ar of Jackson's army. We had a running fight
all the way up the valley until we reached Harrisonburg, where we had a
very severe engagement,--our two regiments of cavalry and the four
companies of "Bucktails" against a division of rebel infantry. The
First New Jersey Cavalry lost its colonel and several officers
captured, and the "Bucktails," Colonel Kane and Captain Fred. Taylor
captured. The rebels lost heavily in killed and wounded, among the
former being General Turner Ashby. General Fremont's command, which had
crossed over from the Kanawha Valley, joined us at Harrisonburg the
next day, when we moved towards Port Republic. Here Fremont's men had a
very sharp engagement at Cross Keys on June 8. Our cavalry were only
lookers-on in this fight, but Jackson succeeded in checking our forces
with his rear-guard, while the head of his column crossed the bridge at
Port Republic, driving away Shields's advance, which had passed up the
Luray Valley expecting to cut him off. They were too late, however, in
reaching that point, for Jackson had slipped away and moved his men
down to Richmond by rail, taking the same position which we were to
have taken on McClellan's right flank. The result was the change of
base, with all its hard fighting, hard marching, and heavy losses, to
the James River at Harrison's Landing.

We then began a long and weary march down the valley, over rivers and
mountains, to the vicinity of Culpeper Court-House. On our arrival
there came the order for General Bayard's cavalry to report to the
head-quarters of the Army of Northern Virginia, J. Pope commanding,
with head-quarters in the saddle. It took twenty wagons to haul that
saddle! We were assigned to picket and scouting duty, our lines
stretching from Raccoon Ford to Barnett's Ford, on the Rapidan, a
distance of fifteen miles. On the night of August 8 our pickets were
driven in a short distance from the river, and on the morning of the
9th commenced what is known as the battle of Cedar Mountain. In that
engagement General Bayard showed the finest order of generalship. With
four regiments of cavalry he held Jackson's whole command of eighteen
thousand men at bay from 4 A.M. until 4 P.M. This movement of Bayard's
was made in echelons of squadrons, single-rank formation, and gave the
idea to the enemy that we had about ten thousand men in his front. The
men of Crawford's and Hartsuff's brigades will bear witness to the
tenacity with which our cavalry he