Let Us Die Like Brave Men

Private Stringfellow of Houston of Missouri was aiding in the Confederate defense when he was badly wounded. His captain thought the young man dead as he was being borne from the field—until he heard a voice from the stretcher: "No, Captain, they have not killed me; they have just shot out my eye, and when I get back from the hospital I can shoot that much faster, as I won't have to shut it."

Stonewall Jackson's last recorded words were more poetic. His amputated left arm had already been buried in its own grave following his wounding at Chancellorsville. The Confederate nation awaited news of Jackson's fate as he lay at nearby Guiney's Station in May 1863. "Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of trees," he said at the last.

Let Us Die Like Brave Men tells the stories behind the dying words of 52 warriors who fell for the Southern cause. It includes soldiers from every Confederate state and gives equal play to men high-ranking and obscure. A few were not even part of the military. For example, James F. Jackson was a boxer and former militiaman who heard a Yankee colonel proclaim, "Behold my trophy," upon tearing down the Stars and Bars in Alexandria, Virginia. Jackson nodded at the shotgun in his own hands and coolly replied, "Behold mine."