I do not usually offer an introduction to the stories I post on this site, but in this case, I feel an explanation is necessary. I seldom know when I start where each story will end. Rarely does the final version resemble in any sense what I set out to put on paper. Due to…
The 8th Illinois Cavalry relieved the 8th Pennsylvania Cavalry from picket duty in King George County on Christmas Day 1862. Leaving their camps in Stafford County, the men headed south and east along present-day Route 3 into King George County. Stafford County was desolate, stark and war-ravaged; fences had disappeared, forests denuded and farms abandoned. …
Writing after the war, Bvt. Col. Benjamin Crowninshield, 1st Massachusetts Cavalry, explained the vital importance of outpost, vidette or picket duty. “On the skill and fidelity of cavalry depends the safety of the army.” Cavalry, Crowninshield continued, “is constantly employed…in the hardest and most inglorious service in the world, outpost and vidette duty, – where…
Small But Important Riots 