I don’t know how long we will remain here, so I am hurrying to write you a few lines, with the sheet of paper on my knee to let you know that I am as well as could be expected under [the] circumstances....  I feel pretty well.  I heard yesterday that [General W.S.] Rosecrans had fallen back, so there is no telling how far we may have to march or how long it will take before we have a battle here....  Oh, my dear wife, what a trial it was to me to pass so near you and not see you, but it had to be.  About 40 of our Regt. stopped, and I am sorry to inform you that all of Company A, except the officers, were left at Florence.  That company did worse than any other....  But I know with some it was too hard a trial to pass.  There were some, however, who left, who had seen their families in less than a month....

We left our horses at Petersburg to follow us on.  I left Joe [his servant] in charge of mine, and I don’t know when they will come up.  I feel the need of Joe and the horse, as I can’t carry my baggage, and fare badly in the eating line. [We] took our two days rations and went to a house last night to have it cooked, but I can’t eat it.  The biscuits are made with soda and no salt and you can smell the soda ten steps....  If I can’t buy something to eat for the next two days, I must starve....  I made out to buy something occasionally on the way to keep body and soul together....  I must close, as I may not be able to get this in the mail before we have to leave here....  Kiss my dear little ones for me, tell all the Negroes howdy for me....  Write as soon as you get this.  Direct it to me at Dalton, as I expect this will be our post office for the present.  Do my dear wife don’t fret about me.  Your ever loving Husband....

D. Augustus Dickert, the author of Kershaw’s Brigade ... was born on a farm near Broad River, Lexington County, S.C., in August, 1844, the son of A.G. and Margaret (Dickinson) Dickert, both from nearby Fairfield County.  In June, 1861, at age seventeen, he enlisted as a private in Company H, Third Regiment, South Carolina Volunteers, made up of men mostly from Fairfield, Lexington, and Newberry counties.  Wounded four times (at Savage Station, Fredericksburg, the Wilderness, and Knoxville), he was gradually promoted to captain and during the latter part of the war, according to his friend Aull, “he was in command of his regiment acting as colonel without ever receiving his commission as such.”

After the war Colonel Dickert, as he was best known, returned to his farm, and took an active part in community life, including leadership in the local Ku Klux Klan.  Meantime, he read widely to improve his education—­as a boy he had attended a country school for only a few months—­and by middle-age had become “better educated than many college graduates.”  Well versed in history, astronomy, and literature, he turned to writing as an avocation, producing numerous stories which were published in the Herald and News