Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 03.djvu/147

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
Maryland Troops in the Confederate Service.
137

by three other companies. They served throughout the war with great honor, and after cutting their way through the Federal lines at Appomattox, finally disbanded about the 28th of April, 1865.

The following letter from Brigadier-General Munford explains itself:

Cloverdale, Botetourt County, Virginia,

April 28th, 1865.

Lieutenant-Colonel Dorsey,
Commanding First Maryland Cavalry:

I have just learned from Captain Emack that your gallant band was moving up the Valley in response to my call. I am deeply pained to say that our army cannot be reached, as I have learned that it has capitulated. It is sad, indeed, to think that our country's future is all shrouded in gloom. But for you and your command there is the consolation of having faithfully done your duty.

Three years ago the chivalric Brown joined my old regiment with twenty-three Maryland volunteers, with light hearts and full of fight. I soon learned to admire, respect and love them for all those qualities which endear soldiers to their officers. They recruited rapidly, and as they increased in numbers, so did their reputation and friends increase, and they were soon able to form a command and take a position of their own. Need I say, when I see that position so high and almost alone among soldiers, that my heart swells with pride to think that a record so bright and glorious is in some part linked with mine? Would that I could see the mothers and sisters of every member of your battalion, that I might tell them how nobly you have represented your State and maintained our cause. But you will not be forgotten; the fame you have won will be guarded by Virginia with all the pride she feels in her own true sons, and the ties which have linked us together memory will preserve. You who struck the first blow in Baltimore, and the last in Virginia, have done all that could be asked of you, and had the rest of our officers and men adhered to our cause with the same devotion, to-day we would be free from Yankee thraldom. I have ordered the brigade to return to their homes, and it behooves us now to separate. With my warmest wishes for your welfare, and a hearty God bless you, I bid you farewell.

Thomas T. Munford,

Brigadier-General commanding Division.

SECOND MARYLAND CAVALRY.

The Second Maryland cavalry was organized in the spring of 1863, under command of Major Harry Gilmore, with three companies, three more joining before the close of the war—making a total of six companies.