The Heart of a Soldier: Intimate Wartime Letters from General George E. Pickett, CSA to His Wife

The letters composing this book begin in 1861, when the then Captain George Pickett resigned his commission in the United States Army and threw in his lot with the Southern cause. They continue through the war and at the end a few undated ones give glimpses of events through later years. General Pickett commanded a division of the Confederate Army & his name stands out in the history of the Civil War because of the brilliant charge he made during the Battle of Gettysburg, which failed after his division was almost wiped out. After the battle General Pickett wrote to his wife that if his expected support had come, the South would have won the battle and the Confederate Army would have been in Washington within a few days. General and Mrs. Pickett were married during the war and his letters both during their courtship and after their marriage showed him to have been an ardent and devoted lover and husband.