to make a mounted charge, while the other
regiments were under orders to deploy dismounted, in case the attack
which was looked for should be made. The officers of the First could be
heard encouraging and instructing their men, keeping them alert and
prepared for battle.

From the time of the organization of the Michigan brigade, the First
regiment had been designated as distinctively a saber regiment, the
Fifth and Sixth for fighting on foot, as they were armed with Spencer
rifles, and the result was that with them, dismounting to fight when in
contact with the enemy in the early part of their terms of service
became a sort of second nature. The First had a year's experience with
the cavalry before the others went out, and it was in a saber charge at
the Second Bull Run battle that Brodhead its first colonel was killed.
The First Vermont, like the First Michigan, was a saber regiment and
went out in 1861. When this regiment was attached to the brigade, Custer
had three saber regiments, and it fell to the lot of the Fifth and Sixth
Michigan to be selected more often than the others, perhaps, for
dismounted duty. It often happened, however, that the entire brigade
fought dismounted at the same time; and sometimes, though not often, all
would charge together mounted. Owing to the nature of the country, most
of the fighting in Grant's campaign from the Wilderness to the James was
done on foot. In the Shenandoah valley campaign in the latter part of
the year 1864, the reverse was the case and at the battles of Tom's
Brook, Winchester and Cedar Creek the troopers in the command for the
most part kept to the saddle throughout the engagements.

When Custer wanted to put a single regiment into a mounted charge he
generally selected the First Michigan, because it was not only older and
more experienced but had many officers who possessed both great personal
daring and the rare ability to handle men in action, keeping them well
together so as to support each other and accomplish results. This
regiment was not excelled by any other in the army for that purpose. The
Seventh was an under study for the First. The Fifth and Sixth worked
well together on the skirmish line or dismounted line of battle and had
no superiors in this kind of work. That they were pretty reliable when
called upon mounted also, is shown by the conduct of the Sixth in the
Wilderness and of the Fifth at Trevillian Station. It is only necessary
to mention the g