Page:History of the Ninth Virginia Cavalry in the War Between the States.djvu/21



Near the close of April the regiment reorganized, the privates electing the company officers, and these electing the field officers. These elections were general throughout the army, and were regarded as a great political blunder, amounting almost to a crime, in the legislative department of the Confederate Government. The consequences, doubtless, would have been disastrous in the extreme but for the firmness, energy, and good sense of the military commanders.

In our regiment, Colonel Johnson was displaced, William H. F. Lee becoming colonel, R. L. T. Beale lieutenant-colonel, and Meriwether Lewis major. It was not until after this reorganization that all the companies composing the regiment were brought together. Owing to some coolness between Johnson and Lee, or for some other cause, they had been separated, and whilst some of us under Johnson camped at Massaponax Church, four or five companies under Lee occupied Hick's Hill, near the river road from Port Royal.

The appearance of the regiment at this time was but a slight improvement upon that ascribed to one of the companies the year previous. Three of the companies had been partly armed with inferior carbines and pistols by the counties in which they were raised; most of them were supplied with such sporting guns as could be collected by the officers from the people of the country. The equipment of the horses was of the most inferior kind, and varied with the