GEORGE A. CUSTER, A KNIGHT OF THE

SPUR AND THE SABRE

THE war between the States brought many daring cavalry leaders into the field, both North and South. Among those of the Northern army Sheridan stands first, but there were other daring and dashing knights of the spur, Pleasanton, Kilpatrick, Gregg, Merritt, and others. Marked among these for daring courage and striking exploits, and of especial interest from his last desperate and tragic conflict, was the youthful Custer, in his way the beau-ideal of a light dragoon. The story of his career, then, is one of the most interesting of those told of the bold horsemen of the North.

George Armstrong Custer entered the war almost as a boy. He was born at New Rumley, Ohio, December 5, 1839, graduated at West Point in 1861, and was at once assigned to the cavalry service as second lieutenant and sent to Washington, where trained soldiers were then much in request. He reached there in July, reported to General Scott, the commander-in-chief, and was sent by him with despatches to General McDowell, then in command on the Bull Run field. He reached there July 21, just as the battle was about to begin, delivered his despatches, and joined his regiment, the Second Cavalry, with which he saw some service during the fight.

During the autumn he was sent home on sick leave, and in this interval is said to have promised his sister never again to touch intoxicating liquors, a pledge he kept sacredly till death. He was back again in Febru

ary, 1862, now in the Fifth Cavalry, and when McClellan took command of the army General Kearney selected Custer as his first aide-de-camp, attracted to him, no doubt, by the engaging manner and presence of the handsome young cavalryman.

His first show of fighting spirit was given when the Confederates were evacuating Manassas, when at the head of a detachment of troopers he briskly charged the retreating pickets while crossing a creek and sent them scampering for safety. During the siege of Yorktown General W. F. Smith selected him as assistant engineer on his staff, and as such he planned and built the works nearest the Confederate lines. In the pursuit of the enemy on their retreat from Williamsburg he was in Hancock's corps, reaching the Chickahominy in the advance of the army and being the first officer to wade that stream. He traced and marked the ford and reconnoitred the enemy's position before returning, and on the next day, June 16, at the head of two companies of cavalry and one of infantry, he daringly attacked a large detachment of the "Louisiana Tigers" acting as a picket guard, stampeding them and capturing their colors with his own hand.

This, the first trophy of the kind taken by the army of the Potomac, was a feather in the cap of the young dragoon, and when General McClellan heard of his exploits he at once appointed him an aide on his own staff.

Custer took part in the various battles that followed, those before Richmond and the subsequent ones in Maryland, and in July was promoted first lieutenant. When General Hooker organized the cavalry as a separate corps of the army, Custer became an aide to General Pleasanton, division commander, and was prominent in the cavalry fights at Brandy Station

and Aldie. In the latter, with Colonels Kilpatrick and Doughty, he led a cavalry charge upon the enemy, displaying such spirit and daring that the act brought him the commission of brigadier-general of volunteers, dating from June 23, 1863.

As such the young soldier was put in command of the Michigan cavalry brigade, at the head of which he was present on the field of Gettysburg and, with Generals Gregg and McIntosh, engaged in a hot fight with Stuart's cavalry division, forcing it back and preventing it from turning the left flank of Meade's army. His gallant conduct here was rewarded with the brevet rank of major in the regular service.

In Lee's retreat from Gettysburg with his broken battalions Custer was hot upon his heels, slashing and sabring at every opportunity with his usual reckless impetuosity, and pressing the rear so closely that he had a horse shot under him and fell himself with an ugly wound. He was not fit for the saddle again until Grant took the lead of the army of the Potomac in 1864, when his brigade was put under Sheridan and took part in the great cavalry raid round the rear of Lee's army, in which General Stuart, Lee's right hand cavalry leader, was killed.

Riding in the advance, Custer led his men to within four miles of Richmond, where he made a spirited. dash upon and captured the outer works, taking one hundred prisoners. But the second line was too strong to be taken by cavalry, and having no infantry support he was obliged to withdraw, after a sharp fight with the garrison. There was more fighting before the vicinity of Richmond was left, and Sheridan returned to Grant's army by way of the White House and the Pamunky. In Sheridan's second raid, a month later, the fighting

at points was severe, and in one of the brushes with the enemy Custer's color bearer was shot. He saved the flag by tearing it from the pole and thrusting it under his coat while he continued his sabre-play on the enemy.

When Sheridan was sent to the Shenandoah Valley to oppose Early, Custer and his cavalry brigade went with him and formed part of the powerful body of horsemen who aided so greatly in his success. This was especially the case on September 19, when Custer was in the crushing cavalry charge that determined Sheridan's victory and sent Early and his men "whirling through Winchester."

During Early's retreat down the valley he sent his cavalry, under Rosser, to hang upon Sheridan's rear and annoy him in his pursuit. Wearying of this, Sheridan let loose his cavalry upon Rosser and a fierce fight followed at Woodstock, in which Custer and Wesley Merritt took a prominent part. The sabre, Custer's favorite weapon, was chiefly used, and in a short time the Confederate cavalry broke and fled, leaving their guns, their wagons, and three hundred prisoners behind. Up the valley rode the fugitives, hotly pursued, the chase not ending until they had been driven twenty-six miles. Then Custer and his gallant men drew rein and rode leisurely and gaily back.

But the most efficient work of the cavalry in the valley campaign was on October 19, during the notable fight at Cedar Creek, where, during Sheridan's absence from the army, Early made a night attack, surprised the sleeping troops, made a hot assault, and drove them back in utter dismay and with a heavy loss in prisoners, guns and equipage.

In this critical state of affairs Custer and Merritt

rendered the noblest service. While the Confederates, exhausted by sixteen hours of marching and fighting, stopped to rest and eat, and the broken lines made some effort to reform their ranks, these knights of the saddle, at the head of six or seven thousand gallant horsemen, rode into the open space between the two armies and served as a shield to the regiments forming behind them. When the Confederates again advanced, twenty thousand strong, they found their progress checked by these few thousands of mounted men, with a number of pieces of artillery. Charge after charge was made upon them, but they held firm, and were still acting as a stone wall of defence when Sheridan came riding up at headlong speed from Winchester and called his men to face the other way and win back the camp and cannon they had lost. Everyone is familiar with what followed, how defeat was turned into victory, and Early lost far more than he had gained. The cavalry took a leading part in the pursuit and helped to end Early's career in the valley. Custer's share in these operations brought him the brevet rank of major-general of volunteers.

In early March, 1865, came the event that ended Early's career in the valley and as a leader in the war. On February 25 Sheridan set out from Winchester at the head of a powerful cavalry force, ten thousand strong, led by Merritt and Custer. They rode rapidly up the valley, drove back Rosser, who tried to prevent their crossing the Shenandoah, and pushed on, Custer in the advance, for Rockfish Gap. At Waynesboro Early awaited them with twenty-five hundred men, strongly intrenched. He had boasted that he would never permit Sheridan to pass through the Gap.

Custer lost no time. He fell upon Early with his