ties, conducted them through the lines of his regiment to General Custer. Custer transmitted the request to General Sheridan, and suspended the charge until he could get assurances from an officer in authority on the other side that the proposal was genuine. For this purpose Colonel Whittaker, of his staff, and Colonel Briggs accompanied the truce-bearers back into the rebel lines, and the desire for an armistice being attested by Generals Longstreet and Gordon, hostilities ceased. The whole world knows the rest.

April 10th found the cavalry on the march for Petersburg, on the way to join Sherman in North Carolina; but having proceeded as far as South Boston, on the Dan River, which was reached on the 28th of April, the news of Johnston's surrender was there received, and the columns were turned toward Washington, whither a march was made to participate in the Grand Review.

Thus ended the career of the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac, which for service performed was unsurpassed by any other corps in the army. It captured in prisoners many times its own numbers, and wrested enough artillery from the enemy to have supplied the whole Army of the Potomac. The value of the trains, stores and supplies captured and destroyed by it is incalculable, and the damage inflicted upon the enemy in other ways is a tale that is told in Virginia to this day.

APRIL 4, 1900.

THE REGULAR BRIGADE OF THE ARMY OF THE

CUMBERLAND.

BY LEWIS M. HOSEA,

Captain Sixteenth U. S. Infantry (resigned); Brevet Major U. S. A.

[After beginning the preparation of this paper, I requested the use of data collected by Brevet Major William R. Lowe, Nineteenth U. S. Infantry. This he cordially gave, in the form of a narrative of which free use has been made. As our labors in this regard covered largely the same ground, it is but just to him to regard this paper as in a sense a joint production.]

INTRODUCTORY.

Among the first acts of legislation passed by Congress at the breaking out of the War of the Rebellion, in 1861, was one adding to the Regular Army nine or ten new regiments of infantry, having three battalions of eight companies each. The Colonels, Lieutenant Colonels and some of the Majors were taken from the old army; but the line officers were appointed from civil life.

These regiments were enlisted from the same material and were infused with the same spirit as the State regiments, and were, in fact, "volunteers," like all the rest. The Fifteenth Infantry was organized at Newport Barracks, opposite Cincinnati; the Sixteenth at Chicago; the Eighteenth chiefly at Columbus, Ohio, and the Nineteenth at Indianapolis.

They received no attention, however, from the States or other local authorities; and, according to the traditional custom of the "regulars" of that day, the official reports of the

commanding officers, as the war progressed, are as colorless and exact, within narrow limits, as photographs. It is not surprising, therefore, that their record of splendid service to the country has largely escaped attention and remained

unwritten.

This paper is necessarily brief and confined to facts of a general nature only; yet every important statement is based upon contemporary reports and official documents.

The "regulars" in the great central army of the Union, known as the "Army of the Cumberland" during the Civil War, never numbered more than twenty-five hundred men previous to December, 1862, at which time they were organized into the "Regular Brigade"- one battalion, each, of the Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Nineteenth U. S. Infantry, and Battery H of the Fifth Artillery, associated with the First Ohio, Fifth Kentucky and Sixth Indiana Volunteers, constituting Rousseau's Brigade of McCook's Division, Buell's Army.

Our volunteer neighbors used to make much sport of us during our stay at Green River, opposite Munfordville, Ky., (from December, 1861, to February, 1862,) because we were continually drilled, no matter how inclement the weather. Old Major Carpenter, commanding the Nineteenth Infantry, gave the cue when he said we would undoubtedly have to march and fight during bad weather, and therefore might as well prepare for it by drilling.

Officers were instructed in tactics and army regulations like school boys - and indeed many of us were so, and at that time knew scarcely the A B C's of warfare. Some, however, were men of many years' army experience, who were

untiring and almost tyrannical in their efforts to make soldiers of us. Our enlisted men were about as good, and certainly no better, than the average volunteer; but here and there was one who had seen service in garrison or on the "plains before the Civil War, and, like the "little leaven that leavened the whole lump," their example was a most valuable factor. Some of these men afterwards became efficient officers.

Among the leaders of this early period were Majors John H. King, of the Fifteenth; Adam Slemmer, of the Sixteenth (of Fort Pickens fame); Stephen D. Carpenter, of the Nineteenth; Captains W. R. Terrill, Fifth Artillery; Peter T. Swaine, Fifteenth Infantry; Edwin F. Townsend and R. E. A. Crofton, Sixteenth Infantry; and Lieutenant F. L. Guenther, of the Fifth Artillery — all officers of previous training and experience, under whom the regular soldiers developed a sterner quality than their comrades of the volunteers. If this assertion be questioned, let the record speak, for it will prove that the "regulars" of the "Army of the Cumberland" were never repulsed in an attack they were ordered to make, and were never driven from a position they were ordered to hold. Their dash and persistence in attack were especially demonstrated at Shiloh, at Hoover's Gap, at Missionary Ridge, and at Jonesboro; while their steadiness, courage and tenacity in defense were equally proved at Stone River and at Chickamauga by the appalling figures of casualties, that show hard and desperate fighting.

THE BATTLE OF SHILOH.

Footsore and weary, Rousseau's brigade arrived at Savannah, on the Tennessee River, below Pittsburgh Landing, late

in the afternoon of April 6, 1862. From early morning on the march, we had heard the booming of cannon off to the southwest as we hurried in that direction. Rumor said the gunboats were shelling the woods; but by noon information reached us that our comrades of the Army of the Tennessee, encamped at Pittsburgh Landing, had that morning been attacked and driven back by an overwhelming force of the enemy, and that the help we were hastening to render was sorely needed. Each hour the roar of the battle grew more distinct; our pace was quickened; the ranks were closed up; the usual chaffing and jokes of the march ceased; and every one was seriously and earnestly animated by one overwhelming desire to reach the battlefield before it might be too late.

At Savannah we were compelled, perforce, to wait for steamboats to take us to the battlefield, some miles above; embarking shortly after dark, by midnight our boats were tied up at Pittsburgh Landing. The masters of the boats, anxious perhaps to get back to a place of safety, insisted that we should disembark at once, but our officers refused, saying that, "as we had marched all day, we would be in better condition to fight to-morrow after a good night's rest under shelter, than if we stood out all night in the rain and mud.” So, at early daylight, we marched up the bank of the river to the strains of "Benny Havens, Oh!" from the splendid band of the Fifteenth Infantry, stationed at the top, and playing with all the spirit of a Newport Barracks afternoon concert. As we were disembarking an excited officer dashed up and cried out: "Stop that damn noise; it will draw the fire of the enemy!" Old Major Carpenter directed the band to