l Howard reported
that heavy clouds of dust were seen rising above the trees on his right,
indicating that a large force of cavalry was moving in that direction.
General Custer with his brigade, which belonged to General Kilpatrick's
division but had been under General Gregg's orders, was about to return
to Kilpatrick, who was on the left of the army, when General Gregg
proposed to Custer that, in view of an attack from a strong force which
now seemed imminent, he remain with him, which Custer gladly consented
to do.

[Illustration: MAJOR GENERAL GEORGE A. CUSTER]

I described Custer as he appeared when, as a captain, he was with us at
Aldie about two weeks before, where, after his ducking, he voluntarily
led repeated charges of Kilpatrick's men, attracting the attention of
every one present by his conspicuous gallantry. Within that two weeks
he, with Farnsworth, Merritt, and Kilpatrick, had been made
brigadier-generals. Kilpatrick was given the command of Stahl's
division, Farnsworth one of his brigades, and Custer a brigade of four
Michigan regiments. In marked contrast with Custer's costume on the day
of the fight at Aldie, he now appeared in a uniform consisting of a
black velvet jacket and trousers, with a gold cord on the seam of his
trousers and the gilt stripes of a brigadier-general on his arm. He
wore a man-o-war's man's shirt with the wide collar out on his
shoulders, on each point of which was worked a silver star indicating
his rank of brigadier-general. The neck was open, just as a man-o'-war's
man has his, and he wore a sailor's tie. On this day he wore a small
cap. It was said at the time, that some months before, soon after he
came out of West Point, friends tried to secure for him the colonelcy of
the Fifth Michigan cavalry, at this time commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel
Russell A. Alger, but, like many volunteers of that period, the men, in
their inexperience, preferred officers from the civilians who came out
with them, and declined to have Custer. It therefore happened that the
man they refused to have as their colonel was sent to be their general,
and under his leadership the Michigan cavalry brigade became famous.

The enemy had placed some batteries on our left and front, and advanced
from the woods in our front. Colonel McIntosh's brigade met their
attacks, a part of his command being dismounted. His entire force soon
became hotly engaged, and also the Fifth and Sixth Michigan regiments.
Genera