The Stockade

About the Book

A Frenchman by birth, Colonel Maurice Belford is the commander of the Taghit Army Post near the western border of North Africa in the year of 1830. As the commander, he also presides over criminal court cases with a reputation as a tough judge who dispatches soldiers to the stockade with sentences much too harsh for their crimes. Caught up in the power of his position, the colonel betrays his family bonds by having an affair with his secretary, and ultimately sentencing his own son, Joseph, a soldier under his command, to twenty years in the stockade for consorting with the enemy during wartime. Brought to desperation after watching his wife suffer from despair by the absence of her son, Colonel Belford was guilt-ridden, morally weakened, and down on himself for his own role in the sentencing structure of his son's trial. After confronting the stiff-necked warden concerning the release of his son, there Colonel Belford came to the realization that he must resort to more primitive means of persuasion if he is ever to see his son alive again.

About the Author

Born in North Carolina and reared in Virginia, I now reside in Texas. I began writing songs and poems at an early age. Had some college, and served nearly thirteen years in the U.S. Air Force. With that experience to draw from, coupled with the gift of an active imagination, I spent nine enjoyable years writing The Stockade.