An analysis of how Natasha Trethewey resurrects the forgotten Black Union soldiers of the Native Guard through poetry, creating literary monuments where physical ones were denied.

That erasure is what makes Trethewey's work so important. She's creating a monument in verse where there wasn't one in stone.
Creado por exalumnos de la Universidad de Columbia en San Francisco
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Creado por exalumnos de la Universidad de Columbia en San Francisco

Lena: Hey Miles, I've been thinking about Natasha Trethewey's "Native Guard" ever since I read it last weekend. There's something haunting about how she gives voice to this forgotten regiment of Black Union soldiers who guarded Confederate prisoners.
Miles: It's incredible work, isn't it? What really struck me is how she created this fictional journal of a former slave who joins the Native Guard. The way she structures it as dated entries from 1862 to 1865 gives it this powerful documentary feel.
Lena: Exactly! And I love how the speaker writes over a Confederate soldier's journal, literally inscribing Black history over white history that tried to erase it. That crosshatching image is so potent.
Miles: Right, and there's this devastating irony throughout. These freed slaves are guarding their former oppressors, but they're still treated terribly—given half rations, called "supply units" instead of infantry, forced to do what one officer calls "nigger work." Freedom, but not really freedom.
Lena: And didn't Trethewey discover this history by accident? I read that she'd been visiting Ship Island her whole life without knowing about the Native Guards.
Miles: Exactly that. She was having lunch with her grandmother when a white woman overheard them talking and said, "There's something else you need to know about Ship Island." The Native Guards' story had been completely erased from the landscape—no markers, no monuments, nothing to commemorate their sacrifice.
Lena: That erasure is what makes Trethewey's work so important. She's creating a monument in verse where there wasn't one in stone. Let's explore how Trethewey weaves together these forgotten histories with her own personal story of grief and identity.