3. Letter from Thomas U. Rickert June 29, 1863, Francis W. Reed Papers, Manuscript Collection USMHI.

 4. U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 128 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880-1901), v. XXVII, pt. 1, P. 932. (Hereafter cited as OR.  All citations are from Series 1); See also Edward Longacre, General John Buford (Conshohocken, PA: Combined Books, 1995), P. 174; Stephen Z. Starr, The Union Cavalry In The Civil War (Baton RouQe: LSU Press, 1979), v. 1, P. 41 1.

 5. Starr, Union Cavalry.

 6. See for example Richard Wormser, The Yellowlegs (Garden City, NY.  Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1966), pp. ix-xi.

 7. Starr, Union Cavalry, v. 1, P. 439; v.3, pp. 593-4.

 8. Starr, Union Cavalry, v. 1, pp. 52-3; Rory Muir, Tactics and the Experience of Battle in the Age of Napoleon (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), pp. 106-7.

 9. Starr, Union Cavalry, v. 1, P. 52; v. 3, P. 590; Muir, Tactics, 107-8.

 10. Starr, Union Cavalry, v. 1, p. 52; v. 3, P. 590; Muir.  Tactics, 107.

 11. Muir, Tactics, 108-1 11
.
 12. Leroy Eltinge, "Notes On Cavalry," Lecture delivered Feb. 14, 1917. (Fort Leavenworth, KS: Army Service Schools Press, 1917), P. 8; Harris, "Union Cavalry", P. 356.

 13. Thomas Thiele, "The Evolution of Cavalry in the American Civil War: 1861-1863," PhD.  Dissertation (University of Michigan, 195 1), pp. 9-10, 15.

 14. Starr, Union Cavalry, v. 1, pp. 48-50.

 15. Albert Brackett, History of the United States Cavalry (NY-.  Harper and Brothers, 1865), P. 160.

 16. Thiele, "Evolution of Cavalry," 18-22.

 17. Starr, Union Cavalry, v. 1, P. 60.

 18. Starr, Union Cavalry, v. 1, pp. 64-67, 72, 78; Thiele, "Evolution of Cavalry," 30-32, 37, 63.

 19. Wormser, Yellowlegs, 143.

 20. Starr, Union Cavalry, v. 3, pp. 6, 591-2; Thiele, "Evolution of Cavalry,' 62-4; Francis Lord, They Fought For The Union (Hershey, PA: The Stackpole Co., 1960), P. 74.

 21. Starr, Union Cavalry, v. 1, P. 70; v. 3, P. 591.

 22. D.M. Gilmore, "Cavalry: Its Use and Value as Illustrated by Reference to the Engagements of Kelly's Ford and Gettysburg.' MOLLUS, Commandery of Minnesota.  Glimpses of the Nation's Struggle.  Second Series, 1890, 38-5 1, P. 39.

 23. Letter November 23, 1861, Reuben T. Prentice, Manuscript Collection of the
  Illinois State Historical Society.

 24. Silas Wesson, Diary, December 1, 1861.  Manuscript Collection of the USMHI, CWTI Collection.

 25. A letter dated December 25, 1861 to the Aurora Beacon said that they had been armed with Colt's Navy revolver while the Quartermaster report for the first quarter of 1862 reports the regiment having Colt's Army revolvers.  Ken Baumann, Arming The Suckers 1861-1865 (Dayton, OH: Morningside Press, 1989), P. 51.

 26. Prentice, Letters January 19 and February 5, 1862
.
 27. Albert Castel, "Cavalry March By Night;' Civil War Times Illustrated, October 1982, 27-9, P. 27.

 28. T.E Dornblaser, Sabre Strokes of the Pennsylvania Dragoons (Philadelphia, Lutheran Publication Society, 1884), pp. 39-41.

 29. Starr, Union Cavalry, v. 1, pp. 60, 234-5.

 30. Ibid., v. 1 1 p. 304.

 31. Ibid., v. 3, pp. 21, 24-5, 6 1.

32.  Ibid., v. II pp. 288-92, 327, 339.

 33. Ibid., v. 3, pp. 109-112.

 34. Hard describes a number of such actions as does Wesson.  Abner Hard, History of the Eighth Cavalry Regiment, Illinois Volunteers, During the Great Rebellion (Aurora, IL: n.p., 1868, reprint Morningside Press, 1996), pp. 170-8; Wesson Diary; Starr, Union Cavalry, v. 1, pp. 315-7; State of Illinois, Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Illinios, v. VIII, 1901, pp. 155-6.

 35. David Horace Fillmore, Autobiography, "Life and Adventures of David H. Fillmore, ' Unpublished Manuscript in the collection of the Illinois State Historical .Library, pp. 106-7.  Fillmore has an interesting, if somewhat overblown, account of the battle; Hard, Eighth Cavalry, 178.  OR, XIX, pt. 2, P. 208.

 36. Starr, Union Cavalry, v. 1, P. 321

 37. Gilbert Kniffin, "Army of the Cumberland and the Battle of Stone River," National Tribune, December 31, 188 1, January 7,14,2 1, and 28, 1882; Starr, Union Cavalry, v. 3, pp. 108-113; D. S. Stanley, Personal Memoirs of Major-General D. S. Stanley, U.S.A. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1917, 198 7 reprint), pp. 120- 1.

 38. Dornblaser says the 1st Brigade only consisted of the 7th Pennsylvania, 3rd Indiana, and 4th Michigan (Sabre Strokes, 95)
 while Vale says it was the 2nd Indiana, not the 3rd (Vale, Minty, I I 1).
 
39.Vale, Minty, 113-4.
 
 40.Kniffin, National Tribune, January 21, 1882.
 
 41.Vale, Minty, 114-7; Dornblaser, Sabre Strokes,98-103;WeigleyLetter, private collection, February 4, 1863; Starr, Union Cavalry,v.3,pp. 119-20; Kniffin, National Tribune, January2l,1882; W.S.Rosecrans, Report on the Battle of Murfreesboro, Tenn, U.S. Senate Ex.  Doc.  No. 2. (Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office. 1863), pp. 533, 537, 540.
 
 42. Michael Phipps and John S. Peterson, The Devil's to Pay.  Gen.  John Buford,
USA (Gettysburg, Farnsworth Military Impressions, 1995), P. 25.

 43.Letter from 'A Sucker', Aurora Beacon, Angust 20, 1863.
 
 44. OR, v. 27, pt. 1, pp. 914,923-4,926-7,934.

 45.  Ibid., pp. 927,934; v. 27, pt. 2, pp. 637, 646.

 
 46. Aurora Beacon, August 20, 1863

. 47.Quoted in Phipps and Peterson, The Devil's to Pay,  46.
 
 48.  Ibid.
 
 49. Phipps and Peterson, The Devil's to Pay, 47-50; Longacre, Gettysburg, 183-189;
Richard Shue, Morning at Willoughby Run (Gettysburg:Thomas Publications, 1995),
 pp. 54-105;William Linnaeus Church, Letter from Gamble to Church. Manuscript
Collection of the Chicago Historical Society.

50 Phipps and Peterson, The Devil's to Pay, 52; Longacre, Buford, 198-9; Church, Gamble's Letter; OR, v. 27, pt 1, pp. 927, 934-5, pt. 2, pp. 657, 661-2, 665.
 

51.Aurora Beacon, August 20, 1863; see also Reid Diary, Francis W. Reid Papers.
 
 52.Vale, Minty, 5. For discussions of the many engagements, see Vale, Minty, chaps
10- 12; Dornblaser, Sabre Strokes, chap. 10.
 
 53.OR, v.30, pt. 1, P. 922; pt. 2, P. 470; Richard Baumgartner, Blue Lightning (Hun
tington, W.VA: Blue Acorn Press, 1997), pp. 108-112.
 
54. Pennsylvania at Chickamauga and Chattanooga (Harrisburg: State of Pennsylvania, 1897), pp. 303-6; Peter Cozzens, This Terrible Sound (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992), pp. 103-111; Vale, Minty, 224-23 1; Baumgartner, Blue Lightning, 112-3; OR. v. 30, pt, 1, pp. 922-3; pt. 2, pp. 451-2, 471-2, 479, 488.
 
 55. OR, v. 30, pt. 2, P. 488.
 
 56.  Pennsylvania at Chickamauga and Chattanooga, 303-6; Cozzens, This Terrible
Sound,103-111;Vale, Minty,224-231;OR ,v. 30 pt. 1, pp. 922-3; pt. 2, pp. 452, 484,
  488.
 
 57.  OR, XXXIX, pt. 3, P. 443.
 
 58.  James Wilson, Under The Old Flag (NY D. Appleton and Col, 1912), v. 2, P.219.

59. Starr, Union Cavalry, v. 1, pp. 9-22, v. 3, P. 534,546; Wilson, Under The Old Flag, v. 1, pp. 331-2, v. 2, P. 3, 7, 10, 29, 136.
 
 60. OR, v. 49, pt. 2, P. 663.