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290 trade. At Bermuda (where we arrived on the morning of the of December, in the royal mail steamer Alpha) I found Bob Carter, of the navy, in command of the Navy Department blockade-running steamer Coquette, purchased by Commander Bullock, of the navy, to run in naval supplies and out cotton for our service. Finding some cloth on board for you, I brought it over with me in the little steamer Presto, but by whom it was sent I do not know. After a very rough and exciting passage of four days, during which I did not have my clothes off, we succeeded in eluding the blockading squadron, and reached Wilmington in safety on the 7th of January, our little steamer, under John Wilkinson, being the only one of four leaving about the same time that succeeded in getting into port, the others being wrecked on the coast. On the day of my return to Richmond, with important dispatches from abroad, my former position as lieutenant commanding the ordnance-works was offered me, and accepted, with more work ahead of me than I can do justice to.

I hope, my dear sir, that you have entirely recovered the use of your leg, and that you suffer no pain or inconvenience from your wound, and that you have recently had good news from Mrs. Buchanan. Captain Mitchell delivered your very kind message a day or two since, for which please accept my thanks, and if I can assist you in any way my services are entirely at your command.

 

This company was organized at West Point, King William county, Virginia, in June, 1861, with the following commissioned officers: Captain, William H. F. Lee; First Lieutenant, Beverley B. Douglas; Second Lieutenant, James Pollard.

From West Point the company marched to camp of instruction for cavalry (at Ashland, Hanover county), where, after being drilled for several weeks by Colonels Field and Lomax, it was ordered to northwestern Virginia, where it spent the winter of 1861-'62. In the latter part of the winter of 1862, it was ordered to Fredericksburg, where we were regularly drilled until the campaign opened in the spring, when the Ninth Regiment Virginia Cavalry was organized with the following ten companies: 