First Sentence: “The first thing Joe did when he caught sight of those colored soldiers wearing blue Yankee uniforms was to stand staring at them with his mouth wide open till the captain rode up behind him and whacked him across the shoulder with his riding crop.”

From the first sentence the reader can tell 1) Joe is probably white or a surprised repressed black 2) that black soldiers are uncommon, probably setting the time period way before the civil rights movement (if the “Yankee” reference didn’t throw you into the Civil War already), and 3) a war-time setting.

The captain joins Joe in his shock—dropping the N-bomb on the 5^th line—further proving that racism is more culturally prevalent in this setting than at present. Further down on page 15 (the first page of the novel), Zack and Joe are trying to sleep under their tattered Confederate blankets, but they are disturbed by the Negro songs from those on mule detail.

Before the page break on 16, Zack and Joe are planning to escape the Confederate camp that night. Their dialogue is definitely regional, and it’s safe to assume that these men are slaves of the Confederate army, not white soldiers—“You know these white men must expect it—their niggers supposed to be singing like that, all sorry so many of their masters got killed today. And by colored, too.”

Now it’s night and Massa Clem, the sentry of the mule detail, is faking sleep. It starts to rain and in a moment of distraction, Joe stabs Massa Clem in the back. Joe and Zack disappear into the woods with the white man’s gun.

After a break on page 17, the two men encounter soldiers, so they hunker down in the rain. They’re almost to the Mississippi River, the only thing they have left to cross until safely in the Union army, but a horse gallops up, obviously informing the soldiers that the two men have escaped. The soldiers start beating the bushes, moving in the direction of the two men, and Joe can hear the cries of the bloodhounds. They wait until a mounted soldier gets close enough and Zack rushes him with his knife. Zack and Joe dart from tree to tree, leading the horse. The moment they make the road and mount the horse, two bloodhounds break from the woods, baying. Joe takes aim and shoots the two dogs: “The  hellish baying stopped and the only sound left was that of the horse’s hooves clattering on the packed-down surface of the dirt road” (19).

After a break on 19, the two men cross into Yankee lines, casually greeting the black soldier with the gun leveled at them.

After another break on 20, Captain William Stiles looks up from his desk at the long line of colored men waiting to enlist in the Union army. Joe is registering with Captain Stiles and apparently Joe has made quite a reputation for himself by bagging five prisoners in one day.

An hour later, Captain Stiles promotes Joe to be the first colored sergeant in the cavalry regiment. Joe requests that Zack be assigned as a corporal, which Stiles agrees to do.

Chapter two begins on page 23 with a woman named Lisa Mae calling for Zenobia, Joe’s wife. She is picking cotton on a plantation with some other black women. Apparently the state of plantations all around has been especially poor, with only small amounts of food and no men. After lunch, Zenobia leaves her young daughter Cally with Lisa Mae—it’s too hot out for the child—and starts to walk back to the field when Drayton, the black overseer, catches up with her. He tells her to take the afternoon off to spend time with him, saying Joe isn’t coming back, but she shakes him off. Drayton rebukes her and his words cut deep: “You still think your Joe be coming back for you. Well, I’m here. He ain’t. I can feed you. He cain’t” (25). There’s no doubt that Drayton is primed to be a future source of conflict.

After a break on page 26, the children Cally and Ned are asleep and Brother Caleb is visiting from the Newton plantation down the road. He’s asking Zenobia to lead an escape tomorrow night since Joe taught her all about the surrounding woods. She is reluctant since the swamps are dangerous for small children. The decision is made for her, however, when Cally comes down with a fever. They aren’t going anywhere.

Another break on 27 has Zenobia and Cally moving into the big plantation house so Cally can get better. Drayton even sets up Zenobia with watching the other children instead of going out into the fields. One day, a horseman gallops up with a quick message for Miss Sue, who sends Zenobia to fetch Drayton to the big house. That night, all the black women know something big is about to happen. Drayton knocks with a special message for Zenobia: that a slave-running gang from the Yankees are robbing and killing people, and will be there in the morning. He tells her to come with him and Miss Sue in the morning to escape. Zenobia is mistrustful of Drayton, but wakes up Lisa Mae who talks her into going with Drayton.

The next morning, the rest of the slave women are packing up to go to Alabama to be further away from the Yankee army. Zenobia and Lisa Mae have to say goodbye to all of them since they’ll never see each other again. Chapter two ends on page 32 with Zenobia watching the slaves walk down the road while Zenobia, Lisa Mae, and their children wait with Miss Sue and Drayton.

Chapter three switches the POV to Richard Kenworthy, a Confederate patrolling the plantations near the Yankee line. After the other men have settled down to sleep for the night, Captain Adams voices his scruples about their plans to Major Kenworthy. He says they don’t have the right to be killing all those slaves, but Kenworthy refutes his opinion, putting his friend in his place.

The next morning, Kenworthy orders the men burn the buildings and cotton, and line the slaves up to shoot them, however Adams and his men refuse to comply. Just as Kenworthy put his hand on his revolver, a scout comes galloping up to tell him that the Yankees are just down the road. The slaves are saved.

That night, miles from the plantation altercation, Kenworthy calls Adams over and states that should he ever refuse an order again that he’ll be shot. So much for their friendship.

Joe and Captain Stiles are preparing to lead their troops into Confederate territory. Joe is worried that the white troops won’t back up the black ones if the fighting gets heavy, but Captain Stiles assures him that they’re all in the same army. Joe has been chosen as scout, and after dressing in his field hand clothes, he leaves the black troops under Zack’s control.

A few miles down the road, Joe knows the plantation where his wife Zenobia lives is close by. Unfortunately, he has a duty and go to her now. He is ferried across the river by an old black man, who warns him that the Confederates are all over the far bank, killing any lone Negroes. Joe takes a swig of whiskey, starts thinking about his wife, and suddenly there’s a Rebel trooper with a gun leveled at his head. Joe is quick with a story—he’s a slave looking for another escaped slave—and waits for an opportune time to club the scout and make his getaway. After a brief distraction, the scout is off his horse and on the ground, with Joe speeding away on his horse. Three soldiers are after him, but only one can keep up with Joe’s horse. After rounding a bend, Joe shoots the Rebel in the chest, escaping with his horse.

After a break on 43, Joe’s Union troops ford the river and their small band send more than 500 Confederate troops running.

Chapter four introduces another character, Pauline, who is walking up a road towards the plantation house, frozen over by an ice storm. Miss, presumably the woman of the house, says Richard will be stopping in any day now and that she should take Milly and Luke—Joe and Zonobia’s children—down to hide by the hut by the river. Apparenly Pauline is Joe’s sister and had rescued her niece and nephew unbeknownst to Joe. Miss turns out to be Richard Kenworthy’s sister and she is either anti-slavery or just particularly sympathetic to Pauline’s plight. Kenworthy had taken Pauline to bed numerous times until she was given to Miss Dorothy as a wedding present.

Pauline and the two children spend the night in the slave shack by the river. Milly is reasonably calm, but Luke is dangerously bold like his father. They talk about the changing times, how they all need to be careful, and if they keep praying they might see their parents again.

The next night, the children are playing with their friends but are forbidden to go up to the big house. A big man named Woodson chats with Pauline, sharing gossip about the war effort. Woodson offers to take her and the children off into the woods, but Pauline feels responsible to Miss and still guiltily connected to Massa Richard.

Page 50 has Major Richard Kenworthy spurring his horse towards his sister’s plantation. He is eager to see her and Pauline. After he had relaxed a bit, he reports that Sue had left her plantation and was staying at Meridian with Drayton, Zenobia, and a few others. Miss Sue’s plantation has been razed to the ground by the Union army. And with that, they go eat dinner.

Where I’m Bound is obviously an exhaustively researched novel, showing Ballard has obviously benefited from his roots in nonfiction. The battles, officers, and violence all seem incredibly realistic. The plot is also quite fast-paced with rarely a moment without a life or death situation. A slave’s existence in this time period is heartbreakingly tenuous with rampant racism, suspicion, and double standards.

While the characters seem to be a bit lacking in complexity and inner monologue, they are all prime subjects for conflict. For example, Joe and Zack face the violent bigotry of the Confederate troops, Zenobia faces the advances of Drayton, Pauline faces the advances of Major Kenworthy, and the black children are confused by their white friends and white enemies.

As a childhood enthusiast of Civil War novels like Rifles for Watie and The Last Silk Dress, Where I’m Bound would have been another riveting novel giving a voice to the many brave soldiers and slaves during such a tumultuous time in American history.

As his first novel after two nonfiction successes, making this endeavor a historical fiction was a smart choice. Ballard highlights his talents as a researcher, which is the shining light of this novel.