John David Smith on 'Lincoln and the U.S. Colored Troops'

John David Smith, author of  "Lincoln and the U.S. Colored Troops," will give a free public lecture at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday at UNC Charlotte Center City, 320 E. Ninth Street, in Uptown Charlotte.

The book tells two stories: Lincoln's decision to use African Americans to keep the Union in tact and the yeoman service of the more than 180,000 black soldiers who wore the Union blue. 

Smith is the Charles H. Stone Distinguished Professor of History at UNCC, and he is also the author of "We Ask Only for Even-Handed Justice: Black Voices from Reconstruction, 1865-1877," and "Soldiering for Freedom; How the Union Army Recruited, Trained and Deployed the U.S. Colored Troops" (with Bob Luke.)

The event is sponsored by  UNCC's College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and the J. Murrey Atkins Library at UNCC.