“
Before they came in Lee had a couple of adventures. He first clashed with a sergeant of a Mississippi regiment who wandered over the wet field. Lee called out sharply: "What are you doing here, sir, away from your command?"
"That's none of your business," the ragged soldier said.
"You are a straggler, sire, and deserve the severest punishment."
The sergeant shouted in rage, "It is a lie, sir. I only left my regiment a few minutes ago to hunt me a pair of shoes. I went through all the fight yesterday, and that's more than you can say; for where were you yesterday when General Stuart wanted your cavalry to charge the Yankees after we put 'em to running? You were lying back in the pine thickets and couldn't be found; but today, when there's no danger, you come out and charge other men with straggling."
Lee laughed and rode off. Behind him an officer baited the sergeant, who thought he had been talking with a "cowardly Virginia cavalryman".
"No, sir, that was General Lee."
"Ho-o-what? General Lee, you say?"
"Yes."
"Scissors to grind, I'm a goner." The sergeant tore out of sight along the muddy road.
”
”
Burke Davis (Gray Fox: Robert E. Lee and the Civil War (Classics of War))