Next: African American Faces of the Civil War

Lunch With Books to Host Noted New York Times Blogger and Civil War Author

As part of its 2013 Black History Month programming, Lunch With Books at the Ohio County Public Library will host New York Times blogger and author Ronald S. Coddington on Tuesday, February 12 at noon. Coddington will discuss his new book of rare photographs titled, African American Faces of the Civil War.

A renowned collector of Civil War photographs and a prodigious researcher, Coddington combines compelling archival images with biographical stories that reveal the human side of the war. This third volume in his series on Civil War soldiers contains previously unpublished photographs of African American Civil War participants—many of whom fought to secure their freedom.

During the Civil War, 200,000 African American men enlisted in the Union army or navy. Some of them were free men and some escaped from slavery; others were released by sympathetic owners to serve the war effort. African American Faces of the Civil War tells the story of the Civil War through the images of men of color who served in roles that ranged from servants and laborers to enlisted men and junior officers.

Coddington discovers these portraits—cartes de visite, ambrotypes, and tintypes—in museums, archives, and private collections. He has pieced together each individual's life and fate based upon personal documents, military records, and pension files. These stories tell of ordinary men who became fighters, of the prejudice they faced, and of the challenges they endured. African American Faces of the Civil War makes an important contribution to a comparatively understudied aspect of the war and provides a fascinating look into lives that helped shape America.

"Coddington's use of African American-owned newspapers and pension records is groundbreaking" said Publisher's Weekly in its Starred Review. "It does nothing to diminish the depth and precision of Coddington's research to say that each compelling vignette prompts the reader to hurriedly flip to the next one."

While other kids in his Middlesex, New Jersey neighborhood were collecting baseball cards, fourteen-year-old Ron Coddington was browsing flea markets looking for old photographs. Little did he realize after he purchased his first photo in 1977 that collecting historic images would become a lifelong pursuit.

In 2001, he began writing Faces of War, a regular column in the Civil War News. Each month, Ron profiles a soldier, each illustrated with an original, wartime carte de visite photograph. His subjects are enlisted men and non-commissioned officers, and officers below the rank of colonel. Ron believes that appreciating the role of the volunteer soldier is key to understanding America's greatest conflict. He writes, "The history of the Civil War is the stories of its soldiers."

In 2004, a collection of columns became part of Ron's first book, Faces of the Civil War: An Album of Union Soldiers and Their Stories. A companion volume, Faces of the Confederacy: An Album of Southern Soldiers and Their Stories, was published in 2008. Four years later, the publication of African American Faces of War: An Album marked the conclusion of the series. All three books were published by The Johns Hopkins University Press. Coddignton will have copies of all three books with him for sale ($20.00 each) and signing at the February 12 Lunch With Books event.

In 2011, Coddington became a contributing author for the New York Times Disunion series. He has participated as a speaker at numerous Civil War-related events, and at meetings for round tables and other organizations. He is currently assistant managing editor at The Chronicle of Higher Education, and his work has appeared in USA Today, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the San Jose Mercury News.

Lunch With Books programs are free and open to the public. Patrons are invited to bring a bag lunch and free beverages are served. Please call 304-232-0244 for more information.