ere in time to overtake the enemy, so he
spared neither man nor beast. The road was soft and miry, and the horses
sank almost to their knees in the sticky mud. For this reason the column
straggled, and it was not possible to keep a single troop closed up in
sets of fours. At such a rapid rate the column plunged through the muddy
roads, Weber and his little force leading.

On nearing Falling Waters, the column turned to the right through a
wood, which skirted a large cultivated field. To the right and front,
beyond the field, was a high hill or knoll on which an earthwork had
been thrown up. Behind the earthwork a considerable force of confederate
infantry was seen in bivouac, evidently taking a rest, with arms
stacked. As a matter of fact, for it will be as well to know what was
there, though the general in command made very little note of it at the
time, there were two brigades--an entire division--commanded by General
Pettigrew, one of the men who participated in Pickett's charge at
Gettysburg.

On sighting this force, Custer ordered Weber to dismount his men,
advance a line of skirmishers toward the hill and ascertain what he had
to encounter. Kilpatrick however ordered Weber to remount and charge the
hill. At that time no other portion of the regiment had arrived so as to
support the charge.

Weber, knowing no law for a soldier except implicit obedience to orders,
first saw his men well closed up, then placed himself at their head and
giving the order "Forward," emerged from the woods into the open field,
took the trot until near the top of the slope, close to the earthworks,
and then with a shout the little band of less than a hundred men charged
right into the midst of ten times their number of veteran troops. The
first onset surprised and astonished the enemy, who had mistaken Weber's
force for a squadron of their own cavalry. The audacity of the thing
dazed them for a minute, and for a minute only.

Weber, cutting right and left with his saber, and cheering on his men,
pierced the first line, but there could be but one result. Recovering
from their surprise, the confederate infantry rallied, and seizing their
arms, made short work of their daring assailants. In a few minutes, of
the three officers in the charge, two--Weber and Bolza--lay dead on the
field, and the other--Crawford--had his leg shattered so it had to be
amputated.

The two brave troops were more than decimated, though a considerable
number s