Practical liberators : Union officers in the western theater during the Civil War / Kristopher A. Teters.

Includes bibliographies and index.

The Union army's struggle over the limits of confiscation in the West -- An emancipationist turn of policy -- Union officers and the intense debate over emancipation and black troops -- Officers, servants, and race -- A practical army of liberation : how the Union army carried out emancipation in the West -- William T. Sherman and his officers : the reluctant emancipators.

"During the first fifteen months of the Civil War, the policies and attitudes of Union officers toward emancipation in the western theater were, at best, inconsistent and fraught with internal strains. But after Congress passed the Second Confiscation Act in 1862, army policy became mostly consistent in its support of liberating the slaves in general, in spite of Union army officers' differences of opinion. By 1863 and the final Emancipation Proclamation, the army had transformed into the key force for instituting emancipation in the West. However, Kristopher Teters argues that the guiding principles behind this development in attitudes and policy were a result of military necessity and pragmatic strategies, rather than an effort to enact racial equality."--

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