The little boy was Fred Hill, and his father was Col. Sylvester Hill. The father was also wounded at Yellow Bayou, and killed later that year at the Battle of Nashville. The story appeared in "Diary of an Enlisted Man," by Lawrence Van Alstyne, 1910, pages 327-8.

"The saddest sight I saw was the killing of a boy, son of a colonel somebody, whose name or regiment I could not get. I had often seen the boy while at Alexandria and wondered why such a child should be in such a place. He rode a handsome bay pony, and wore the infantry uniform, even to a little sword. When the fight began he was somewhere in the advance, and came riding back at the head of his regiment by the side of his father. They went into the cloud of smoke and in a few minutes a man came leading the pony back with the little fellow stretched across the saddle, his hands and feet hanging down on either side. He was taken back toward the front and I suppose his body will be sent home. What must that father have felt, and what will the mother feel when she knows of his death! It was such a useless sacrifice from my point of view."