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摘要
摘要
Buffalo Soldiers is the story of Sergeant Major Augustus Sharps of the 10th Cavalry, one of the six African-American regiments authorized by Congress in July 1866. He and other former slaves had proven that they could fight valiantly for their freedom, but in the West they were to fight for the freedom and security of white settlers who often despised them. The Cheyennes thought the hair of this new kind of soldier resembled buffalo hides and so the men of the 9th and 10th Cavalry became known as "buffalo soldiers". Serving with General Custer, and scouts like "Buffalo Bill" Cody and "Wild Bill" Hickok, these exemplary soldiers endured lower pay and fewer privileges than their white counterparts, in addition to the other hardships of the frontier. The perseverance and devotion to duty of these troopers carried them through the bloody battles with the Mescalero Apache and the capture of Geronimo - and even to the charge up San Juan Hill in Cuba with Colonel Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders. These men, and other volunteers with the Rough Riders, were the first African-Americans to serve on foreign soil.
评论 (3)
出版社周刊评论
To kick off his Black Sabre Chronicles, a series about African American military men, Willard tells the tale of Augustus Sharps, who in 1866 is saved from certain death in a buffalo stampede and from further slavery (even though it's after emancipation) by two black cavalrymen. The Buffalo Soldiers were black freemen and former slaves who joined the U.S. Army's 9th and 10th Cavalry in 1866, fighting hostile Indians, Mexican bandits, bitter racism and extreme weather along the western frontier. Among the Buffalo Soldiers (so named by Plains Indians as a sign of respect), Augustus finds comradeship and purpose. For 30 years, he serves his regiment with distinction, winning the admiration and respect of his fellow soldiers and their white officers. Augustus and his devoted wife, Selona, share a life of hardship and sacrifice, raising two sons amid the perils of the frontier. From the freezing plains of Kansas to the harsh Texas deserts and the arid mountains of New Mexico and Arizona, the Buffalo Soldiers battle Indians as well as the taunts and prejudice of the white settlers they protect. Success on the battlefield, however, does not protect Augustus from the racist hatred of a murderous Texas Ranger or the ruthless threats of the Ku Klux Klan. Willard delivers a compelling and action-packed story filled with historical personages and a proud sense of national redemption. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus评论
A veteran paperback author debuts in hardcover with this more- than-promising first in a series on the African-American experience in the US military. Here, Willard tracks the long and eventful life of Augustus Sharps, who rose through the ranks of the Tenth Cavalry during the later half of the 19th century. Saved by black troopers from death in a Great Plains stampede and indentured servitude at the hands of a white hunter who had bought him from his erstwhile captors, the Kiowa, Augustus signs on with the Army as a teenager in 1869. He and his fellow buffalo soldiers (so called by the Cheyenne for their wiry hair) played an important role in America's drive to fulfill its ``manifest destiny.'' Assigned to remote hardship posts on the westering frontier, they protected settlers against marauding whites (known as comancheros) and Indians vainly attempting to defend themselves and their way of life from extinction. Along his upwardly mobile way, Augustus (a crack shot with the long rifle from which he took his surname) survives frequent clashes with red men on battlefields from Kansas to New Mexico, earns a sergeant major's stripes, endures the opprobrium of homesteaders not overly fond of black troops, and marries a good woman who was scalped by renegade Texas Rangers. Augustus also meets the legendary likes of Wild Bill Hickok and George Armstrong Custer. Toward the close of his career, Augustus is in the vanguard of Teddy Roosevelt's charge up San Juan Hill; then, after retirement, he tours with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show. On the eve of the US entry into WW I, the old soldier sees one of his two sons off to OCS in possession of the battered sword with which he campaigned so honorably for nearly four decades. An ever involving, painstakingly researched narrative that, among other great themes, documents the force-of-arms efforts of one oppressed race to subjugate another.
《图书馆杂志》(Library Journal )书评
Held captive by the Kiowa and then bartered to a white buffalo hunter, Augustus Sharps is freed in 1869 by troopers of the all-black Tenth U.S. Cavalry, in which he enlists. First in a series chronicling African American contributions to U.S. military history, Willard's (Death Squad, HarperCollins, 1992) well-researched novel traces Augustus's soldiering from Fort Wallace, Kansas, until his retirement to an Arizona ranch. Through it all, he and his long-suffering wife, Selona, cross paths with such luminaries as Buffalo Bill Cody and George A. Custer. Not to be confused with Robert O'Conner's brooding, Helleresque Buffalo Soldiers (Knopf, 1993), this book begins shakily with needless hyperbole but recovers sufficiently to paint a compelling portrait of a family that not only endures the hardships of 19th-century army life but also the ingratitude of white society. Recommended, with slight reservations, for public libraries.Robert P. Jordan, Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.