Gordon Tucker, Author of Sarah's Creek and Shadow

Mike Ryan, a man without memory and having wounds of the mind (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder—PTSD,) was found in a cave in North Korea. In a military hospital, he learned that he was a much decorated infantry soldier who escaped from a North Korean POW camp. Searching for American lines, he was shot by North Koreans and repelled by skittish front line GI’s. Confused, he found sanctuary in a cave until discovered and evacuated. He also learns that his wife has remarried. His story emerges painfully, heroically, as told with great passion.

An Excerpt

While standing near the plane’s wreckage I happened to gaze into the foliage. To my surprise, a dim image took shape.

A face—It was a man’s face, crowned with ragged grayish hair and hidden behind a scraggly beard. What surprised me most was his skin—tanned and lined from exposure, but decidedly Caucasian. When I turned to get a better view, the face faded into the darkness of the forest, leaving nothing to suggest that someone had been there only moments before.

About Gordon Tucker

Gordon Tucker served during the Korean War (1951,) with Company C, 7th Cavalry (Infantry,) where he was wounded three times and awarded seven combat decorations.

He lives in South Florida with his wife, where he plays tennis, goes fishing, and writes.

Sarah's Creek by Gordon Tucker

Sarah's Creek is an epic story of the Civil War: the men who fought in it, the families they left behind. The author has turned nineteenth century fictitious characters into living and breathing realities. Slaves, poor farmers, tobacco growing plantation owners, fishermen, blockade runners, soldiers both blue and grey, they are all here, a microcosm of the American experience.

P R O L O G U E

1864—The Wilderness, near Fredericksburg, Virginia—

A forest once stood here but in the spring of 1864 only a tangle of rotted stumps, scrub trees and underbrush remained—a virtually impenetrable wasteland called The Wilderness. This fallow land was worthless for any practical use, yet, by coincidence of time and circumstance, it brought together two great armies.

On May 5, 1864, tens of thousands of soldiers clashed in a fever of war mentality. Tragically, they were of one nation, divided, in what they fervently believed to be a fight for the rights of man and country.

After two days of fighting, the sounds of musket and cannon dwindled. The Wilderness was quiet again except for the anguished cries of wounded and dying soldiers. During the lonely darkness of night their cries diminished as one by one the dying gave pitiful moans and drifted into eternal peace. On the third day, despair shrouded the battlefield as the mortal remains of fallen soldiers from both armies were buried in shallow graves.

Brothers again . . . to eternity.