and piercing, his head crowned with a thick growth of brown hair cut
rather short. He wore a forage cap, a gum coat over his uniform, top
boots, and appeared every inch the soldier. He saluted and gave the
colonel a hearty greeting and was introduced to me as Captain Weber.

Peter A. Weber was clerking in a store when the war broke out and
entered service as a corporal in the Third Michigan infantry. When the
Second Michigan cavalry was organized he was commissioned battalion
adjutant and had been called home to take a captaincy in the Sixth. By
reason of his experience, he was given the second place, "B". Weber was
a rare and natural soldier, the embodiment of courage and, had not death
interrupted his career, must have come near the head of the list of
cavalry officers. The battle in which he distinguished himself and lost
his life will be the theme of a future chapter.

[Illustration: GEORGE GRAY]

In troop "F", commanded by Captain William Hyser, was Second Lieutenant
Don G. Lovell, one of the three veteran officers. He went out as
corporal in the Third Michigan infantry, was wounded at Fair Oaks,
and again at Trevillian Station while serving in the cavalry. He was
one of the bravest of the brave.

Along in September, before the date of muster, I received a letter from
a classmate in Ann Arbor asking if there was an opening for him to
enlist. I wrote him to come and, soon after joining, he was appointed
troop commissary sergeant. At that time, Levant W. Barnhart was but
nineteen years of age and a boy of remarkable gifts. He was one of the
prize takers in scholarship when he entered the University in 1860, in
the class of 1864. His rise in the volunteers was rapid. Passing
successively through the grades of first sergeant, second and first
lieutenant, he in 1863 was detailed as acting adjutant. While serving in
this position he attracted the notice of General Custer who secured his
appointment by the War Department as assistant adjutant general with the
rank of captain. He served on the staff of General Custer till the war
closed--succeeding Jacob L. Greene. For one of his age his record as
scholar and soldier was of exceptional brilliancy. He was barely
twenty-one when he went on Custer's staff, who was himself not much more
than a boy in years. (Custer was but twenty-six when Lee surrendered at
Appomattox.)

George Gray, "lieutenant colonel commanding," was a lawyer of brilliant
parts, a good type of the wit