agement. In crossing from the Pamunkey to the
James, Sheridan was charged with the duty of escorting a train of 900
wagons from the White House to Douthat's Landing on the James. General
Gregg was entrusted with the responsibility of protecting the right
flank, which placed him in the post of danger, and the brunt of the
fighting as well as the greater part of the honors of the movement fell
to his share. Indeed, General Sheridan in his official report, written
in New Orleans a year after the war closed, gave Gregg credit for saving
the train.

The time from July 2, when we returned to Lighthouse Point on the James
river, to July 26 was quiet and uneventful. Many hundred convalescent
wounded and sick men returned from hospital to duty; many also who had
been dismounted by the exigencies of the campaign returned from
dismounted camps. A fine lot of new horses were received. During the
month the condition of the animals was very much improved, good care and
a plentiful supply of forage contributing to the result. The duty
performed was to picket the left flank of the army, the Michigan
regiments connecting with Crawford's division of the Fifth corps.

The story of the participation of the cavalry with the Second corps in
the movement to the north side of the James, which began on the forenoon
of July 26, has been so fully and so well told by General Sheridan in
his reports and in his memoirs that nothing is left to be added. In fact
there is little, if anything, in the part taken by any portion of the
force taken across by Sheridan and Hancock to differentiate it from that
played by the whole. The object of the movement was to draw the enemy's
attention away from the lines around Petersburg preparatory for the
explosion of the mine which was to take place on the 30th. In this it
was successful. General Lee mistook the attack on his left for real
instead of a feint, and detached enough troops to meet it to not only
assure the success of the attack on Petersburg, if it had been made with
determination, but to seriously menace the safety of the two corps
engaged in the movement. General Sheridan truthfully says that, "The
movement to the north side of the James for the accomplishment of our
part of the plan connected with the mine explosion, was well executed,
and every point made; but it was attended with such anxiety and
sleeplessness as to prostrate almost every officer and man in the
command."

This was the last incid