es was concerned, threw the riflemen out
of the battle; for their bullets were in danger of bringing down some
of the blue as well as the gray.

Captain Ripley perceived this difficulty, and ordered his men, as
usual, by passing the word from mouth to mouth along his line, for his
men to give their attention to the second company of the enemy's
infantry, which had just begun to mount the bank from the low ground.
Colonel Wolford, in command of the First Kentucky Cavalry, was in
another part of the field, pursuing the retreating regiments in their
ten miles of flight from the hills, where the brunt of the action had
been fought; and Major Lyon was in charge of the detachment sent to
assist in flanking the enemy in this quarter.

The staff-officer had ordered up this cavalry. He had mounted his
horse, and given the order in person, going on the field in actual
command of the force, leading it to the point where the second company
were mounting the bank. Portions of the enemy's army had been well
drilled, though this could not be said of all; and General Crittenden
in his reports lamented the want of discipline in some of his
regiments. General Schoepf was more emphatic and decided in regard to
this same want of drill on the part of the Union mounted men. In the
report of a skirmish he says:--

"The cavalry under my command, as usual, behaved badly. They are a
nuisance, and the sooner they are disbanded the better.... Is there no
such thing as obtaining a regiment of _reliable_ cavalry? Such a
regiment is indispensable with this brigade at this time. The absence
of such troops has kept me in the saddle until I am nearly worn down
with fatigue."

Such remarks could not have been made of the Riverlawn Squadron; for
its men had been as thoroughly drilled as those in the regular army,
and the character of its troopers was much better than the average. It
is not strange that there should have been a foundation for the severe
comments of the general in the case of men enlisted, and almost
immediately hurried into actual service, as was necessary in some parts
of the State, though his caustic strictures were not applicable to all
the mounted men of Kentucky.

Such ruffians as those against whom the battle of Riverlawn was fought,
at an earlier stage of the war, had found their way to a greater or
less extent into the Union army. But, whatever might have been truly
said of portions of the cavalry, it was not true of the comp