Deeply conflicted about his past, Richard is eager to show himself to be a credit to his race. At the heart of the narrative is Sergeant Richard Etheridge, the son of a slave and her master, raised with some privileges but constantly reminded of his place. In December, the newly formed African Brigade, a unit of these former slaves led by General Edward Augustus Wild-a one-armed, impassioned Abolitionist-set out to hunt down the rebel guerrillas and extinguish the threat.įrom this little-known historical episode comes Black Cloud Rising, a dramatic, moving account of these soldiers-men who only weeks earlier had been enslaved, but were now Union infantrymen setting out to fight their former owners. Thousands of freed slaves and runaways flooded the Union lines, but Confederate irregulars still roamed the region. With powerful depictions of the bonds formed between fighting men and heartrending scenes of sacrifice and courage, Black Cloud Rising offers a compelling and nuanced portrait of enslaved men and women crossing the threshold to freedom.īy fall of 1863, Union forces had taken control of Tidewater, Virginia, and established a toehold in eastern North Carolina.
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