allantry of the Seventh at Hanovertown and at Yellow
Tavern to demonstrate that it was an apt pupil of the First. All the
officers and all the men of the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh took off their
hats and gracefully yielded the palm to the First. It is doubtful if
there was another regiment in the federal cavalry service which
contained so many officers highly marked for their fearless intrepidity
in action. The circumstance of their talking to their men before an
expected engagement was characteristic. They were always ready to face
the peril and lead their men.

Later in the evening, away to the left where the infantry was going into
bivouac a union band began to play a patriotic air. This was the signal
for loud and prolonged cheering. Then a confederate band opposite
responded with one of their southern tunes and the soldiers on that side
cheered. Successively, from left to right and from right to left this
was taken up, music and cheering alternating between federals and
confederates, the sounds receding and growing fainter and fainter as the
distance increased until they died away entirely. It was a most
remarkable and impressive demonstration under the circumstances and
lingered long in the memory of those who heard it.

Though the fighting on the 5th, 6th and 7th had been for the most part
favorable to the union troopers, it was disjointed and, therefore,
neither decisive nor as effective as it might have been. Sheridan
believed that the cavalry corps should operate as a compact
organization, a distinct entity, an integral constituent of the army,
the same as the other corps. He looked upon his relation to the general
in command as being precisely the same as that of Hancock, Sedgwick or
Warren, and insisted that orders to the cavalry should be given through
the cavalry corps commander just as orders to the Second corps were
given through General Hancock. He could not bring himself to consent to
be a mere staff officer dangling at the heels of General Meade, but
conceived himself to be an actual commander, not in name only but in
fact.

Proceeding on this theory he issued orders to the various division
commanders to move at daylight on the morning of May 8, and cooperate
with each other under his personal direction in a plan which he had
devised to seize Spottsylvania Courthouse in advance of Lee's infantry.
They were to advance on converging roads in such a manner as to arrive
successively but to support each