IN THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES

by the late Brig. General R. L. T. Beale

RICHMOND, VA

F. JOHNSON PUBLISHING COMPANY

1899.

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PREFACE.

Now sea-girt Sumter's pealing guns proclaim

The angry strife of words to bloody blows

Has come! Through vale, o'er hill, their echoes ring.

And lo! from drowsy couch of gentle peace

Great States leap forth full armed. And the red flag

Of cruel war by stalwart arms is borne

From the green hills, laved by crystal lakes

To Rio Grande's tepid flow.

No people ever marched with a stride more rapid to empire and greatness than have the English colonies of North America. For achievements in science and art, if not superior, they are at least equal, to the older nations of Europe; yet no page in the history of this people will prove more attractive to those who follow us than that which records the scenes of the unhappy war which raged from April, 1861, to April, 1865. An active participant in that memorable struggle, and connected with a regiment which was attached to the army under command of General R. E. Lee during its entire history, the author of the following narrative has undertaken, with the aid of notes taken while the events were occurring, to record the part that regiment bore in the contest for Southern independence and Constitutional liberty. 

R. L. T. Beale  1865

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

The following narrative of the operations of the Ninth Virginia Cavalry during the Civil War was written by the late Brigadier-General R. L. T. Beale, their old commander, in 1865. It was found among his papers at his death, on April 17, 1893, written upon the consecutive pages of a thin blank-book. It has been carefully copied, and arranged in chapters with headings to indicate their contents. As full and accurate a roster of the regiment as it has been possible to obtain has been added. It has been possible to secure only a very imperfect list of the casualties. If this record of the regiment had been commensurate with the admiration and affection in which the author held its officers and men, it would have been far more extended than It is. Comparatively few of the veterans whose names appear on these pages now survive. The narrative will, however, interest their children, and, perhaps, many others who cherish the record of Southern devotion and valor, as displayed by the daring horsemen who wielded the sabre and followed the plumes of Stuart, Hampton, and the Lees.

G. W. B.

HEATHSVILLE, VA., February, 1899.