Michael's Song Canto II continues the saga of Michael Touissant Bradford, Union soldier and former slave. Previously, in Canto I Michael has escaped from his master and fled north, only to return as a Union soldier in the Civil War. He has lost his only friend at the battle of Pittsburg Landing. In Canto II Michael runs the gauntlet in the riverboats with Grant to get south of Vicksburg. Because he now has no one left to care about he fearlessly charges into each battle and becomes the quintessential soldier. He marches and fights his way through the south, confronting old ghosts and memories along the way. He continues with Grant at the siege of Vicksburg and onto Chattanooga and then to the Eastern battlefields. Here he finds a new friend who approaches the battles with the same suicidal cavalier courage that Michael does and they fight shoulder to shoulder through some of the bloodiest battles of the war.