The young man is a new soldier for the confederacy full of bravado and is afraid that the war will end before he even fires a shot. He is intent on going out and shooting himself a Yankee but when he does, he regrets it straight away afraid he has killed a man. He comes to realize that he is not a soldier after all but at the same time he has gone from being a child to being a man because in saving the mans life he was willing to do what he knew was right in spite of what it might cost.