WITH THE CAVALRY ON THE PENINSULA.
.A*'-A.
I N the Peninsular campaign of 1862 there wereemployed fourteen regiments of cavalry, entireor in parts, and two independent squadrons [seep. 314]. Considerably over half this force was com-posed of volunteers, and had been in existence aboutsix months. In the regular cavalry three years hadbeen regarded as necessary to transform a recruitinto a good cavalryman. The amount of patientand persistent hard work required to convert 1200untrained citizens, unaccustomed to the care of ahorse or to his use under the saddle, and whollyinexperienced in the use of arms, into the sem-blance of a cavalry regiment in six months isknown only to those who have done it.
The topography and soil of the peninsula pre-sented a most difficult field for cavalry operations.From Fort Monroe to Hanover Court House therewas hardly a field with sufficient scope for themanoeuvres of a single regiment of cavalry. Aftera rain the deep alluvium became, under the treadof horses, a bed of mortar knee-deep. The forestsbetween the York and the James rivers were filledwith tangled thickets and unapproachable mo-rasses. The tributaries of the rivers, mostly deep,crooked, and sluggish, became more tortuous asthey approach their confluence, and the expanse offloods is converted by evaporation into stagnantswamps. A heavy rain in a few hours renderedthese streams formidable obstacles. Above thisdismal landscape the fierce ra 3 ^s of the sun wereinterrupted only at night, or by deluges of rains, sothat men and animals were alternately scorchedand drenched. These conditions made cavalry oper-ations in this region affairs of squadrons.
The cavalry had been organized into a divisionunder General George Stoneman, chief of cavalry,and distributed by assignment to the corps of thearmy, excepting the cavalry reserve under GeneralP. St. George Cooke and that portion which wasattached to general headquarters. During themonth of the siege of Yorktown not an hour waslost which could be applied to cavalry instruction.Alertness and steadiness soon characterized ourcavalrymen. No incident was fruitless. Whengrindstones were procured and the sabers of my
A PART OF THE FORTIFIED CAMP AT HARRISON’S LANDING. AFTER ASKETCH MADE AT THE TIME.
regiment were sharpened at Hampton, it produceda similar effect upon the men.
Few but cavalry names reached the ears of thearmy on the day of the evacuation and pursuit.Stoneman and Cooke, on the right, with the 1stand 6th Regulars, struck cavalry, infantry, bat-teries, redoubts, and ravines, and pushed theirattack with audacity. Cavalrymen gallopedaround field-works. We soon heard of the gal-lantry of Colonel Grier, Major Lawrence Will-iams, Captains Sanders, Davis, Baker, and othersin cavalry charges, and that the French Princeswere among the first in the advance. Lieu-tenant-Colonel Grier, commanding the 1st (“OldBilly Grier, the bueno commandante”), had led acharge and engaged two of the enemy in per-sonal combat, wounding one and himself receiv-ing a wound. Then came tidings of the dash ofChambliss and McLean leading Hancock’s columnand crowding the left-center of the enemy’s line,and soon the 3d Pennsylvania cavalry met theenemy in the woods and drove him out with skir-mishers and canister, and cleared our left towardthe James of the enemy’s cavalry under Stuart.During the following day, the cavalry were specta-tors of the battle at Williamsburg (except the 3dPennsylvania actively engaged on our left) andwere only occupied with the rather serious businessof procuring food for the horses.
Although pursuit was again undertaken on themorning of the 6th by squadrons of the 3d Pennsyl-vania and 8th Illinois Cavalry and was continuedfor four miles, and five pieces of artillery wererecovered and some prisoners w T ere captured, itcame to a dead halt from necessity. During thesucceeding twenty days the cavalry swept thecountry in advance of our marching army by dayand hovered around its bivouacs by night.
When the army was in line about seven milesfrom Richmond , on the 25th of May, I was directedto communicate with the gun-boats on the JamesRiver at City Point. Lieutenant Davis, of the 3dPennsylvania , with ten men, was selected for theduty, and he made his way along various roadsinfested with the pickets and patrols of the enemyto the bank of the James, where, taking a skiff,with two negroes, he went on board the Galenaand communicated to Captain Rodgers the posi-tion of the army, and received from the captain astatement of the position of the gun-boats.
On the 27th, not satisfied with the picnic ap-
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