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Eric Wittenberg

1st Lieutenant
Keeper of the Scales
Joined
Jun 2, 2013
Location
Columbus, OH
Lt. Edward H. Leib was from Pottsville, Pennsylvania. He was commissioned into the 5th U.S. Cavalry in 1861 despite having no formal military training. He made the Regular Army his career and retired as a full colonel in the 1890's. The photo below has his middle initial wrong.

Leib,_Edward.jpg


In doing some research on his role in the Battle of Monocacy, I found this account of the March 17, 1863 Battle of Kelly's Ford that I had never seen before. It's a good one. It was published in his hometown newspaper, the Pottsville Miners Journal:

Camp Near Falmouth, March 20, 1863.

I suppose you have heard of the cavalry, and of the success of the last trip we were on over the Rappahannock. We crossed at Kelley's Ford; had quite a fight with the rebels, and have taught them one thing, that we can whip them in a fair stand-up fight. We left camp for our trip on the 16th, and arrived at Morrisville at dusk. There we camped over night, and at two in the morning we started for Kelley's Ford, and there met the enemy. We had quite a time in crossing, but we were determined to cross, and we did. I am sorry, however, to state that we lost some good men while effecting the passage. We took about twenty-five prisoners and killed several of the rebels. We then, after getting the artillery over safely, moved on the road for Culpepper Court House; but we had not gone far before our cavalry came upon General Lee's brigade with himself at its head. They made a charge, but our men met them splendidly and drove them back. But they were not satisfied, and soon came over on our right flank. I must here state they made a grand mistake. The Fifth and First Cavalry were there, and your humble little friend had the honor of commanding the Fifth on the occasion. I was ordered to charge, which I did, leading the gallant regiment. We drove them, and I suppose they will admit that they were never driven so before. We kept it up until they got out of sight, and we were ordered back by the General, or rather Captain Reno, who commanded the brigade. Captain Baker had command of the First Cavalry. I was then ordered to move up in line of battle with the regiment, which I did through the thick woods and marshy ground, into a clearing. It was hot work to get there, but we made them leave, and obeyed our orders to drive them. As soon as we arrived about two hundred yards in the opening, they opened one whole battery on my command. It was rather a hot place, but the men stood it like Spartans, and held their ground until ordered to fall back, which was done in splendid style. We again foiled the enemy under the hottest fire I ever saw. The men were a little confused, but did not break or straggle. When the enemy saw our line moving back, their cavalry made a charge down the road. We could see that they meant to do some tall charging, but we moved up to meet them with drawn saber, and they turned and tied. They do not like our cold steel. They here broke and ran up to their entrenchments, scattering in every direction. It was the finest little fight I ever saw, and the old Fifth had the work to do. The regiment had the advance after crossing the ford on the other side, and in conjunction with the First United States Cavalry, had the rear guard in crossing the ford. On this side of the river I had the rear guard back to Morrisville.

I would not have missed the fight for a great deal, and hope soon to again show the country that we can whip the rebel cavalry every day in the week. The army is now in fine spirits, and our cavalry fight is all the talk in camp. The cavalry are for the present the tigers of this army, and hope soon again to meet the rebel cavalry.

Yours, E. H. L.
 
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Before Brandy Station, I guess the Federal Cavalry was finally coming together. Thanks for posting. :thumbsup:
It was indeed. I've written a book on this subject titled The Union Cavalry Comes of Age: Hartwood Church to Brandy Station 1863. It includes the most detailed account of Kelly's Ford yet written, as well as the most detailed account of the Stoneman Raid during the Chancellorsville Campaign. If the topic interests you, please consider reading it.
 
What intrigues me is the bit on "drawn sabers" and the Confederates not liking them and fleeing. Something seems suspicious on that.
It shouldn't. As a general rule, the Confederates viewed saber fighting as barbaric. Early in the war--and this still qualifies as early--they would often call out "Put up your sabers and fight like gentlemen," meaning with pistols in mounted combat such as that at Kelly's Ford.
 
It shouldn't. As a general rule, the Confederates viewed saber fighting as barbaric. Early in the war--and this still qualifies as early--they would often call out "Put up your sabers and fight like gentlemen," meaning with pistols in mounted combat such as that at Kelly's Ford.

Firearms are indeed much more civilized....

Still its unusual to hear of a successful saber attack, or one performed.
 
I can't help noticing his mention of "... Captain Reno, who commanded the brigade." I presume this is the very same Marcus Reno of later Little Big Horn fame/notoriety? I know from reading about the career of John Mosby that Marcus Reno was later a colonel and active in the Shenandoah region in 1865.
 
I can't help noticing his mention of "... Captain Reno, who commanded the brigade." I presume this is the very same Marcus Reno of later Little Big Horn fame/notoriety? I know from reading about the career of John Mosby that Marcus Reno was later a colonel and active in the Shenandoah region in 1865.

Yep, sure is.
 
I can't help noticing his mention of "... Captain Reno, who commanded the brigade." I presume this is the very same Marcus Reno of later Little Big Horn fame/notoriety? I know from reading about the career of John Mosby that Marcus Reno was later a colonel and active in the Shenandoah region in 1865.

I forgot to mention that Reno suffered a hernia when his horse what shot out from under him and then landed on him during the fighting at Kelly's Ford and went on disability leave, which is why he was in his wife's home town of Harrisburg, PA when the Confederate invasion began. As a result of his being present, he was pressed into duty in the defenses of Harrisburg during the Gettysburg Campaign under Couch, and then returned to duty in time to fight at Funkstown, MD on July 10 toward the end of the retreat from Gettysburg. Reno received a brevet to major in the Regular Army for Kelly's Ford.
 
I forgot to mention that Reno suffered a hernia when his horse what shot out from under him and then landed on him during the fighting at Kelly's Ford and went on disability leave, which is why he was in his wife's home town of Harrisburg, PA when the Confederate invasion began. As a result of his being present, he was pressed into duty in the defenses of Harrisburg during the Gettysburg Campaign under Couch, and then returned to duty in time to fight at Funkstown, MD on July 10 toward the end of the retreat from Gettysburg. Reno received a brevet to major in the Regular Army for Kelly's Ford.
I saw a play once about the ghosts of Custer, Libby, Reno, and Benteen in which there was a lament - probably delivered by the Reno character- to the effect that everyone always referred to General Custer and General Benteen, but always only to Major Reno. Somehow, Reno's Civil War service has gotten lost in all the hubbub about Little Big Horn, moreso than the others.
 
I saw a play once about the ghosts of Custer, Libby, Reno, and Benteen in which there was a lament - probably delivered by the Reno character- to the effect that everyone always referred to General Custer and General Benteen, but always only to Major Reno. Somehow, Reno's Civil War service has gotten lost in all the hubbub about Little Big Horn, moreso than the others.

Not much doubt about that, but Reno lost his nerve at the LBH, and his career ended in disgrace. He was cashiered from the army for being a Peeping Tom. Not good. Not good at all.
 
Not much doubt about that, but Reno lost his nerve at the LBH, and his career ended in disgrace. He was cashiered from the army for being a Peeping Tom. Not good. Not good at all.
It's still too bad his evidently successful earlier career has been forgotten, even if the blame was rightly his.
 
Before Brandy Station, I guess the Federal Cavalry was finally coming together. Thanks for posting. :thumbsup:
It came together well before this. Whenever the rebel and Federal cavalry met in 1862 the Federal cavalry pretty much dominated due to their free use of the sabre, despite generally being outnumbered. The rebel cavalry's reputation came from avoiding contact.
 
I think Confederates probably had a better cavalry arrangement. By being more dragoons or mounted rifles, and partisans than actual cavalry. I've been thinking on this thread, and a lot of it makes more sense to me.

The Confederacy never really excelled with cavalry. There are of course many exceptions, like a lot of actions with Forrest, Morgan, Stuart and others, and a lot of the men did tend to be more familiar with riding on horseback than their Northern counterparts when the war started and so on. But you look at how they tend to operate, riding from place to place and fighting on foot, or when mounted preferring very fast hit and run guerilla style tactics it makes more sense than standard cavalry in the CW era.

With dismounting and fighting, your in theory able to have less attrition with horses, (time and place), and take advantage of the modern weaponry like rifled arms. For example you look at the ordnance reports of Forrest Cavalry before and after Brice's Crossroads, and infantry rifled muskets were everywhere, with carbines and sidearms very, very few. Such weapons are useless on horseback for the most part, but easy to carry and deadly effective on foot.

With "Partisan Rangers" and fast mounted hit and run attacks, revolvers, and shotguns come into play as effective.

Looking at it all that way, it makes a lot more sense to me why Confederates would not have any use for saber rattling cavalry fights.
 
Looking at it all that way, it makes a lot more sense to me why Confederates would not have any use for saber rattling cavalry fights.
This is probably the reasoning they had at the time, but in fact (as demonstrated later by actual combat) the sabre was still the superior weapon for mounted action and in fact was able to defeat not only dismounted enemy dragoons but all-up entrenched infantry on occasion.
It's not the ideal weapon for all circumstances, not by any means, but it's the best weapon for some common circumstances.
 
The Confederate cavalry, and the western Union cavalry, were prettymuch mounted infantry with the odd exception (i.e. Minty's brigade). Really, it was only in the Army of the Potomac that "true cavalry" emerged capable of mixing it up with the sabre. The rebels had no real answer to the sabre and prettymuch consistently got beaten except for the problematic experiment with making the cavalry corps a real "corps".

To be clear, prettymuch the only organisational change that occurred with the creation of the cavalry corps were:
  • Stoneman pulled an escort from a division
  • the small regiment with the Provost was removed creating major problems for the Provost
  • the cavalry reserve was recreated by centralising the regulars and the 6th Pennsylvania (which was an independent regiment)
  • the three brigades were formally renamed divisions, but no true brigade structure existed within them (Pleasanton had taken to calling his brigade a division a while before)
What Hooker inherited was:

Averill's First Brigade*
  • 5th US Cavalry
  • 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry
  • 4th Pennsylvania Cavalry
  • 1st Massachusetts Cavalry
  • 1st Rhode Island Cavalry (assigned 1st December '62)
  • 16th Pennsylvania Cavalry (new regiment, joined early January '63)
  • Battery B&L, 2nd US Artillery
    • = 6 full cavalry regiments
Pleasanton's Second Brigade*
  • 6th US Cavalry (to reserve in reorg)
  • 8th Pennsylvania Cavalry
  • 8th Illinois Cavalry
  • 3rd Indiana Cavalry (half-regiment; 6 coys)
  • 8th New York Cavalry
  • 6th New York Cavalry (battalion; 4 coys. One sqn detached as 9th Corps escort)
  • Battery M, 2nd US Artillery
    • = 58 coys (almost 5 full regiments)
* The first and second brigade were created in July '62 with the disbandment of the Cavalry Reserve.

Gregg's (ex-Bayard's) Brigade
  • 1st Maine Cavalry
  • 1st New Jersey Cavalry
  • 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry
  • 2nd New York Cavalry
  • 10th New York Cavalry
  • Oneida Coy
  • Battery C, 3rd US Artillery
    • = 5 full regiments and a coy
Unbrigaded regiments
  • 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry: denominated as an independent scout regiment in July '62 but serving under 6th Corps
  • 1st US Cavalry (6 coys): with Army HQ
  • 2nd US Cavalry (4 coys): with Provost
  • 4th US Cavalry (2 coys): escort to the Commanding General
The 11th Corps cavalry brigade, which had been left at Washington, was assigned and immediately broken up.

11th Corps Brigade
  • 9th New York Cavalry - to Pleasanton's Brigade
  • 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry - to Pleasanton's Brigade
  • 4th New York Cavalry - to Averill's Brigade
  • 6th Ohio Cavalry - to Averill's Brigade
  • 12th Illinois Cavalry (swapped for 1st Md Cav) - to Gregg's Brigade
Essentially each brigade gained one regiment (net) and was redesignated a division. The regulars and 6th Pennsylvania were used to recreate the Cavalry Reserve. The individual divisions remained aligned with the three wings of the army, exactly as the brigades had to the Grand Divisions. In April the Corps tried to act as a corps (with the addition of infantry), and the result was the debacles like Brandy Station.
 
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