ove it "at a gallop." He moved it at a
walk. But he moved "immediately." He did not stop to fight, and morning
found him well on the way to the Pamunkey river. It was an unlucky event
for poor Litchfield. He was held as a prisoner of war very nearly if
not quite until the curtain had fallen on the final scene at
Appomattox. I do not remember that he ever again had the privilege of
commanding his regiment.

[Illustration: A.C. LITCHFIELD]

Kilpatrick's strategy was better than his tactics. His plan was bold in
conception, but faulty in execution. It has been shown that he made a
mistake in dividing his command; that he made another when he failed to
order an immediate attack after his arrival before the city. His
afterthought of sending Preston and Taylor, at midnight, in a snow
storm, and on a night so dark that it would have been impossible to keep
together, to be sure of the way, or to distinguish friend from foe, to
do a thing which he hesitated to do in the daytime and with his entire
force, would have been a more serious blunder than either. Of course, if
Preston had started, it would have been with the determination to
succeed or lose his life in the adventure. That was his reputation and
his character as a soldier. But the services and lives of such men are
too valuable to be wasted in futile attempts. It might have been
glorious but it would not have been war.

To conclude this rambling description. In October, 1907, while attending
the Jamestown exposition I met Colonel St. George Tucker, president of
the exposition company and a well known scion of one of the first
families of Virginia. The conversation turned to certain incidents of
the civil war, among others some of those pertaining to the Kilpatrick
raid. Colonel Tucker was at the time a boy ten years of age. Armed with
a gun he was at a window in the second story of his father's house
ready to do his part in repelling the "vandals" should they invade the
streets of the city. This circumstance sheds light on the real
situation. With the schoolboys banded together to defend their homes,
and every house garrisoned in that way, not to mention the regular
soldiers and the men who were on duty, it is quite certain that Richmond
would have been an uncomfortable place that night for Preston and his
little band of heroes. A man's house is his citadel and boys and women
will fight to defend it.

From Old Church the command moved Wednesday to Tunstall's Station,