In this episode we’re talking about the roles of Black men and women in the military during the Civil War.

To the Letter is a podcast brought to you in collaboration with University Libraries and the eLearning and Emerging Technologies Department’s Digital Studio at GVSU. On this podcast, we bring correspondence from GVSU’s Special Collections alive. In each episode you will hear (in their own words!) letters written by the people who lived through history and the stories behind them. John Bennitt is voiced by Matt Ruen, Scholarly Communications Outreach Coordinator at University Libraries.

Letters featured in this episode are available below:

Letter from John Bennitt to his wife Lottie, Apr. 12, 1864

Letter from John Bennitt to his wife Lottie, February 25, 1865

Letter from John Bennitt to his wife Lottie, March 3, 1865

Additional research for this episode:

• Black Soldiers in the U.S. Military During the Civil War
• African-American Soldiers During the Civil War
• Black Civil War Soldiers
• African-Americans in the Civil War
• African Americans in the Civil War
• The United States Colored Troops
• Black Dispatches: Black American Contributions to Union Intelligence during the Civil War

Questions? Comments? Let us know!