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Keeping his army well in hand, he retreated to Bull Run, Fairfax and Centerville. While this was going on, there was a series of spirited encounters between the union and confederate cavalry, commanded by Pleasonton and Stuart, respectively the former bringing up the rear, and covering the retreat, the latter bold and aggressive as was his wont.
The day following this glorious fight, in which the men of the North had proved themselves to be more than a match for the boasted Southern chivalry, and had gained a name which placed Pleasonton's command at the head of the world's cavalry forces, Pleasonton was made a Major-General, and Kilpatrick a Brigadier. Their stars were well-deserved and proudly worn.
I reached the Cavalry Corps headquarters on the evening of April 5, 1864, and the next morning issued orders assuming command. General Pleasonton had but recently been relieved, and many of his staff-officers were still on duty at the headquarters awaiting the arrival of the permanent commander.
Divisions. Birney. Berry. Whipple. Fifth Corps. Meade. Sixth Corps. Sedgwiok. Eleventh Corps. Howard. Divisions. McClean. Von Steinwehr. Schurz. Twelfth Corps. Slocum. Divisions. Williams. Geary. Cavalry Corps. Stoneman. Divisions. Pleasonton. Averell. Gregg. Headquarters, Second Corps, Army of N. Va.: April 13, 1863. General Orders, No. 26.
We went viâ Catlett's Station, which place we reached at two o'clock P. M. Nearly every step of the march was on familiar ground, where we had passed and repassed many times. It seemed like meeting old friends, and nearly every object we saw suggested thoughts and experiences of the past. At Warrenton Junction we rejoined the Cavalry Corps, now under the command of General Alfred Pleasonton.
I explained that it was only as a courtesy to Pleasonton and at his request that the change was proposed. This did not better the matter in Scammon's opinion. He had been himself a regular officer, and the point of professional honor touched him. I recognized the justice of his demand, and said he should have the duty if he insisted upon it.
Among these, General Alfred Pleasonton was to be relieved from the command of the cavalry, General Grant having expressed to the President dissatisfaction that so little had hitherto been accomplished by that arm of the service, and I was selected as chief of the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac, receiving on the night of the 23d of March from General Thomas at Chattanooga the following telegram: "MARCH 23, 1864.
They were "Mac" and "Burn" to each other when I knew them, and although Fitz-John Porter, Hancock, Parker, Reno, and Pleasonton had all been members of the same class, the two seemed to be bosom friends in a way totally different from their intimacy with the others.
Still with desperate courage the Federal leaders sought to stem the onrush of the enemy and stay the rout. "You must charge into those woods, and hold the foe until I get some guns into position," said General Pleasonton, turning to Major Peter Keenan. "I will, sir," replied Keenan. Then calmly smiling, at the head of his handful of men he rode to certain death.
He said that he had been taken beyond the mountain after his capture, but had been paroled the evening before, and was now finding his way back to us on foot. "But where are you going?" said he. I answered that Scammon was going to support Pleasonton in a reconnoissance into the gap.
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