Freedom Journey: Black Civil War Soldiers and the Hills Community, Westchester County, New York

More and more localized histories are being written about the Civil War. Focusing on either particular regiments, or even specific communities, as this book does. It brings this great conflict down to a more local level than it has before. This book examines the role that the black Civil War soldiers of The Hills community in Westchester County, New York, played during the conflict. It first takes a look at how people came to settle in The Hills, how they lived, and what they did. The next part examines in detail the three regiments the men from this community joined and what those three regiments did, and how they fared during the Civil War and after the Civil War. From the one regiment that actually got into combat, while the other two suffered through occupation and fatigue duty. The final part looks at the aftermath, and the decline of The Hills community after the Civil War; and its eventual disappearance.

The writing in this book is uneven. It starts off fairly strong, but slowly it does not get better. The author goes into to much conjecture, and rhetorical questions that just distract from the overall narrative; especially in the middle portion.