The Maine bugle ... campaign; 1-5 Jan. 1894-Oct. 1898 - Maine.gov

With Sheridan in Lee's Last Campaign.
( Contimied.)
At the head of a most magnificent command of cavalry and
possessing the entire confidence of every man who followed,
General Sheridan rode out from his camp on the morning of the
29th of March, 1865, bound for Dinwiddie Court House, on the
Boydton Plank Road, and bound to crush the rebellion, so far
as one man by precept and example could effect that desired
consummation. He was under the immediate orders of Lieu-
tenant-General Grant, and commanded the cavalry as a separate
army, as General Meade commanded the Army of the Potomac
and General Ord the Army of the James. His subordinate
commanders were General Merritt, commanding the first and
third cavalry divisions from the Shenandoah Valley—General
Devin commanding the former, and General Custer the latter
and General Crook, commanding the second division (Gregg's
old). In the first division the brigades were commanded by
General Gibbs, Colonel Stagg, and Colonel Fitzhugh ; in the
second division, by Generals Davies, Irvine Gregg, and Smith
and in the third division, by Colonels Pennington, Wells, and
Capehart.
General Sheridan had been ordered to get out toward
Dinwiddie Court House, and the enemy's left and rear, as best
he could. General Grant wrote: "Move your cavalry at as
early an hour as you can, and without being confined to any
particular road or roads." The avowed object of the movement
of the armies was to get the enemy out of his intrenched
works, where he could be attacked with some chance of success.
If the enemy should come out. General Sheridan was to "go in,"
and was assured that he would be properly supported; if the
enemy should not come out, the general was to go on a raid,
and cry havoc along the enemy's Southside and Danville Rail-