of General J. E. B. Stuart. 237
Dorsey was never mentioned by any of those would-be historical writers.
Though "Gus" Dorsey, like his comrade, the famous "Jim" Breathed, is little known to the Confederate societies of Maryland, both are most favorably known to that ideal soldier and gentleman, without an if or a but Brigadier-General Thomas T. Munford as they were to Colonel William A. Morgan and other gallant Virgin- ians, who, like themselves, were at the front to the end. In Mohun, "by Lieutenant-Colonel J. Esten Cooke, there is a picture of Captain Dorsey catching General Stuart when wounded, only Captain Dor- sey was not mounted; he was fighting Company K dismounted.
In the Campaigns of Stuart' s Cavalry, by Major H. B. McClel- lan, Stuart's chief of staff, there is the account of the wounding of General Stuart that was sent to Mrs. Stuart shortly after the Gen- eral's death, and which was published by her authority in Volume XVII, Southern Historical Society Papers. In this account there is much mention of Captain Dorsey. McClellan's book A History of General " Jeb" Stuart from Birth to Death is one of the most ac- curate works of the Civil war, and should be in the hands of every cavalryman.
Having stated the above facts for the benefit of historical writers, I will now give an account of that great calamity to the South, the mortal wounding of General Stuart, in the terse, soldier words of Col- onel (then Captain of Company K, First Virginia Cavalry) " Gus" W. Dorsey, as taken from a letter written to me on April 21, 1902, and as printed in the Staunton Spectator :
"I was stationed on the Telegraph road with my company, K, numbering about seventy men, and the first I knew about our troops being whipped and driven back on the left was when General Stuart came down to my position, with a view of ordering me back; and just as he rode up to the company the Yankees charged. He halted a moment and encouraged the men with the words: 'Bully for old K ! Give it to them, boys !' and just as K had repulsed the Yan- kees he was shot through the stomach. He reeled on his horse and said: 'I am shot,' and then, ' Dorsey, save your men.' I caught him and took him from his horse. He insisted I should leave him and save my men. I told him we would take him with us; and, calling Corporal Robert Bruce and Private Charles Wheatley, we sent him to the rear. No other troops were near General Stuart when he was shot that I saw."
