Review: Deadly Aim: The Civil War Story of Michigan's Anishinaabe Sharpshooters

Deadly Aim: The Civil War Story of Michigan’s Anishinaabe Sharpshooters by Sally M. Walker My rating: 4 of 5 stars 

I enjoyed this audiobook much more than I expected to. It starts off slowly as the author introduces us to the Anishinaabeg people who you’ll follow through the war and establishes their backgrounds and that of their peoples. This takes up about the first third of the book.

But then it gets to be really interesting as the author relates the often painful experiences of Company K during the Civil War. Learning that these Native Americans contributed so much to the war, and how they performed in battle is engrossing. Hearing how some of them were captured and treated as prisoners, and how many of them had to fight for their war pensions after the war is maddening. The horrible conditions at Andersonville and Danville prisoner of war camps are well known, but to see them through the eyes of these men really drives home how thoroughly awful they were.

I am glad I read the audiobook version as I am sure I would have had trouble with trying to pronounce the Anishinaabemowin words (though as I am from Michigan it did grate a little that the reader mangled some of the Michigan place names). But based on other’s reviews I missed pictures and maps that I’m sure added to the story. Either way you go, if you have an interest in Civil War, Midwestern American, or Native American History you will enjoy this book, and I recommend it.