Northern Colors

 Author's Summary

Northern Colors is a historical fiction story of young Isaiah Weldon who enlists in the Second Minnesota Infantry during the American Civil War. His adventures, and those of his family at home, are described accurately without graphic violence or profane language. Through narrative, letters and journals the reader gains general knowledge of the war and the events taking place in Minnesota from 1862 through 1865. Isaiah becomes a color bearer for his regiment and is wounded during the advance on Atlanta. Recovering from his wound with the help of a young woman he has met and brought home, he returns in time to accompany General Sherman on the March to the Sea and the Carolinas Campaign. At the same time, his family continues to face life in the North Star State without him. This book is a great read for late elementary youth through adult. Northern Colors is the cornerstone book in a series that will follow the Weldon family from the American Revolution through all the major wars and conflicts up to the present day.

MWSA Review

“Northern Colors” is a five-by-eight inch paperback book. As Civil War fiction, this book presents a chronicle of two young men who join the Second Minnesota Volunteer Regiment.

Isaiah Weldon and Will Grayson, neighbors on the Minnesota prairie, went off to war together in 1862.

As part of the Army of the Cumberland, the Second Minnesota was engaged in pushing the Rebels from Tennessee. Will becomes a sharpshooter and Isaiah the color bearer for the regiment. Through letters exchanged with the family, Isaiah recounts the campaign in and around Chattanooga in late 1863.

In 1864, the Second Minnesota was marching to Atlanta as part of Sherman’s army. The journal of Will and Isaiah’s exploits provide details of Sherman’s march to the sea and the subsequent campaign to push northward into the Carolinas.

“Northern Colors” is a recommended read for Civil War followers. It is an interesting story woven into the historical events of the Civil War. Did Sherman’s army exact a penalty on the South Carolinians for starting the conflict?

Reviewed by: John R. R. Faulknber (2012)