Brendan Whitt

For Pride, For Country Brendan Whitt

Oberlin, Ohio - 1863

With the words of Fredrick Douglas' "Men of Color to Arms" burning inside him, Ephrem
Morgan is set to marry his wife, Elizabeth. Although a runaway slave from Maryland
Elizabeth does not agree with Ephrem's desire to join the war effort. The college
educated farmhand accompanies Hayes Turner, a long-time abolitionist himself and
father figure to Ephrem, on a trip to nearby Cleveland for a Unionist rally where Ephrem
decides to enlist.

He quickly earns battle experience in the Battle of Grimball's Landing and the Second
Battle of Fort Wagner leading Ephrem to rise through the ranks from a green private to
a member of a secret guerrilla unit under the command of disgraced General Benjamin
Henry-Jacobs. As Ephrem's body count climbs he begins to question whether this war
and covert operation is all worth the bloodshed and will the country actually be more
whole on the other side of this conflict. Stuck between his ideals and the realities of war,
Ephrem struggles with his positioning as born free Black soldier in the Union Army.