Every May 15, the Virginia Military Institute conducts a moving ceremony. The names of ten former cadets are called out during the dress parade. After each name is read, a cadet steps forward and reports, "Dies on the field of honor, Sir."

The ceremony is held to honor the ten cadets killed at the Battle of New Market in 1864 during the Civil War. Confederate General John C. Breckinridge ordered cadets from the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), some of them child soldiers no older than 15, to join an attack on the Union lines. This is the courageous story of 264 teenage boys who faced the ultimate challenge of mortal combat.