In “Cartledge Creek,” Sam McGee’s Civil War Ancestors Experience the Conflict as Confederates
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In this episode 243, we visit with Sam McGee, author of “Cartledge Creek,” a gripping novel of the Civil War in which his own family’s story is told.
Jim Dockery, the youngest of Alfred Dockery’s sons, is shipped off to fight for the Confederacy. His father is one of Richmond county’s most prominent opponents to succession and a vocal advocate for black suffrage. He is also one of the county’s largest plantations with many enslaved working the fields. Despite this contradiction, Jim and his five older brothers enlist in the army. The horrors of war and the inhumanity of slavery are illustrated through the eyes of the Dockery family.
Walter Bennett, author of “The Lawyer’s Myth” and “Leaving Tuscaloosa,” had this to say about the book: “”Cartledge Creek is a vivid journey into the heart and heat of the Civil War, both a moving family saga and an arresting story of defeat and lost time. Sam McGee spreads it out before us in well-crafted prose, a complex and intricate plot, and unforgettable characters. Battle, cold, disease, death, sometimes even hope and joy – McGee takes us into the smell and feel of it. We march along with the people and the indomitable spirit that carries them through. This novel is a good read, but more than that, it’s a deep and meaningful look at the past.”
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About the Author:
Sam McGee is an author, trial lawyer and fisherman from North Carolina. His first book, Sidelines and Bloodlines, is a college football memoir written with his referee father and sportswriter brother.
Cartledge Creek is his debut novel inspired by his family’s true Civil War story. As a teenager, Sam used to tell everyone who would listen that he would one day buy the old family homeplace back into the family.
He and his wife Marci did so in 2006. That house is the site of much of what happens in Cartledge Creek. Sam and Marci live in North Carolina with children Hannah, Cole, and Brooks, and cats Scout and Calpurnia.
Additional Endorsements
“Cartledge Creek is a vivid journey into the heart and heat of the Civil War, both a moving family saga and an arresting story of defeat and lost time. Sam McGee spreads it out before us in well-crafted prose, a complex and intricate plot, and unforgettable characters. Battle, cold, disease, death, sometimes even hope and joy – McGee takes us into the smell and feel of it. We march along with the people and the indomitable spirit that carries them through. This novel is a good read, but more than that, it’s a deep and meaningful look at the past.”
- Walter Bennett, Author of The Lawyer’s Myth and Leaving Tuscaloosa.
“Cartledge Creek is a fine piece of fiction. My highest praise for a story is ‘a good tale, well told.’ And that fits this tale precisely.”
- Bob Inman, Author of The Governor’s Lady, Home Fires Burning, Old Dogs and Children, and Dairy Queen Days.
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