Civil War Letter from the 10th N.Y. Cavalry - May 1863

 Oxford Times, May 20, 1863

10th N.Y. Cavalry, Bealton Station, Va., May 10th, 1863

Dear Times:  When I last wrote you, we were getting ready for the great raid in which the Cavalry have been engaged in for the last 11 days.  On the morning of the 29th ult., we crossed the Rappahannock, and drove Fitzhue Lee's force before us, and encamped for an hour or so, about five miles from the river, when we started in hot pursuit for Lee's retreating force.  We chased them across the Rappidan, when we expected he would make some resistance to our onward march, but thought discretion the better part of valor, and left in hot haste further into the land of rebeldom.  He would occasionally get his forces into line of battle, but they would be sure to be a column in rout before we could get in range of them with our carbines or artillery. We were led by General Stoneman as our chief commander, General Gregg as our Major General.  Col Kilpatrick as acting Brigadier General, is an officer in whom the whole brigade place the utmost confidence.  He is an officer who knows no such thing as fear, but is always ready to lead where he wants his men to follow.  He with the 10th made the charge into Louisa Court house, and with the 2d made the raid so near Richmond, and finally brought up near the White House on York river.  Co. K, was always on hand at all times, either a rear guard, advance guard, picket or supporting the battery.  Our squadron is called the best in the regiment, and when there is any dangerous duty to perform the 5th squadron is sure to be called on.  We burned bridges, tore up railroads, captured wagon trains, trains of cars, 500 prisoners, mules, and horses 15,000, and was on t e raid 10 days and all the while got our supplies from the enemy. We burned railroad bridges and sat down on the track for one day inviting an attack from the enemy, and in the night marched 30 or 40 miles to  another place to commit some new depredation.  

We got about 20 hours sleep in 11 days, so you may know that we were obliged to be vigilant and watchful and consequently were not taken by surprise.

You may satisfy the anxiety of all our friends at Oxford, by saying that we lost no men from our company in the action, three of them straggled behind and I presume were picked up by the enemy. Their names are Emory A. Butler, Harris P. Moak and Charles A. Ray. The rest are accounted for as I said before, you may be sure that Co. K, will not be a disgrace to the town in which it was raised. We of Co. K were on picket within 8 miles of Richmond, for 20 hours, and left 3 hours behind the main  column, it was considered the most dangerous position in the whole raid, yet we accomplished our task with honor to our company and squadron.  I was the only commissioned officer in command fo the squadron, which usually has six commissioned officers in the command. We are bound to a man to stand fast by the old flag and are confident that we will finally be able to push the enemy to the wall.   F.