Lieutenant Palmer Metcalf

This is the person telling the story. Palmer is a nineteen-year-old member of the Confederate Army as the story opens and he is among those marching toward Pittsburg Landing where the Union Army is waiting. He is an "Aide-de-Camp" for Johnston's staff. Palmer says that he remembers the reaction of Sherman, one of his instructors at the Louisiana State Military Academy, upon learning that the Confederacy had formed and seceded from the Union. Sherman had predicted that the south would fail and Palmer seems to have taken that opinion to heart. He wants desperately to prove the man wrong and on the day before a big battle, he imagines himself holding Sherman prisoner at gunpoint and Sherman admitting that his initial assessment must have been incorrect. Palmer remains with Forrest's cavalry when they remain behind to thwart the Union attack. Palmer is pleased with himself for...