By Darryl James, Published by Amazon Kindle 2022

A love story with historical naval battles and frontier outlaws…. Karla Faye.
Tucker was about to be executed in 1998 for double-ax murders in Houston, and a young woman was hanged during the Civil War for an ax murder in San Patricio, Texas. What did these distant historical events have in common?
Jarred Savage, an activist supporting the vigil for Ms. Tucker’s execution, was about to find out at the expense of his ordered life.

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As the execution of Karla Tucker approached in 1998, Jarred Savage joined fellow anti-death penalty advocates in Huntsville for the deathwatch. While waiting in his motel room, he continued researching his genealogy and uncovered a remarkable story. His great-great-great-grandfather, Sherman Savage, an ambitious young Texan, had secured an appointment to the fledgling Naval Academy just before the Civil War. While at the Academy, Sherman befriended a wealthy Yankee upperclassman named Mark Francis, who later fell in love with and married Sherman’s sister, Alex.

At their wedding, Ensign Francis noticed Alex’s 11-year-old brother, Billy Savage, heartbroken over his sister’s move to Brooklyn. As a gesture of comfort, Mark cut off one of his uniform's brass buttons, etched a heart with the initials “M.F.” over “A.S.,” and gave it to Billy, who promised to return the button when the couple returned to Texas. Tragically, they never did.

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When the war broke out, Sherman Savage joined the Confederate Navy and served aboard the gunboat CSS Bayou City, while Mark Francis became a gunnery officer on the Union frigate USS Harriet Lane. Alex, now pregnant, stayed in New Jersey with Mark’s family. Meanwhile, Sherman became engaged to Elizabeth Hawthorne, a girl from San Patricio. Elizabeth’s family cook had a troublesome daughter, Chipita Rodriguez, who ran off to join a gang of teenage horse thieves terrorizing South Texas. They were hunted down by the rugged Texas Ranger, Captain Eugene Slaughter.

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In October 1862, Mark Francis’s frigate, USS Harriet Lane, helped capture the port city of Galveston. However, the Confederates reclaimed the city in the pre-dawn hours of January 1, 1863. During the battle, the CSS Bayou City rammed and captured the Harriet Lane, leading to significant casualties. Union Lieutenant Mark Francis was severely wounded and died in a Corpus Christi hospital, with his wife’s southern family by his side.

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Meanwhile, a gang robbed Sherman’s brother, John Savage, at his livery stable. Chipita Rodriguez, in a brutal act, killed him with an ax. She was captured, tried, and eventually hanged. The brass button, passed down through generations, became a Savage family legacy and a symbol of good luck, seemingly protecting the male Savage descendants in the wars that followed over the next century. In contrast, the Francis family fared poorly, losing many men in those same wars.

On the eve of Karla Tucker’s execution, Jarred Savage uncovered the button’s deep meaning and believed it was his duty to return it to a male descendant of the Francis family. He decided to place it at the Vietnam Memorial Wall, under the name of a Francis descendant. At the monument, he encountered a woman and a young boy making a tracing of that very name. In a poignant moment, Jarred gave the button to the boy, Mick Francis—the last male descendant of the Francis family.