About the Author

David M. Rieker has been fascinated by and studied the Battle of Gettysburg for more than fifty years. He knows the history and the tactics and the ground like a licensed guide. A graduate of Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA, he earned an Masters degree in English from Penn State. After college, he enlisted in the Army, was commissioned as a Lieutenant in Military Intelligence, after attending Officers Candidate School at Ft. Benning, Georgia, and served in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive. Now enjoying retirement, he had worked as a copywriter, advertising manager, and English instructor. A lifelong student of war, he is fascinated by: "The way the violence of war strips you down to your bare essence. The world sees you as you truly are." He has been writing this novel about Gettysburg for over twenty years. In it he tries to create what the fighting and the carnage must have been like for a young soldier and a young lady. They serve as Everyman and woman representing all the thousands of men and woman who were swept up in the violence of the battle. This is his first novel.