It rained all that night. The next day was Saturday, the Fourth of July.

The thing about the heart was that you could not coax it or force it, as you could any other disease. Will power meant nothing.

Why do there have to be men like that, men who enjoy another man's dying?

I've been a soldier all my life. I've fought from the ranks on up, you know my service. But sir, I must tell you now, I believe this attack will fail. No 15,000 men ever made could take that ridge. It's a distance of more than a mile, over open ground. When the men come out of the trees, they will be under fire from Yankee artillery from all over the field. And those are Hancock's boys! And now, they have the stone wall like we did at Fredericksburg.

A man who has been shot at is a new realist, and what do you say to a realist when the war is a war of ideals?

Pickett excused himself, watchful of Longstreet. Pickett was always saying something to irritate somebody, and he rarely knew why, so his method was simply to apologize in general from time to time and let people know he meant well and then to shove off and hope for the best. He apologized and departed, curls ajiggle.

Perhaps it was only that when you try to put it into words you cannot express it truly, it never sounds as you dream it.