Tweetspeak Poetry

  • Home
  • FREE prompts
  • Earth Song
  • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • Teaching Tools
  • Books, Etc.
  • Patron Love

Reconsidering History: Natasha Trethewey and “Native Guard”

By Glynn Young 2 Comments

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 Guard was a regiment of Black men who fought for the Union. The regiment was based in New Orleans and was composed of a few free men of color but 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 then on the Mississippi River that bears the distinction of enduring the longest military siege of any town in North America. The town surrendered to Union forces a few days after the fall of Vicksburg in July 1863.

Many members of the guard fell in the front lines. The Union commander, General Nathaniel Banks, was petitioned by Confederate forces to bury them, because of the smell of the decomposing bodies. The Union commander, General Nathaniel Banks, declined the petition, saying he had no dead there. In other words, he rejected both the request and the idea that the Native Guard was part of his army.

Trethewey’s title poem is a series of 10 chronological poems about the guard, what it accomplished, and how it was disregarded by its own Union 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 made to the battle.

From the title poem, “Native Guard”:

June 1863

Some names shall deck the page of history
as it is written on stone. Some will not.
Yesterday, word came of colored troops, dead
on the battlefield at Port Hudson; how
General Banks was heard to say I have
no dead there, and left them, unclaimed. Last night,
I dreamt their eyes still open — dim, clouded
as the eyes of fish washed ashore, yet 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 us all: a fair master.

In a later poem, “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 later, the Daughters of the Confederacy placed a plaque at the fort’s entrance, recognizing the names of the Confederate soldiers. No plaque exists for the Native Guard. Trethewey’s poems stand as that plaque.

Like many stories in American history, the story of the Native Guard is complicated. Two Native Guard regiments existed, one that fought for the Union and one for the Confederacy. Bearing the same name, the Confederate regiment comprised freemen organized by a group of Black leaders in New Orleans to support the Confederate war effort. It existed from 1861 to 1862; many of its members eventually joined the Union regiment.

Natasha Trethewey

Trethewey served two terms as U.S. poet laureate (2012-2014) while serving simultaneously as poet laureate of the state of Mississippi. She’s published a memoir, a book of nonfiction, and five collections of poetry; she’s also served as editor for three books. Her honors and recognitions include six fellowships, some nine 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 Guard are about more than the Civil 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 eye, an eye that probes beyond a surface understanding.

Growing up in Louisiana, in eighth grade I took the required course in Louisiana history. We 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 Union control of the Mississippi River. But, as Trethewey reminds us, history is about more than what’s in the textbooks.

And the story of the Native Guard is complicated: two regiments from the same region fighting on opposing sides, the Union regiment disregarded by its own commander. Trethewey’s poems recognize the men who volunteered, how they fought, how they fell, and how they were not remembered.

Photo by Joe van petten, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Glynn Young.

Browse more book reviews

How to Read a Poem by Tania Runyan

5 star

Buy How to Read a Poem Now!

How to Read a Poem uses images like the mouse, the hive, the switch (from the Billy Collins poem)—to guide readers into new ways of understanding poems. Anthology included.

“I require all our incoming poetry students—in the MFA I direct—to buy and read this book.”

—Jeanetta Calhoun Mish

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Glynn Young
Glynn Young
Editor and Twitter-Party-Cool-Poem-Weaver at Tweetspeak Poetry
Glynn Young 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 the Civil War romance Brookhaven, as well as Poetry at Work and the Dancing Priest Series. Find Glynn at Faith, Fiction, Friends.
Glynn Young
Latest posts by Glynn Young (see all)
  • A Novel in Verse: “Eugene Nadelman” by Michael Weingard - June 5, 2025
  • Poets and Poems: James Sale and “DoorWay” - June 3, 2025
  • Poets and Poems: Bruce Lawder and “Breakwater Rock” - May 29, 2025

Filed Under: article, Poems, poetry, poetry reviews, Poets

Try Every Day Poems...

Comments

  1. Megan Willome says

    May 4, 2021 at 1:11 pm

    I read this book by Trethewey a few years ago, and it spoke of many things I was not familiar with. Recently I’ve been reading some history about my state (Texas) that includes details about our Black population that my school textbooks left out, even with required courses on the subject in grades 4 and 7.

    Reply
  2. Glynn says

    May 4, 2021 at 2:21 pm

    The story of the Native Guard — both of them — surprised me, because I never read of either in Louisiana history. The Battle of Port Hudson was significant for a number of reasons — the last Confederate fort guarding the Mississippi River, the longest siege, and one of the first battles involving a regiment of Black troops. Part of the reason, I think, is that so much of Civil War history has focused on the eastern U.S. — Virginia, the Battle of Atlanta, Maryland, and Gettysburg.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Take How to Read a Poem

Get the Introduction, the Billy Collins poem, and Chapter 1

get the sample now

Welcome to Tweetspeak

New to Tweetspeak Poetry? Start here, in The Mischief Café. You're a regular? Check out our June Menu

Patron Love

❤️

Welcome a little patron love, when you help keep the world poetic.

The Graphic Novel

"Stunning, heartbreaking, and relevant illustrations"

Callie Feyen, teacher

read a summary of The Yellow Wallpaper

meet The Yellow Wallpaper characters

How to Write Poetry

Your Comments

  • Bethany R. on Collage: Unwrapping Gifts from the Quiet
  • Michelle Ortega on Collage: Unwrapping Gifts from the Quiet
  • Bethany on Poet Laura: Fables and Foxy Chickens
  • L.L. Barkat on Poet Laura: Fables and Foxy Chickens

Featured In

We're happy to have been featured in...

The Huffington Post

The Paris Review

The New York Observer

Tumblr Book News

Stay in Touch With Us

Categories

Learn to Write Form Poems

How to Write an Acrostic

How to Write a Ballad

How to Write a Catalog Poem

How to Write a Ghazal

How to Write a Haiku

How to Write an Ode

How to Write a Pantoum

How to Write a Rondeau

How to Write a Sestina

How to Write a Sonnet

How to Write a Villanelle

5 FREE POETRY PROMPTS

Get 5 FREE inbox poetry prompts from the popular book How to Write a Poem

Shakespeare Resources

Poetry Classroom: Sonnet 18

Common Core Picture Poems: Sonnet 73

Sonnet 104 Annotated

Sonnet 116 Annotated

Character Analysis: Romeo and Juliet

Character Analysis: Was Hamlet Sane or Insane?

Why Does Hamlet Wait to Kill the King?

10 Fun Shakespeare Resources

About Shakespeare: Poet and Playwright

Top 10 Shakespeare Sonnets

See all 154 Shakespeare sonnets in our Shakespeare Library!

Explore Work From Black Poets

About Us

  • • A Blessing for Writers
  • • Our Story
  • • Meet Our Team
  • • Literary Citizenship
  • • Poet Laura
  • • Poetry for Life: The 5 Vital Approaches
  • • T. S. Poetry Press – All Books
  • • Contact Us

Write With Us

  • • 5 FREE Poetry Prompts-Inbox Delivery
  • • 30 Days to Richer Writing Workshop
  • • Poetry Prompts
  • • Submissions
  • • The Write to Poetry

Read With Us

  • • All Our Books
  • • Book Club
  • • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • • Literacy Extras
  • • Poems to Listen By: Audio Series
  • • Poet-a-Day
  • • Poets and Poems
  • • 50 States Projects
  • • Charlotte Perkins Gilman Poems Library
  • • Edgar Allan Poe Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Blake Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Shakespeare Sonnet Library

Celebrate With Us

  • • Poem on Your Pillow Day
  • • Poetic Earth Month
  • • Poet in a Cupcake Day
  • • Poetry at Work Day
  • • Random Acts of Poetry Day
  • • Take Your Poet to School Week
  • • Take Your Poet to Work Day

Gift Ideas

  • • Every Day Poems
  • • Our Shop
  • • Everybody Loves a Book!

Connect

  • • Donate
  • • Blog Buttons
  • • By Heart
  • • Shop for Tweetspeak Fun Stuff

Copyright © 2025 Tweetspeak Poetry · FAQ, Disclosure & Privacy Policy