Custer by Edward G. Longacre

Author:Edward G. Longacre
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781510733206
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2018-06-11T16:00:00+00:00

Given the general misunderstanding of the enemy’s positions, it must have come as a shock to Custer, as to thousands of his comrades, when Buford’s column splashed across Beverly Ford at about 4:30 on the foggy morning of June 9 and, after snatching up the nearest pickets, found itself confronting hundreds of Rebels within two miles of the river. An equally unpleasant surprise was the crossing of Duffié and Gregg downriver at Kelly’s Ford. The operation fell hours behind schedule, the result of the incompetence or treachery of a guide who shunted Duffié’s division onto the wrong road. Forced to countermarch, Duffié crossed too late to lend maximum support to Buford. While he wandered astray, Gregg’s men in the rear sat idle in their saddles.15

Unaware of the breakdown in operations, Buford’s vanguard headed inland toward the camps of Brigadier General William E. Jones’s “Laurel Brigade.” Near the head of the blue column rode Grimes Davis and, somewhere farther back, the action-hungry Lieutenant Custer, accompanied by his faithful orderly. In violation of his stated pledge to keep his most valuable horse out of combat, he was riding a captured stallion. He supposed that the former mount of a Confederate officer was accustomed to dodging bullets, but the truth would come as a rude shock to its rider.

Davis’s brigade was heading for a clearing beside an Episcopal chapel, St. James Church, where Stuart’s horse artillery was parked, apparently ripe for the talking. Just before he struck the nearest Confederates the feisty colonel was heard to shout to those following him: “Stand ready, men, and begin firing as soon as you see anything!” Taken by surprise, cut off from their horses, dozens of Jones’s Virginians were forced to surrender. As they were herded toward the river in the dissipating fog, comrades farther from the scene of action vaulted into the saddle and charged the invaders, arms at the ready.16

The opposing bodies collided with a bone-shattering crunch. As the combatants sorted themselves out, pistol and saber duels broke out in the fields around St. James Church. Not every combatant fought in the saddle; members of Davis’s 8th New York, who were sent in as dismounted skirmishers, fell prey to counterattacking Confederates who rode over them, scrambling their ranks and promoting a wild rush to the rear. Hoping to stem the tide, Davis, a master swordsman, singled out a Confederate officer whose head he nearly took off with a powerful swipe. Barely duckling the blow, the Rebel bobbed up and fired a pistol ball into the colonel’s skull.17

Supposedly, Custer was close enough to the scene to see Davis topple, mortally wounded, from his saddle. Carried to the rear on a blanket, the old regular would succumb to his wound some eight hours later. According to Fought’s account of the battle, Custer brought word of Davis’s fall to the nearest body of Federals, the gunners of Robertson’s battery; presumably, many were shocked by the news. Fought’s claim, however, appears to lack credibility. At this point Robertson’s

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