'This well-researched and well-argued book should stand as the definitive history of North Carolina's four black regiments in the Civil War. Reid is the first scholar to examine several USCT regiments from one state and utilize them collectively to sketch a composite view of black troops recruited in the South during the Civil War. Freedom for Themselves offers much new detail that completes our understanding of who constituted the men of the USCT, how they experienced the war and its immediate aftermath, and the impact of their service on their families.''