Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/637

Rh ." The appreciation of his service in the artillery was still further shown on April 5, 1864, when Lieutenant-Colonel Dearing was ordered to report to General Lee for assignment to command of the horse artillery of the army of Northern Virginia. Dearing's service, however, was from the beginning of 1864 in the cavalry. The regiment collected for him by Pickett was called Dearing's Confederate cavalry, and other cavalry commands were put in his charge during the New Bern expedition, in which he was distinguished, and was promoted brigadier-general. Early in May he was called to the Petersburg lines, on account of the opening of Grant's campaign. At first stationed on the Weldon railroad, and in command of a brigade consisting of his regiment, a Georgia regiment and two other North Carolina regiments of cavalry, a Virginia battalion and Graham's light artillery, he was soon called to the line of Swift's creek and Drewry's bluff, to meet the advance of Butler. On June 9th his command engaged Grant's cavalry at Reservoir hill, and drove the enemy from the field by an impetuous charge. On the 15th of June, Grant's whole army now being south of the James, Dearing's regiment made a gallant stand against the advance, which Beauregard reported as of incalculable advantage, to his command. Subsequently he commanded a brigade of W. H. F. Lee's cavalry division, and shared the duties of that command throughout the remainder of the war. During the retreat in April, 1865, he was mortally wounded in a remarkable encounter with Brig.-Gen. Theodore Read, of the United States army. The two generals met on the 5th of April at High Bridge on the Appomattox, at the head of their forces, and a duel with pistols ensued. General Read was instantly killed, but General Dearing lingered for a few days after the surrender of General Lee, when he died in the old City hotel at Lynchburg.

 Brigadier-General John Echols was born March 20, 1823, at Lynchburg, Va., and was educated at the Virginia military institute, Washington college and Harvard college. Entering upon the practice of law at Staunton he soon attained distinction. He was a man of magnificent figure, standing 6 feet 4 inches, and his mental qualities fully sustained his physical capacity for 