Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 34.djvu/83

 Historical Memorial of the Charlotte Cavalry. 75

HISTORICAL MEMORIAL OF THE CHARLOTTE

CAVALRY.

[Our esteemed contributor, the gallant Captain E. E. Bouldin, is a prominent and successful member of the Virginia bar. An elder brother (whom we have known for a longer period) Powhatan Bouldin, Esq., was for many years the owner and editor of the Danville Times. He is the author of "Home Reminiscenses of John Randolph of Roanoke," a work which in the testimony presented of those familiar with that erratic genius, seems to give the key to his eccentricity. ED.]

The Charlotte Cavalry was organized in Charlotte county, Vir- ginia, U. S. A., in 1861. On the 2yth May, 1861, it was mustered into the service of the Southern Confederacy at Ashland, Va.

It served in the War 1861-5, first in Maj. George Jackson's Battalion, with one Company from Augusta county and two from Rockbridge county, Virginia, until September, 1862, when it was put into the I4th Virginia Cavalry as Company "B." This Regi- ment served under Brigadier-Generals A. G. Jenkins, Jno. Mc- Causland and R. L. T. Beale, Major-General W. H. F. Lee's Division part of the time.

It was distinguished among kindred organizations for the personal merit of its members. Every General it served under recognized the high intelligence and worth of its members. It never had a member to desert. Applicants had to be voted on before they could become members. There were a large number of lawyers, physicians, teachers, and highly educated farmers and merchants in the Company.

From a camp of instruction, at Ashland, Va., it was sent in the Spring of 1861, to Laurel Hill, Northwest Virginia, to General Garnett's command. The list of killed and wounded (forty-two) in this memorial, shows how it suffered. After it was put into the I4th Virginia Cavalry, it, with the Churchville Cavalry (Companies B and I) constituted the "charging" Squadron of the Brigade. Captain E. E. Bouldin was first, and Captain James A. Wilson (of the Churchville) was Second in Command of the Squadron.