BATTLE SCARS

In the sequel to The Flags of War (2004), the alternating voices of Nate and Walt McGregor and the slave Sunday tell their entwined stories from the Battle of Shiloh until their escape from Richmond’s Libby Prison a year and a half later. The three manage to be at key points of the Civil War, from Gettysburg to the New York Draft Riots to Colonel Shaw’s 54th Massachusetts Regiment and Fort Wagner. Frederick Douglass and Harriett Beecher Stowe make appearances, and there’s even a nod to The Red Badge of Courage in the name of Walt’s captain, Henry Fleming. Though the characters are never fully realized and seem more like pieces being moved on a game board, Civil War buffs will find much of interest in the descriptions of battles, prison rats, treachery and the ebb and flow of the war. Overall, a satisfying read. (author’s note) (Fiction. 10-14)