Uncommon Valor: A Story of Race, Patriotism, and Glory in the Final Battles of the Civil War

The terrible, but ultimately victorious, 1864 assault on New Market Heights, a vital outpost in the defense of Richmond, Va., forms the centerpiece of Claxton and Puls's Civil War history, which highlights the bravery and sacrifice of African-American troops. The battle hastened the end of the war and retired most of the prejudices that initially kept black troops out of combat. It also earned the book's chief protagonist, Christian Fleetwood, a Baltimore resident who enlisted while slavery was still legal in Maryland, a medal of honor for his bravery. Claxton and Puls's account suffers from its paucity of primary black voices, and it's too short to be definitive. The authors' decision to focus on only a few months of the war hampers narrative tension, though it does illustrate the fact that soldiering is nine parts tedium for every part horror. And the authors, both investigative reporters with the Detroit News , do capture the important themes: how blacks were long denied the fight against the South, how their courage was ever in question and how, after serving their country honorably, full citizenship in the postwar nation was not their reward. (Jan.)