Sons of My Fathers

SONS OF MY FATHERS intertwines two dramatic stories--the heroic saga of 19-year-old Ulysses Simpson, who joins wit his father Baylis to protect their family as the American Civil War rages around them; and the true story of another young Simpson man six generations later who follows the family tradition of service to the country and enlists in the military at the height of the Vietnam War. In 1864, Baylis Simpson is a sharecropper whose North Georgia farm stands on a line between General Sherman's Army and Kennesaw Mountain, the "Gibraltar of the South" that is the Confederacy's last hope of stopping the destruction of Atlanta. When "hell comes to Georgia," Baylis's youngest daughter suffers a horrifying tragedy that sets Baylis and Ulysses on a course of revenge, a decision that will forever change the destiny of their clan. One hundred years later, when Baylis's descendant Ron Simpson is assigned to fly a Huey gunship as a U.S. Army pilot, he fights a personal war within himself over whether to keep a century-old family oath. Ron's fateful decision forces him to confront his family's past and risk sacrificing his own future. Deeply personal and compellingly written, SONS OF MY FATHERS is an evocative journey into the author's family history and the universal themes central to is--the bonds of family and star-crossed love, duty versus faith, the true nature of patriotism and conscience in war, and the turbulent end of innocence. Rich in emotional textures, this multi-generational saga is a transformative and timeless coming-of-age narrative.