In Mrs. Pickett’s memoirs of her husband, General George E. Pickett, of
the Confederate Army, she relates this incident:
As my Soldier was riding toward Sailor’s Creek, a woman ran out
of a house and handed him something to eat. He carried it in
his hand as he rode on. Presently he came upon a soldier lying
behind a log, and spoke to him. The man looked up, revealing a
boyish face, scarcely more than a child’s--thin and pale.
“What’s the matter?” asked my Soldier.
“I’m starving, General,” the boy replied. “I couldn’t help it. I
couldn’t keep up, so I just lay down here to die.”
“Take this,” handing the boy his luncheon; “and when you have
eaten it and rested, go on back home. It would only waste
another life for you to go on.”
The boy took the food eagerly, but replied: “No, Marse George.
If I get strength enough to go at all, I’ll follow you to the
last.”
He did, for he was killed a few days later at Sailor’s Creek.
(1723)