Buffalo Soldiers [Unknown Binding]

Tom Willard (Author)

Product Details

• Unknown Binding
• Publisher: Forge; 1ST edition (1996)
• ASIN: B001XGW3E6
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars mild recommendation, December 18, 2000

By 

Orrin C. Judd "brothersjudddotcom" (Hanover, NH USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Buffalo Soldiers: A Novel (Audio Cassette)

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.

GRADE: C

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An extraordinary read, April 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Buffalo Soldiers (Black Sabre Chronicles / Tom Willard, Bk 1) (Hardcover)

Buffalo Soldiers by Tom Willard is one of the best books I have ever read. The principal at my high school donated it to the library and when I saw it on the shelf, I was instantly intrigued. I could not put it down. The words of my principal -- "America has been blessed with courage and patriotism from all of its people" -- were very true. Willard has told an important story that is sure to move you. In the novel, Sergean Major Augustus Sharps and his wife, Selona, show great measures of strength and courage. This compelling novel is definetly on my list of best books.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Courage and Valor and Duty, December 4, 1999

By 

J. A. Clark (Rensselaer, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Buffalo Soldiers (Black Sabre Chronicles) (Mass Market Paperback)

Some up this remarkable book about Colored soldiers after the Civil War taking up arms to help tame the newly expanding American Western frontier. This book tackles the expanding never ceasing politics of race between those with power, and those without, those with weapons, and those with none, those who formerly wore chains, and those who fight to keep them off. Willard's portrayal of the harsh environs of the expanding frontier match and may surpass those of Larry MacMurty's "Dead Man's Walk". The stregnth, valor, bravory, courage, and duty Willard gives his colored sodiers through adversity gives the reader a better understanding and apprciation of those who came before us, those who died for us, and those who were forgotten.