Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/152

 146 Southern Historical Society Papers.

planned and made a set of hand tools and machines by which they could be manufactured. Iron, in suitable strips, was obtained from Richmond. During January and February my men made between one thousand five hundred and two thousand of these curry combs. Like the horseshoes, they fell into Sheridan's hands.

Report of the Conduct of General George H. Steuart's Brigade from the 5th to the i2th of May, 1864, inclusive.

BY COLONEL S. D. THRUSTON, OF THE THIRD NORTH CAROLINA.

In the SoiUhern Historical Papers for 1885, appears the "report" of General R. S. Ewell of the campaign from the Rapidan to Spot- sylvania, in May, 1864, in which only a casual mention is made of the part taken therein by the brigade of General George H. Steuart. This is readily accounted for from the fact that the commander, to- gether with almost the entire brigade, was captured on the morning of May 1 2th, and no one was left to make the report of the conflicts of those eight eventful days.

Seeing for the first time General Ewell's report, the writer is con- strained, even at this late day, to raise his voice in behalf of the noble and gallant men of the five regiments who acted so conspicuous a part and aided so materially in repelling the advance of the Federal army during the period covered by that report.

In writing this, it is hoped no one will think or feel for a moment it is intended to cast any blame or censure upon the grand patriot and soldier who penned the report ; whose very life was sacrificed upon the altar of the country he loved so well, and whose memory is embalmed in the heart of every surviving member of the "Second corps." Oh, no ; none of this ! The only object is simply to put upon record, for history, those men and comrades who, at the time, had no one to do that duty for them.

The brigade, composed'of the First and Third North Carolina, and the Tenth, Twenty-third and Thirty-seventh Virginia regiments of infantry, was, a short time after the battle of Chancellorsville, in May,

1863, placed under the command of General George H. Steuart, of the Maryland Line, and followed him in the Gettysburg campaign, through all the campaigns of 1863, and down to the 12th of May,

1864, in all of which it bore itself with a conspicuous gallantry, and