it was found that these
were surface indications, and that there were inherent in him a strength
of character and a robust manliness that only awaited the opportunity to
assert themselves.

He was appointed sergeant but, at first, manifested so little aptitude
for the work, that it was feared he would never become proficient in his
duties, or acquire a sufficient familiarity with tactics to drill a
squad. No one could have been more willing, obedient, or anxious to
learn. He was a plodder who worked his way along by sheer force of will
and innate self-reliance, and governed in all that he did by a high
sense of duty. He never attained first rank as a sergeant while in
camp, but in the field, he sprang to the front like a thoroughbred. From
the moment when he first scented battle, he was the most valuable man in
the troop, from the captain down. In this, I am sure, there is no
disparagement of the scores of fearless soldiers who followed the guidon
of that troop from Gettysburg to Appomattox.

Avery was a hero. In the presence of danger he knew no fear. The more
imminent the peril, the more cool he was. He would grasp the situation
as if by intuition and I often wondered why fate did not make him
colonel instead of myself, and honestly believe that he would have
filled the position admirably, though he reached no higher rank than
that of sergeant. He had, however, made of himself the trusted assistant
and adviser of the commanding officer of his regiment and would have
received a commission, had he lived but a few days longer. From the day
of his enlistment to the day of his death he was not off duty for a
single day; and the command to which he belonged, was in no battle when
he was not at the front, in the place of greatest risk and
responsibility, from the beginning to the end. He was killed by a shell
which struck him in the head, in the battle of Trevillian Station, June
12, 1864. A braver or a truer soldier never fell on the field of battle.

Another excellent soldier was Solon H. Finney, who entered service as
sergeant. He rose to be second lieutenant and was killed at Beaver
Mills, Virginia, April 4, 1865, just five days before Lee surrendered.
Finney was a modest, earnest, faithful man, attentive to his duties, not
self-seeking, but contented with his lot and ambitious only to do a
man's part. It seemed hard for him to go through so near to the end only
to be stricken just as the haven of peace was in sight; b