Page:History of the Ninth Virginia Cavalry in the War Between the States.djvu/114

108 and on the following morning located our camp near by, on the land of a Mr. Hundley. Company G, from Lunenburg county, were furloughed on the march down. Companies C, D, I, and K, from the counties of Westmoreland, Lancaster, King George, and Richmond, were sent to their respective counties in the Northern Neck, to assist Majors Waite and Dade, division quartermaster and commissary, in collecting tithes of bacon, and forwarding grain, cattle, and sheep to convenient points for shipment to the south side of the Rappahannock for the use of our army. Opportunities were found to furlough the remaining companies in details for short visits to their homes. Our picket-line extended from the Piankatank to the Mattaponi river, and the details for this duty, with the absence of the companies mentioned above, left us only about one hundred and fifty effective men in February, when an order was received to move with the utmost dispatch to support General Young at Fredericksburg. After having made a hurried and laborious march of twenty-four hours to Hamilton's Crossing a courier informed us rather cavalierly that the order which we had received had been a mistake of the Adjutant's. The writer called on General Hampton, represented the condition of the regiment, and begged that no further mistakes of the kind might be made. He was assured by the General that he knew nothing of the order. After obtaining such scanty rations as could be supplied for men and horses, we retraced our steps to the camp, in Essex.

About ten days later, we were ordered to Hanover Courthouse to find again, after reaching there, that it was all a mistake. Upon each of these occasions we marched over winter roads at least sixty miles in twenty-four hours.

Near the close of February an order was received for the regiment to proceed to Hanover Junction, and await further orders. We marched for the third time sixty miles in twenty-four hours. At the Junction we received no orders, but, finding that Kilpatrick was making a raid towards Richmond,