I would not have finished this book except I am in a book club and I wanted to be able to discuss it with the group. I did not feel it was adequately researched for a historical fiction book. The author made Cathy out to be a weak woman by having her always fawning after a man. I bet the real Cathy wanted nothing of the sort in the Infantry. The author makes Cathy out to be the best marksman in the unit, even gets a medal for it, but never describes a situation where Cathy kills anyone to deserve that medal. That is because it would be politically incorrect because the Buffalo Soldiers were killing native American Indians and 4 million bison (to starve the Indians). She gave Cathy a modern day attitude that didn't fit the 1800's story. It could be a good middle school book, but it has an unnecessary female gay sex scene that comes out of no where, and talk of soldiers masturbating etc. I hope another author picks up this story and does Cathy justice, writing a more factual, true to the day narrative.