 When Yokely awoke the next morning, he asked to be released. Yet when Captain Gilmer refused and told the man that he would have to go with the Confederate soldiers, Yokely responded that he would die before he went with them. Gilmer then hastily ordered his men to shoot Yokely, upon which the men surrounded and leveled their weapons at the old man. If you kill me, you only have one old man out of the way, Yokely replied.