These are the stories of struggles for survival by two members of the same family, though 100 years apart and in two very different wars. One takes place during our country’s Civil War of 1861-1865 and follows the life of 17-year-old Union infantryman William Smith of the 13th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers, who was captured and survived captivity at the infamous Andersonville Confederate Prison in Georgia. The other story takes place 100 years later and over 8,700 miles away in Vietnam with William Smith’s great-grandson, 25-year-old First Lieutenant Hubert Buchanan, shot down, captured, and surviving six and a half years in North Vietnam prisons.
The Heroes’ Wife
The Heroes’ Wife is the story of Dora Smith Griffin Bell, who has been married to two heroes of the Vietnam War. Her first husband, a navy pilot, was shot down over Hanoi on Ho Chi Minh’s birthday, 1967 and captured. In this book Dora shares letters Jim Griffin wrote
