And the hands were black that held the gun, and white that held the sword, But the difference was none and the color but one, When the red, red blood was poured. So mused a seminal American hero whose 87-year-long action-packed life is the subject of a masterful new biography by historian Douglas R. Egerton. Thomas Wentworth Higginson commanded the First South Carolina Volunteers, the first authorized Union regiment made up of freed black men in the Civil War. But that historic accomplishment