In his 1948 novel Intruder In The Dust, William Faulkner tells of a black man accused of a murder he did not commit. Eventually, due to the efforts of a white teenager and an elderly lady, the real killer is identified. Along the way, Faulkner attempts to explain – but not apologise for – the residual bitterness felt by white people in the South, so many decades later, about the outcome of the Civil War. General Robert E Lee is a heroic figure in Southern mythology. He came close to winning the battle of Gettysburg in 1863, but on the third day of the battle his hopes hinged on what we now think of as a military blunder. Confederate forces, under General George Pickett, made a full frontal assault on Union forces holding high ground. The charge was a disaster, and although Lee won later battles, that afternoon is known as The High Watermark of The Confederacy. Faulkner’s character voices what remains one of the finest short pieces of prose in the English language. It is the ultimate “what if?”