ecognized status as professional soldiers and find
its way into their official reports. Indeed, a very high authority as
good as told the writer in the war records office in Washington that no
man's memory is as good as the published record, or entitled to any
weight at all when not in entire harmony therewith.

It is evident that this rule, though perhaps a proper and necessary
one, to protect the literature of the war against imposition and fraud,
may very easily bar out much that is valuable and well worth writing, if
not indispensable to a fair and complete record, provided it can in some
way be accredited and invested with the stamp of truth.

It was quite possible for brigade and even regimental commanders, not to
draw the line finer still, to have experiences on the battle field of
which their immediate superiors were not cognizant; nor is it necessary
to beg the question by arguing that all commanding officers were allowed
to exercise a discretion of their own within certain limits.

Official reports were oftentimes but hastily and imperfectly sketched
amidst the hurry and bustle of breaking camp; or on the eve of battle,
when the mind might be occupied with other things of immediate and
pressing importance. Sometimes they were prepared long afterwards, when
it was as difficult to recall the exact sequence and order of events as
it would be after the lapse of years. Some of the "youngsters" of those
days failed to realize the value their reports would have in after years
as the basis for making history. Others were so unfortunate as to have
them "lost in transit" so that, although they were duly and truly
prepared and forwarded through the official channels, they never found
their way into the printed record.

Attention already has been called to the absence of reports of the
commanders of the Michigan cavalry brigade regiments for the Gettysburg
campaign. General George B. Davis, U.S. army, when in charge of the war
records office in Washington, told the writer that he had noticed this
want and wondered at it. He could not account for it. A like misfortune
befell the same regiments when they participated in the Kilpatrick raid.
Only a part of their reports covering the campaign of 1864, including
the Trevilian raid, were published. In this respect the Sixth Michigan
suffered more than either of the others. Not a single report of the
operations of that regiment for that period, appears in the record,
though t