Native Guard Again in the Fields Meaning
Natasha Tretheway Reminds
In her Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry collection Native Guard, Natasha Trethewey reminds us that history is complicated.
"Native Guard" refers to a military regiment and an event during the American Civil War. The 1st Louisiana Native Baby-sit was a regiment of Black men who fought for the Wedlock. The regiment was based in New Orleans and was composed of a few complimentary men of colour simply mostly formerly enslaved men who escaped from area plantations. The regiment played a prominent role in the Battle of Port Hudson, a Confederate fort north of Baton Rouge and so on the Mississippi River that bears the distinction of indelible the longest military machine siege of any boondocks in North America. The town surrendered to Union forces a few days after the autumn of Vicksburg in July 1863.
Many members of the guard fell in the forepart lines. The Union commander, General Nathaniel Banks, was petitioned by Confederate forces to coffin them, because of the scent of the decomposing bodies. The Union commander, Full general Nathaniel Banks, declined the petition, maxim he had no expressionless at that place. In other words, he rejected both the asking and the idea that the Native Guard was part of his army.
Trethewey's title poem is a series of 10 chronological poems almost the guard, what it accomplished, and how it was overlooked by its own Wedlock general (Banks had also been systematically removing any officers of color from the three regiments of Black men). She considers the general's dismissal of the contribution these fabricated to the battle.
From the title poem, "Native Guard":
June 1863
Some names shall deck the page of history
every bit it is written on rock. Some volition not.
Yesterday, word came of colored troops, expressionless
on the battlefield at Port Hudson; how
General Banks was heard to say I have
no dead at that place, and left them, unclaimed. Last dark,
I dreamt their eyes notwithstanding open — dim, clouded
every bit the eyes of fish washed ashore, nonetheless fixed —
staring back at me. Still, more come today
eager to enlist. Their bodies –— haggard
faces, gaunt limbs — bring news of the mainland.
Starved, they suffer like our prisoners. Dying,
they plead for what we do not have to give.
Death makes equals of u.s. all: a fair principal.
In a later verse form, "Elegy for the Native Guards," Trethewey notes what happened to the remains of the men who fell in battle. Eventually, the Mississippi changed course and inundated the battlefield, leaving the fort itself high and dry. Years afterwards, the Daughters of the Confederacy placed a plaque at the fort's entrance, recognizing the names of the Amalgamated soldiers. No plaque exists for the Native Guard. Trethewey'southward poems stand every bit that plaque.
Like many stories in American history, the story of the Native Guard is complicated. Ii Native Guard regiments existed, one that fought for the Matrimony and one for the Confederacy. Bearing the same name, the Amalgamated regiment comprised freemen organized by a group of Black leaders in New Orleans to back up the Confederate state of war effort. Information technology existed from 1861 to 1862; many of its members somewhen joined the Spousal relationship regiment.
Natasha Trethewey
Trethewey served ii terms as U.Southward. poet laureate (2012-2014) while serving simultaneously every bit poet laureate of the country of Mississippi. She'due south published a memoir, a book of nonfiction, and five collections of verse; she's also served equally editor for iii books. Her honors and recognitions include six fellowships, some ix poetry prizes, and election to the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets. She currently reaches English in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University.
The poems of Native Baby-sit are virtually more the Ceremonious War. She writes about Southern Gothic; Southern history, including a "documentary history" of Mississippi; family; and more. All the poems reflect the poet's piercing center, an eye that probes beyond a surface understanding.
Growing up in Louisiana, in eighth grade I took the required course in Louisiana history. Nosotros spent several weeks on the Civil War. Neither the teacher nor the textbook mentioned the Native Guard; the book did note that the Battle of Port Hudson resulted in complete Marriage command of the Mississippi River. Merely, equally Trethewey reminds us, history is most more than what'due south in the textbooks.
And the story of the Native Baby-sit is complicated: two regiments from the aforementioned region fighting on opposing sides, the Wedlock regiment disregarded by its own commander. Trethewey'south poems recognize the men who volunteered, how they fought, how they savage, and how they were non remembered.
Photo by Joe van petten, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Glynn Young.
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Glynn Immature lives in St. Louis where he retired as the team leader for Online Strategy & Communications for a Fortune 500 company. Glynn writes poetry, short stories and fiction, and he loves to bike. He is the author of Poetry at Piece of work and the Dancing Priest Series. Find Glynn at Organized religion, Fiction, Friends.
Source: https://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/2021/05/04/reconsidering-history-natasha-trethewey-and-native-guard/
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