Tom Willard is in the midst of a series of novels focussing on the role of black soldiers in American military history.  The first of these, Buffalo Soldiers, begins with Congress creating the first black peacetime units in 1866.  Augustus Sharps is a black man who, despite the Civil War, has been held as a virtual slave by a white hunter who purchased him from Indians.  Freed by men of the 10th Calvary, Augustus, who is already an expert shot, joins up and spends most his life in the U.S. Army, then joins Buffalo Bill's Wild West show after fighting with the Rough Riders at San Juan Hill.  The novel closes with America's entry into WWI, Augustus is too old to serve by then, but as his two sons head off to war, he presents them with his battle saber.

While one admires Willard's effort to recover the memory of the black heroes who served America so ably and with so little reward in the years before the nation desegregated, the story is ultimately more earnest than interesting.  I'd give it a mild recommendation.  A formulaic rehash of classic Western themes, redeemed only by the reminder that blacks played an important and underappreciated role in creating the American West.

(Reviewed:08-Feb-00)

Grade: (C) Orrin C. Judd

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