Now Or Never!

Now Or Never!

YA nonfiction
"The growing number of casualties, however, began to chip away
at white attitudes. In 1862 a New York corporal, in a letter to his
sister, wrote 'We don't want to fight side by side with the
nigger...We think we are too superior [a] race. But a year later, in
a show of twisted logic and misspellings, a battle-hardened soldier
wrote his mother, 'i would a little rather see a nigers head blowed of
than a white mans.'"
When the Civil War started it was a white men's battle. As
you'll learn in Anthony Shepard's Now Or Never!, a lot of people had
serious reservations about enlisting African Americans. What if they
weren't disciplined enough for the military? What if they used their
guns to avenge past injustices? What if changing the relative status
of the races subverted the constitution?
Enough people died on the battlefield and from illness and
injuries that black soldiers became necessary to defeat the South.
They had things a lot worse than their white peers. They were mowed
down in near suicide missions while whites were given safer
assignments. (Recall during World War II Japanese American regiments
met a similar fate?) If captured by Confederates, they were often
killed rather than taken prisoner. They encountered prejudice on the
part of fellow soldiers. And the army, after promising equal wages,
did its best to short change them.
Told primarily through the experiences of two soldier
journalists, George Stephens and James Henry Gooding, Now Or Never!
gives readers an up close and personal look at the dangers black
soldiers faced and the sacrifices they made from induction through
prison camp to the Confederate surrender and Lincoln's assassination.
In Now Or Never! Shepard translates extensive research into
lively narrative and brings a little known chapter in Civil War
history alive for younger readers.
On a personal note, ...is going wonderfully. I'm learning so much in
dining services. The past week alone I learned how to make four kinds
of hot sandwiches and how to keep up quality without stressing out
even in the lunch rush. Friday my opinion piece came out in the
Bangor Daily News. It was about what dining services is doing to help
solve pressing social problems. As for next week...


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