Foil

Character Role Analysis

Lewis Armistead and Winfield Scott Hancock

These guys are best friends—yet they're on two different sides of the war. We never really get to learn that much about Hancock, but one chapter—the big Pickett's Charge chapter—gets inside Armistead's head in a big way. In the past, he had vowed to Hancock that if he ever raised a hand against his friend, God should strike him dead.

This actually happens: during the charge, Armistead's troops attack Hancock's. They make it farther than anyone else, breaking into the Union Line and attaining the "high water mark of the Confederacy," supposedly, the closest the Confederacy ever came to becoming a separate nation. But Armistead is mortally wounded in the process. When he hears that Hancock has been wounded, he sends his regards, telling Hancock he's sorry.