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  MY SERVICE IN THE U. S.
   CAVALRY

  A PAPER READ BEFORE
  THE OHIO COMMANDERY OF THE LOYAL LEGION
  MARCH 4, 1908


  BY
  FREDERICK W. BROWNE, SECOND LIEUT.
  1ST U. S.  CAVALRY




  Paper
  of
  Frederick W. Browne,
  Second Lieut. 1st U. S.  Cavalry
  of
  Cincinnati, Ohio,

  Read before The Ohio Commandery
  of The Loyal Legion,

  March 4, 1908.




MY SERVICE IN THE U. S.  CAVALRY


Having served over two years in a good, hard-fighting infantry regiment,
and being encamped at Newport News, Va., holding the dignified rank of
Sergeant, I one day met our little fighting Major John G. Chambers who
asked me if I would like a commission in the 1st U. S.  Cavalry,
then forming at Fort Monroe, to which I made answer that I would, and two
or three days thereafter I received an order, mustering me out of the
service and also an order to report to Colonel Garrard for duty as an
officer of the new regiment. Early the next morning, going down to the
wharf to embark for Ft. Monroe, I showed to the sentry on the wharf (as my
authority for leaving) the order mustering me out. He looked it over and
said in a home-sick way, "I would give $800 for that paper." I reported to
Colonel Garrard, and for the first time saw this officer with whose
reputation as a brave and efficient Major of the 3d N. Y. Cavalry I had
been well acquainted in the Department of North Carolina. This regiment,
being the first  cavalry regiment, had in its ranks a rather better
class of men than the infantry regiments had; some being from the North
and some being the outlaw <DW64>s who, in slavery times, had been able to
maintain their liberty in the swamps of Eastern Virginia and North
Carolina. The regiment was officered largely from the 3d N. Y. Cavalry,
and they were a thoroughly efficient and capable corps of officers. The
regiment was soon filled, mounted and equipped, and constant drill soon
made it have the manner and bearing of soldiers. Every one knew that the
Campaign of 1864 meant business, and therefore all was in readiness when
about May 1st orders came to move. We marched out through Hampton, of
which not one house was left except the little old stone church which is
still standing there. Through Big Bethel, the scene of one of the earliest
disasters of the war, to Yorktown, memorable for its two sieges in two
wars, and thence on to Williamsburg, passing between Yorktown and
Williamsburg our infantry who, much to our surprise were marching very
hurriedly back to Yorktown. We learned afterward they were put on board
transports at Yorktown and sent up the James to City Point and Bermuda
Hundred. The next day we went up the Peninsula, passing 6 and 12 Mile and
burnt ordinarys, camping at night at New Kent Court House. I commanded the
picket that night on the Bottoms Bridge Road and the enemy's scouts were
against us all night, keeping matters well stirred up. The next morning we
turned South and met the enemy at Jones Ford on the Chickahominy. They
were in an earthwork across the Ford and we opened on them with our
howitzers in front and deployed as to cross in front, but a force was sent
to the right up stream who managed to cross, and, coming down on the
opposite side of the river, took the enemy in flank and soon drove them
away from the ford. Killing some and capturing some of the enemy, and
having some killed and wounded, our movement having been a feint to make
the enemy believe that Butler's Army of the James, as it was afterward
called, was moving up the Peninsula, having been accomplished, we returned
to Williamsburg, arriving there the next day, where, to our astonishment,
we met an order to go back at once and cross the Chickahominy at Jones
Ford, sometimes called Jones Bridge, and proceed to Harrison's Landing,
which we at once did, again fighting our way across at Jones Ford.
Steamers were lying at the wharf in front of the old Westover mansion,
and, going on board, we were soon thereafter landed at Bermuda Hundred and
passing out took the advance of Butler's Army, being at the time the only
cavalry he had. The first day out we came to the Richmond and Petersburg
turnpike and turning to the right on said pike started "on to Richmond,"
but as the road approached Drewry's Bluff we were fired on by both
infantry and artillery and forced back with loss. Halting and feeding at
the Howlett House, a fine mansion on a high bluff overlooking the James,
where the Confederates afterward erected a strong battery to hold back our
Navy from ascending the river. In the afternoon we started out again on
the same road with orders to break the Richmond & Petersburg R. R., which
ran parallel with the pike; beyond the pike, when we crossed, we left
three companies to guard and hold the crossing which was in a low swamp
and heavily wooded ground. The remainder of the force passed through the
swamp up a steep hill, and when we were fairly on top of the hill there
came a crashing volley of musketry down behind us at the crossing, and
looking down to the pike we saw the fragments of those three companies
drift down the pike toward Petersburg like dry leaves before an autumn
gale. A brigade of Confederate infantry was concealed in that swamp, who,
letting us pass, thinking they had us cut off and securely bagged, had
then simply risen and fired a volley at close range into these three
companies. This volley killed Lieutenant Mains and killed and wounded a
good many of the men. When we heard the volley, Lieutenant Vandervoort,
commanding the howitzers, tore down the fence, running his guns out into
an open field on the brow of the hill, opened fire on the confederate
infantry: but the Colonel did not think our position was just what he
desired, as we now had the confederate infantry behind us and we knew the
confederate cavalry was guarding the R. R. in front of us. These we went
out expecting to fight but were not reckoning on the infantry, so we
started on toward the R. R., seeking another road to return to our own
lines and soon found one into which we turned at a gallop. Just as we did
so the Confederate Cavalry, whose curiosity had been excited by the
firing, and had come down the road to meet us, poured a volley into us,
the bullets rattling on the wooden fence at the turn of the road like
hail. This did not <DW44> our speed and we came back into our infantry
lines in such a cloud of dust that they sprang into line to meet us. The
next morning we again struck the Richmond and Petersburg Pike and turned
toward Richmond, this time with the infantry behind us, and we soon struck
the enemy's infantry near where they had fired on the three companies the
day before and we soon turned over the task to our infantry. We lined up
along the side of the pike with our horses' tails in the bushes and the
infantry and artillery defiled past us, going from our left to our right
into action. Among the infantry was the 6th Connecticut, armed entirely
with Spencer rifles. Just beyond the right of our regiment the pike
crossed a low ridge or swell of ground, and on this ridge in the pike our
people planted a couple of 20 pounder Parrott guns and opened with them on
the enemy. This fire the enemy's artillery quickly returned, and I was
sitting on my horse lazily watching our men work the pieces and the
constantly recurring puffs of white smoke as the confederate shells burst
over their heads when suddenly I noticed a commotion among the gunners who
came running back down the pike with their rammers and swabs in their
hands, and the teams with the caissons and limbers came back on the run
and immediately the confederate infantry swarmed over the guns. I was no
longer sleepy. It looked as if the cavalry was going to have a chance to
win more glory, but our infantry was too quick, and with a counter charge
they at once retook the guns. The gunners and the teams ran back, and
immediately the guns were again jumping like mad creatures under the
recoil of their discharge. Of the battle beyond this ridge I could see
nothing, but the firing was heavy and at once there came from the front,
defiling past us to the rear, a ghastly procession of men wounded in
every way in which men could be wounded and still retain the power of
locomotion. Among them was a stout, hearty sergeant of this 6th
Connecticut regiment limping to the rear, using two muskets as crutches.
The calf of his right leg had been struck by a solid shot or unexploded
shell. Though no bones had been broken, there was nothing left of the calf
but bloody strings of flesh and trouser leg. But we were getting too near
Richmond, and during the next day or two the enemy in our front was very
heavily reinforced and outflanking our right Heckman's Brigade,
impetuously attacked at the earliest dawn along the whole front. Heckman's
Brigade was veteran troops who had heretofore had only victories and it
fought with stubborn temper, but the confederates finally advanced with
such a rush that they ran over Heckman's Brigade and left it, the dead and
wounded and living in the rear of the confederate line of battle, not even
stopping to place guards in charge; and a good many of our men, finding
they were not restrained, passed down to the left, around the left of the
confederate line and got back once more into our own lines, thus missing
the pleasures of Andersonville.

The battle raged all day and only ceased with darkness. During the night
Butler decided to withdraw his army within his fortified lines at Bermuda
Hundred. Our cavalry picket line was ordered to hold its place only until
the enemy advanced and then fall back also, within the fortified lines.
Personally I was in command of that part of the line at Weirs Bottom
Church where we had a howitzer. The infantry retired during the night, and
in the morning we were unsupported except for the fortified lines about 3
or 4 miles in our rear. We had the howitzer loaded with shell and aimed at
the road where it crossed the low hill back of the Howlett House, but the
enemy were in no hurry to close in, and it was about 3 o'clock P. M. when,
looking at this point in the road where our howitzer was aimed, I saw 8 or
10 confederate cavalry slowly and watchfully advancing. They were just
where the howitzer was aimed and we fired on them at once, but they jumped
their horses to the right and left out of the road like cats, and when the
shell got there, there was nothing but the road for it to hit. They
scattered to the right and left across the fields and carefully inspected
our position but did nothing further on that part of the line.

I had been in the saddle night and day and was thoroughly worn out and was
more than half sick with malarial fever, and so after dark, holding my
horse's reins in my hands, I sat down at the road side with my back to
the trunk of a tree, never dreaming of going to sleep, but alas, the next
thing I knew I heard the Captain of my Company, who had commanded the line
a little to the left, give the command, "Fours right, gallop, march," and
away they all went in the darkness, leaving me alone in the woods. Be sure
I was on my feet trying to gather a few of my scattered senses, when
suddenly I heard a horse whining in the darkness, out a short distance in
the woods, and rushing headlong in the direction of the sound, ran bodily
against my horse who was quietly browsing on the young leaves. Mounting at
once and spurring out into the road, started on the gallop down the road
after the company; but soon coming to where the road forked, and not
knowing where any of the roads led, as we were retiring on a different
road from the one we went out on, I checked the horse to a walk and let
him have his head and