Without Concealment, Without Compromise: The Courageous Lives of Black Civil War Surgeons by Jill L. Newmark (review)

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Reviewed by:

• Without Concealment, Without Compromise: The Courageous Lives of Black Civil War Surgeons by Jill L. Newmark
• Edward Valentin Jr.

Without Concealment, Without Compromise: The Courageous Lives of Black Civil War Surgeons. By Jill L. Newmark. Engaging the Civil War. (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2023. Pp. xxiv, 283. Paper, $29.95, ISBN 978-0-8093-3904-4.)

In Without Concealment, Without Compromise: The Courageous Lives of Black Civil War Surgeons, Jill L. Newmark chronicles the lives of fourteen Black men known to have served as surgeons with the United States military during the American Civil War. Newmark’s argument that the “presence and accomplishments” of Black soldiers “contributed to the U.S. Army’s success, influenced change, and forged new pathways for African Americans in society” is a familiar theme across other studies of the Civil War era (p. 7). Newmark brings a fresh perspective to this argument by highlighting an understudied dimension of Black military experiences. Without Concealment, Without Compromise should be read alongside other scholarship that is more representative of the average wartime experiences of the 200,000 rank-and-file soldiers and sailors who served in the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy during the Civil War.

From individual pension files and other military records to historical newspapers and manuscript collections from across the country, Newmark relies on a wide range of sources to craft an intimate portrait of each surgeon. Nine of the twelve chapters in this study function as biographies of individual surgeons, and the remaining three chapters address the barriers that Black physicians faced in obtaining their medical educations at Keokuk Medical College [End Page 617] in Iowa, Yale University, and other institutions. This structure allows Newmark to expand her scope of analysis beyond Black surgeons’ experiences during the immediate war years. The author provides insight into Black life in the northern United States and Canada during the antebellum era, the role of Black Americans in antislavery movements, Black students’ quests for higher educations at white collegiate institutions, Black membership in medical associations, the struggle of Black veterans to secure pensions in the post–Civil War era, and a host of other topics. In the classroom, educators could easily assign a chapter or two of Newmark’s book to students, offering some unique perspectives into what it meant to be a Black person in the United States during the nineteenth century.

The strength of this biographical approach can also be a hindrance. While this deeply researched monograph contains rich details about the lives of each Black physician, the sheer volume of information about the various people, events, and places that shaped the lives of Newmark’s fourteen subjects can be overwhelming at times. Perhaps Newmark’s work would have benefited from limiting her inquiry to a few Black surgeons rather than attempting to chronicle the lives of all fourteen. Lastly, Newmark’s brief references to Black nurses, hospital stewards, and others in multiple parts of the book suggest that there is certainly room for other scholars to build on her work with deeper examinations of the various roles that Black Americans played in providing medical care during the Civil War and Reconstruction.

However, none of this criticism detracts from the overall value of this work. Newmark does a fine job of introducing to her reading audience a group of people who have long been ignored. A monograph like Without Concealment, Without Compromise is long overdue and a welcome addition to the field.

Edward Valentin Jr. National Museum of the United States Navy Copyright © 2024 The Southern Historical Association ...