Buffalo Gordon — J.P. Sinclair Lewis

The first novel in an ambitious new series, Buffalo Gordon is a fictional history of the West as seen through the eyes of runaway slave Nate Gordon. He has returned to Louisiana as Sergeant Major Nate Gordon of the Tenth United States Cavalry. His task is to recruit for the second U.S. colored cavalry, the Ninth Negro. Three years have passed since Nate left Louisiana and his life as a slave. The war is now over, and it is clear that the South has paid a heavy toll. Nate's former home is in ruins.

Where opulence and order once ruled, poverty, corruption, and crime now thrive. Resentful and disgruntled white Southerners want nothing to do with Nate and his stripes. Racist Union officers and noncoms only make his task more difficult. Nate struggles to quell dissent from the ranks and keep outside forces at bay as the Ninth Cavalry moves from the docks of Louisiana to the wide open West.