Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 26.djvu/231

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and that we would have battles taking place where the distance be- tween contending forces is a thousand yards or more.

What would you think of a body of cavalry to-day, going out armed only with muzzle-loading shot guns and pistols and sabres, to ci mtend against cavalry armed with Krag-Jorgensen or Mauser car- bines? It must not be forgotten that in 1861 the Federal cavalry were armed with the Burnside carbine and Maynard carbine, and the Colt's repeating rifle, either of which was capable of killing a man more than a mile distant; and yet the majority of the Confederate cavalry, in the beginning, were armed only with muzzle-loading shot guns, only a very few of them having pistols and sabres in addition. Yet, with these crude weapons the Confederate cavalry did not hesi- tate to face the superbly equipped Federal cavalry. Knowing that they stood no chance whatever at long range they adopted at once the tactics of hurling themselves into the midst of the enemy and making the fight as sharp and swift as it was possible to do it. By this method of fighting we found that there were few weapons more effective at short range than a double barreled shot gun loaded with buckshot. It must not be forgotten that every Confederate cavalry- man had to furnish his own horse, bridle and saddle, and keep him- self mounted during the term of his service. The Confederate government furnished none of these things. When one of our horses was killed there was no market so inviting as the camp of the enemy, and there were few dark, rainy nights in which some Con- federate trooper did not furnish himself a mount from the camp of the enemy. And I believe it can be said without successful contra- diction that when the war closed in 1865, more than fifty per cent, of the arms, accoutrement and equipment generally of the Confederate cavalry, bore the imprint of the United States.

These men performed the severest duties. Exposed to all kinds of weather, always moving; without exaggeration, there was scarcely a pig path between the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers, from Cairo, 111., to Corinth, Miss., that was not traversed by the small bands of cavalry then connected with the army, locating the enemy, ascer- taining promptly every move that was made, and not a movement of our own army was made without the presence of this cavalry, always leading the advance, and covering the retreat of our army. They were in hundreds of engagements where men were killed, of which no mention is made in history, but in which engagements as heroic, deeds were performed as any of those ever chronicled in song or story. In the general engagements as a rule, the cavalry were upon