Finished Down I Dixie by Stanton Allen.
I forget he became one of General Meade's couriers.
He explains 110 in use on the battlefield but then him and two other 110th Cavalrymen escort Meade in the final Victory parade to form 110.
His take on the battlefield is very good.
Some reviewers says he is a storyteller but it is standard fair for Civil War autobiographies. The part where he rides into a Confederate Troop at night time and they chat until they realize they are enemies is a common scout story in all wars.
How he finds out his best friend has died is great. You could not make that part up. He is in the cavalry hospital so the grave in front of his tent would be that. So he sees the last name and has an orderly get the name and unit and it is his best bud from New York that joined with him.
I have a totally different understanding of the Overland Campaign and now Petersburg through Richmond.
1864 is different war. 1861-62 needs National Guards to in effect police South Carlonia.
1862-63 is patrolling to fight Mosby and scheduled position.
1864 they need 16 year olds to be able to fight in the saddle eight days in a row.
So Allen is the epitome of what they needed for thar round three role. He gets assigned to the National Lancers after the hospital as his company is so worn down they disband it.
It is a great first hand eye witness account of the suffering but a 16 year old shakes it off and a 35 year can not.
