how to tell a story well. Its appeal to a wide audience will be further enhanced by its liberal inclusion of visual aids, from paintings and photographs to reproductions of newspaper articles, letters, and other primary source material.

An engrossing, if somewhat fawning, history of an unheralded American hero.