nths, but they were months of great activity and afforded
such occasions for proof of his abilities that his speedy promotion
was inevitable. He never achieved the general popularity with his men
that had come to his predecessor, nor cared to, but he did gain quite
as thoroughly their respect through his mastership of the business in
hand. It was not long after he assumed command that, as the regimental
history says, the men "began to grieve anew over the loss of Kellogg.
That commander had chastised us with whips, but this one dealt in
scorpions. By the time we reached the Shenandoah Valley, he had so far
developed as to be a far greater terror, to both officers and men,
than Early's grape and canister. He was a Perpetual Punisher, and the
Second Connecticut while under him was always a punished regiment.
There is a regimental tradition to the effect that a well-defined
purpose existed among the men, prior to the battle of Winchester, to
dispose of this commanding scourge during the first fight that
occurred. If he had known it, it would only have excited his contempt,
for he cared not a copper for the good will of any except his
military superiors, and certainly feared no man of woman born, on
either side of the lines. But the purpose, if any existed, quailed and
failed before his audacious pluck on that bloody day. He seemed to
court destruction all day long. With his hat aloft on the point of his
saber he galloped over forty-acre fields, through a perfect hailstorm
of rebel lead and iron, with as much impunity as though he had been a
ghost. The men hated him with the hate of hell, but they could not
draw bead on so brave a man as that. Henceforth they firmly believed
he bore a charmed life."

Colonel Mackenzie's advancement was brilliantly rapid, as Grant
states, and at the time of Lee's surrender he was in command of a
corps of cavalry, which had shortly before taken an important part in
the battle of Five Forks under his leadership.

When the war ended he became colonel of the Twenty-fourth Infantry in
the regular army, and later received a cavalry command, gaining much
distinction by his services in the Indian campaigns in the West and
on the Mexican border. He was made brigadier-general in 1882, shortly
after placed on the retired list, and died at Governor's Island in
1889.

* * * * *

The unsuccessful assault on Lee's works at Cold Harbor marked the end
of the first part of