CHAPTER I.
Enlistment of a Company in 1861—Their un-Military Appearance—Capturing a Merchantman—Under the Fire of Gunboats—Marching to Manassas—Picketing the Potomac—Formation of a Regiment—Evacuation of Fredericksburg.
In the month of May, 1861, by an order obtained through a special application made in person by the author of the following narrative to General R. E. Lee, commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces, Major Carr, at Fredericksburg, was directed to muster into service a cavalry company from the county of Westmoreland, to which the officers had given the name of Lee's Light Horse, in memory of "Light-Horse Harry" Lee, of the Revolution. This order was executed by Major R. M. Mayo, at Montross, on the 23d of May, 1861. The company numbered on that day sixty-one, and whilst composed chiefly of young men, contained several who were forty-five years of age. Thomas S. Garnett was captain; R. L. T. Beale, first lieutenant; B. Walker, second lieutenant; and A. G. Dade, third lieutenant.
There was nothing very martial in the appearance of the company. The officers and men were clad in their citizens' dress, and their horses caparisoned with saddles and bridles of every description used in the country. Their only arms were sabres and double-barrelled shotguns collected from the homes of the people. The company thus equipped, after two brief encampments at Nomini Ferry and Oak Grove, marched early in June under Lieutenant Beale to Mathias Point, in King George county, where it was quartered in Hooe's Chapel, and was employed in picket duty on the Potomac.
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