" The great cavalier is dead."

Monday, May 23, 1864, Noel's Station

There has been so much happening of late that I have forgotten to mention something of great importance. The Great Cavalier is dead. We are told that at Yellow Tavern, he was in the thick of a fight with Yankee cavalry when he was cut down, how we do not know. No one understood the mounted arm like he did. His shoes boots will be very hard to fill.

We should be thankful that the Yankees have not attacked us for several days. However, we do wonder what they are up to that they should be so silent. This fellow Grant likes crossing rivers only if he is going forward. We think that he will start another move before too long.

General Hill has returned to us, having been sick for some time. General Early has left us as temporary corps commander.

There were reports of Yankee activity hear here so today, the entire brigade was put into line. Orr's Rifles was sent to investigate the woods. They found some Yankees but not enough  to cause the entire brigade to attack. We have all now stood down.

Just about all of us have new canteens and haversacks. Some, like myself, have new trousers. All of this and much more come to us courtesy of that original baboon Lincoln. It did require a bit of doing on our part in order to liberate these things. The Yankees were close enough to spy our movements and fire upon us. In addition to my new blue trousers, I have acquired three haversacks and a canteen.

From the three haversacks, I have taken all that I considered useful and put it in one haversack. The other two haversacks, with the contents that I didn't want, I have thrown them away. No one else wanted them as they had recently acquired new ones themselves. From all three of the haversacks I obtained one piece of cheese, eight crackers, a quarter-pound of sugar, three pounds of salt pork and a few other things. All this was combined and consumed in one very good meal, washed down with five cups of coffee, with the sugar, of course. Before the war, I was not fond of coffee, preferring tea. War changes things. My old drum canteen was leaking from a bayonet hole so the new one comes to me just in time. A new pair of brogans is lashed to my knapsack. I wish that I had new socks.


I Send You These Few Lines.


The Great Cavalier Tooms refers to is James Ewell Brown, "Jeb", Stuart. Stuart was an excellent cavalry commander, if a bit of a grandstander. His cavalry owned that of the Army of the Potomac. It took awhile and some getting beaten up but the Union cavalry was learning along the way. At Yellow Tavern, Virginia, Stuart met his match, a Union cavalryman named John A. Huff of the 5th Michigan Cavalry. The 5th was part of the Michigan Brigade, commanded by George Armstrong Custer. Huff was killed later in May in Hanover County, Virginia.

Tooms references a changing norm for the Army of the Potomac and Lee is realizing it, too. When it was commanded by such generals as Hooker, Burnside and McDowell amongst others, Lee would hurt the Union army which would retreat northward behind the rivers. There, the army would lick its' wounds and ready itself for the next battle.

Not so with Grant. When Grant was checked and defeated at the Wilderness, he refused to retreat anywhere. Retreat is not Grant's style. The continuing offensive is.

Grant has numbers enough to deploy on the march several columns of troops, each posing a different threat. Lee does not have the numbers to counter multiple threats. However, this strategy of Grant's has problems. If one column marches out of supporting distance of the other columns, Lee can pounce upon it and destroy it. This would even up the odds a bit.

Will Grant move against either Lee or Richmond? Or both? Will Lee seek out and destroy an isolated Union column? That is for a future diary entry, my friends.