The Real Custer (66 page)

17
.
    
“A True Account of the Cavalry Battle at Trevillian's”
Edgefield (SC) Advertiser
, (reprinted from the
Richmond Sentinel
), July 13, 1864.

18
.
    
This was nearly identical to the circumstances for which Powhatan Clarke, the West Point goat of 1884, was awarded the Medal of Honor during the Geronimo Campaign.

19
.
    
GAC to EBC, June 21, 1864.

20
.
    
“The Last Great Cavalry Raid,”
Nashville Daily Union
, June 25, 1864, 1.

21
.
    
Torbert's report of July 4, 1864.

22
.
    
“A True Account of the Cavalry Battle at Trevillian's.”

23
.
    
Supplemental report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, in two volumes. Supplemental to Senate Report No. 142, 38th Congress, 2d session, 26.

24
.
    
Ibid.

25
.
    
Ulysses S. Grant,
Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant
(New York: Charles L. Webster, 1885), 458–59
.

26
.
    
GAC to EBC, June 21, 1864.

27
.
    
See Merington,
The Custer Story
, 123.

28
.
    
EBC to GAC in ibid., 102.

29
.
    
EBC to her parents, May 1, 1864, in ibid., 94.

30
.
    
EBC in Arlene Reynolds, ed.,
The Civil War Memories of Elizabeth Bacon Custer: Reconstructed from Her Diaries and Notes
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994), 7.

31
.
    
GAC to EBC, May 1, 1864 in Merington,
The Custer Story
, 95.

32
.
    
Bingham in ibid., 109.

33
.
    
EBC to her parents, June 1864, in ibid., 108–9.

34
.
    
EBC to her parents, July 4, 1864, in ibid., 113.

35
.
    
EBC to her parents, April 1864 in ibid., 90.

36
.
    
Quoted in Reynolds,
The Civil War Memories of Elizabeth Bacon Custer
, 98.

37
.
    
From Caroline Dana Howe, “Young Custer's Bride,” reprinted in ibid., 173–75.

CHAPTER 12

1
.
      
London Guardian
, October 26, 1864, 1027.

2
.
      
Grant to Halleck, July 14, 1864.

3
.
      
New York Daily Tribune
, August 22, 1864, 6.

4
.
      
Ibid.

5
.
      
Sheridan to Halleck, August 17, 1864.

6
.
      
New York Daily Tribune
, August 22, 1864, 6.

7
.
      
In Marguerite Merington, ed.,
The Custer Story: The Life and Intimate Letters of General George A. Custer and His Wife Elizabeth
(New York: Devin-Adair, 1950), 115.

8
.
      
Sunbury (PA) American
, September 24, 1864, 2.

9
.
      
Charles Alfred Humphreys,
Field, Camp, Hospital and Prison in the Civil War, 1863–1865
(Boston: George H. Ellis, 1918), 160.

10
.
    
Quoted in Roger U. Delauter and Brandon H. Beck,
The Third Battle of Winchester
(Lynchburg, VA: H. E. Howard, 1997), 64.

11
.
    
Indianapolis Daily State Sentinel
, September 23, 1864, 1.

12
.
    
Torbert's report, November 1864.

13
.
    
Merritt in his report of October 5, 1864.

14
.
    
Sunbury (PA) American
, September 24, 1864, 2.

15
.
    
Wilson became Sherman's chief of cavalry for the Military Division of the Mississippi.

16
.
    
GAC to EBC May 16, 1864, in Merington,
The Custer Story
, 97.

17
.
    
Quoted in ibid., 121.

18
.
    
London Guardian
, October 26, 1864, 1027.

19
.
    
Custer to Dana, September 30, 1864.

20
.
    
London Guardian
, October 26, 1864, 1027.

21
.
    
Sheridan to Grant, October 7, 1864, 9 p.m.

22
.
    
Philadelphia Evening Telegraph
, October 12, 1864, 1.

23
.
    
Dana letter of November 14, 1864, in John Harrison Wilson,
The Life of Charles Henry Dana
(New York: Harper and Brothers, 1907), 348.

24
.
    
Diary of Captain Robert E. Park, Twelfth Alabama regiment, entry of November 4–7, 1864, in Reverend J. William Jones, ed.,
Southern Historical Society Papers
, vol. 2., 175.

25
.
    
On Rosser's brigade, see William N. McDonald,
A History of the Laurel Brigade
(Baltimore: Kate S. McDonald, 1907).

26
.
    
Philip Henry Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan
, vol. 1 (New York: Charles L. Webster, 1888), 56.

27
.
    
Ibid.

28
.
    
Custer report of October 13, 1864. See also the
New York Herald
report reprinted in
Philadelphia Evening Telegraph
, October 12, 1864, 1.

29
.
    
James H. Kidd,
Personal Recollections of a Cavalryman with Custer's Michigan Cavalry
(Ionia, MI: Sentinel, 1908), 316–17.

30
.
    
Frederick Whittaker,
A Complete Life of General George A. Custer
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993), 258. Some say Whittaker invented this event, but there is a sketch of it by Alfred R. Waud in the collection of the Library of Congress, mislabeled as a salute to Ramseur, not Rosser.

31
.
    
Custer report of October 13, 1864.

32
.
    
Daily Ohio Statesman
, October 15, 1864, 3.

33
.
    
General T. T. Munford, “Reminiscences of Cavalry Operations,”
Southern Historical Society Papers
, Reverend J. William Jones, ed., vol. 13, 134.

34
.
    
Custer report of October 13, 1864.

35
.
    
Early to R. E. Lee, October 9, 1864.

36
.
    
New York Times
, July 9, 1876, 1.

CHAPTER 13

1
.
      
New York Herald
report, reprinted in
Philadelphia Evening Telegraph
, October 12, 1864, 1.

2
.
      
William N. McDonald,
A History of the Laurel Brigade
(Baltimore: Kate S. McDonald, 1907), 308–9.

3
.
      
George Perkins,
Three Years a Soldier: The Diary and Newspaper Correspondence of Private George Perkins, Sixth New York Independent Battery, 1861–1864
, Richard N. Griffin, ed. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2006), 293.

4
.
      
New York Herald
report, quoted in the
Richmond Daily Dispatch
, October 24, 1864.

5
.
      
Custer report of October 22, 1864.

6
.
      
Supplemental report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, in two volumes. Supplemental to Senate Report No. 142, 38th Congress, 2d session, 44.

7
.
      
Colonel Whitaker quoted by Chaplain Humphreys, 176.

8
.
      
Report by Lieutenant Colonel John W. Bennett, 1st Vermont Cavalry, November 14, 1864.

9
.
      
Washington DC Evening Star
, October 22, 1864, 1.

10
.
    
Report by Lieutenant Colonel John W. Bennett,.

11
.
    
George Quintus Peyton,
Stonewall Jackson's Foot Cavalry: Company A, 13th Virginia Infantry
(Shippensburg, PA: Burd Street Press, 2001), 130.

12
.
    
Papers of the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts,
The Shenandoah Campaigns of 1862 and 1864 and the Appomattox Campaign, 1865
, vol. 6 (Boston: The Military Historical Society of Massachusetts, 1907), 139.

13
.
    
Washington DC Evening Star
, October 24, 1864, 2.

14
.
    
See Gary W. Gallagher,
Stephen Dodson Ramseur: Lee's Gallant General
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985).

15
.
    
Morris Schaff,
The Spirit of Old West Point, 1858–1862
(New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1907), 56.

16
.
    
Ibid., 56–57. See also Gallagher,
Stephen Dodson Ramseur
, 26–27.

17
.
    
John Truesdale,
The Blue Coats, How They Lived, Fought and Died for the Union
(Philadelphia: Jones Brothers, 1867), 180–81.

18
.
    
Lincoln to Sheridan, October 22, 1864.

19
.
    
Custer General Order of October 21, 1864.

20
.
    
Arlene Reynolds, ed.,
The Civil War Memories of Elizabeth Bacon Custer: Reconstructed from Her Diaries and Notes
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994), 105.

21
.
    
News report quoted in Marguerite Merington, ed.,
The Custer Story: The Life and Intimate Letters of General George A. Custer and His Wife Elizabeth
(New York: Devin-Adair, 1950), 126.

22
.
    
Washington DC Evening Star
, October 24, 1864, 2.

23
.
    
“Sheridan's Victory,”
New York Times
, October 27, 1864, 2.

24
.
    
GAC to EBC in Merington,
The Custer Story
, 119.

25
.
    
The Raftsman's Journal
, October 19, 1864, 1.

26
.
    
Reynolds,
The Civil War Memories of Elizabeth Bacon Custer
, 74.

27
.
    
G. A. Custer, “War Memoirs,”
Galaxy
, June 1876, 813.

28
.
    
GAC to Judge Bacon, January 1864, in Merington,
The Custer Story
, 80.

29
.
    
“Sheridan's Victory,”
New York Times
, October 27, 1864, 2.

30
.
    
George A. Custer to Emanuel Custer, October 16, 1864.

CHAPTER 14

1
.
      
John W. Munson,
Reminiscences of a Mosby Guerrilla
(New York: Moffat, Yard, 1906), 146. For a general discussion of this issue, see Robert Russell Mackey,
The Uncivil War: Irregular Warfare in the Upper South, 1861–1865
(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004); and James Joseph Williamson,
Mosby's Rangers: A Record of the Operations of the Forty-Third Battalion of Virginia Cavalry from Its Organization to the Surrender
, 2nd ed. (New York: Sturgis and Walton, 1909).

2
.
      
“An Hour With Mosby,”
Richmond Daily Dispatch
, December 1, 1864, 1.

3
.
      
EBC to her parents, May 1, 1864, in Marguerite Merington, ed.,
The Custer Story: The Life and Intimate Letters of General George A. Custer and His Wife Elizabeth
(New York: Devin-Adair, 1950), 94.

4
.
      
Custer to Pleasonton, July 18, 1863.