Cathy Wright, Curator at the Museum of the Confederacy-Appomattox is the editor of Lee's Last Casualty: The Story of Sgt. Robert Parker, 2nd Virginia Cavalry. The book is composed of the letters that this young Confederate cavalryman wrote to his wife Rebecca back home in Bedford County, Virginia.
Parker describes his life as a soldier and tell how local communities worked together to provide whatever the military needed, but more importantly, his faith was evidenced in these letters. Parker felt the war was a supreme test in which God would look deep into the souls of Northerners and Southerners and that they needed to give themselves to country and to God in order to succeed on the battlefield.
He was torn between his sense of duty to his family and farm and his loyalty to the Confederacy.
His steadfastness was due in great part to his family, who instilled in him the will to continue fighting. Sadly, although he had survived many campaigns from 1862 onward, he was struck down during the last charge at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, and is thought to have been the last man killed in action in the Army of Northern Virginia.
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