Confederate General George E. Pickett
Confederate General George E. Pickett - Inventory Number: CON 577
Partial War Date Letter
Autograph Letter Signed "George", one page, 8" x 3.75", front and verso, [n.p., n.d.], in pencil, to his wife, Sallie. In part, "... word from you would go so far to cheer me... had a brush yesterday and drove the 'enemy'... - killing some fifty and capturing (hundred) fifty - alas! Barlow who is on opposite side of ... River (Gen Ransom with him) had not been ... at 12 yesterday, but have not taken the ... in defense as had been expected, but I still hope for the best. / have your horse, twas a black one was it not my lily? This one is a black one, and I know it is your - / write in haste. Best love to the ladies. Bye Bye my own love. Your own devoted husband, forever... George", and below signature: "Dear Sallie be ... from your little. ..."
The fragile section containing the autograph has flaked off of the document and is no longer present.
For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it's still not yet two o'clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it's all in the balance, it hasn't happened yet, it hasn't even begun yet, it not only hasn't begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin against that position and those circumstances which made more men than Garnett and Kemper and Armistead and Wilcox look grave yet it's going to begin, we all know that, we have come too far with too much at stake and that moment doesn't need even a fourteen-year-old boy to think This time. Maybe this time with all this much to lose than all this much to gain: Pennsylvania, Maryland, the world, the golden dome of Washington itself to crown with desperate and unbelievable victory the desperate gamble, the cast made two years ago....
- William Faulkner
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