Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 26.djvu/256

 246 Generals Barry, Hunt, and French—but not issued to the Federal army till 1861.

Colonel Shields, as a publisher, had facilities for obtaining a copy of the tactics from the publishing-house in the summer of 1860, and so it was that the Howitzers were equal to the Federal artillery in that respect before the war commenced. Every battery equipped at Camp Lee under his command was instructed in the new tactics.

In June, 1862, the battle of Fair Oaks, or Seven Pines, had been fought, almost in sight of Richmond; the Army of the Potomac was lying on the peninsula between the James and Pamunkey, and astraddle the Chickahominy, a narrow, deep and sluggish stream that meanders between them and empties into the James. Its base of supply was at the White house, on the Pamunkey—once the property of Martha Washington—which was connected with the army by railroad and telegraph. The left wing extended to within three or four miles of the James; its front and flanks were supposed to be protected by the swamps and the river. The infantry pickets were in sight of each other; cavalry videttes were not needed to give notice of the approach of an enemy. For the first time since the war began, Stuart's cavalry corps was idle and behind the infantry; his headquarters were on the Charles City road, about two miles east of Richmond. Men who had been educated in war by service on the outposts soon grew restless and weary of inaction in the rear.

During the greater portion of the first years of the war I had been a private in Stuart's Regiment—the 1st Virginia Cavalry—and had