pp 318 Paperback in very good condition; no spine creases; clean pages; light edgewear to only outer corners // In Sweet Haven, down by Bayou Lafourche, "Uncle" Blake promises young Chad he'll never run for freedom without taking Chad along - but now it's 1862, and Blake has gone - gone to scout for the Union army, gone to the bloodbath battle of Port Hudson, gone without Chad. And Chad at seventeen takes his chance and goes heading for New Orleans, where General Butler is finally allowing the formation of the Louisiana Native Guard. For Chad is on the run to find the war, to fight, to cut the South in two, to find the way into freedom. He will find the carnage of the battle at Milliken's Bend. Anna, the young slave woman who loves Chad, and has followed him out of slavery to shelter in a New Orleans convent, finds in the Union occupation a brutality that, unknown to Chad, sends her back to the cane fields of Sweet Haven.