THE CAVALRY CORPS.



be breaking a rule which I have always laid down-never to regret
anything after it is done. Yesterday I spent in visiting a number
of my friends throughout the army. I saw the 4th Michigan
and the Monroe members of the regiment. I took dinner with
Lieutenant Yates, who you remember was in Monroe last winter.
By the way, I have induced General Pleasonton to appoint Lieu-
tenant Yates on his staff, so that I will have him with me here-
after. lie was at our headquarters this evening, and will join us
permanently in a few days.
                                               ARMSTRONG.

   A little later, in a letter to his sister under the date of June
6th, he writes that they are going to cross the river to Culpep-
per, but there is no account of Beverly Ford fight. The last
letter accessible at this period of his life is dated June 25th,
four days before his elevation to the dignity of a brigade com-
mander, and the place for that will be more proper in the next
chapter. Events were now beginning to crowd so fast, and the
campaign was opening so actively, that home correspondence
was practically impossible. Love and the softer side of his
life was to be hidden for a while behind the murkv clouds of
war, and not till after Gettysburg was there a lull in the
incessant activity.
   Custer was still, as appears from these letters, nothing more
immediately ambitious in feeling than a staff officer. There are
no idle aspirations after high command in his wishes, and he
seems, as always before and after, intensely practical in his no-
tions of life. He is satisfied to do his duty in whatever posi-
tion he is placed, only taking care to perform that duty thor-
oughly and completely, and better than any one else. The
letter we have quoted, reveals the perfect officer of the staff,
active and daring, on the watch for every little scrap of infor
mation, perfectly ready to hide and play the fox when the rale
of the lion is out of place, with that peculiar combination of
qualities, very rarely found, which makes the model officer of
eelairezts.
   These qualities are very rare, and no school can teach therm.



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