junction with Custer, both
brigades were ready to take the offensive; at any rate the enemy
withdrew.

An amusing incident that occurred after Custer's men had gotten over
Broad Run and were being rallied was told me, to the effect that an
Irishman rode up to Kilpatrick, who was riding his horse called "Spot,"
a speckled roan with a white rump, saying: "I say, 'Kil,' stop here, and
the boys will see your horse and they will rally round you, so they
will." This the General did, resulting as the Irishman had predicted.

In December General Custer was temporarily in command of the division,
and on his recommendation I was allowed a furlough of ten days. During
that ten days I dined one evening with Admiral Hiram Paulding, then in
command of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. (His son had been a schoolmate and
the Admiral had known me before the war.) He questioned me as to my
position in the field, and expressed considerable surprise when I told
him I was not a commissioned officer, and quite embarrassed me, as there
were a number of prominent officers at the table, by slapping me on the
back and in a loud voice, to attract the attention of all present,
stating that he was proud to sit alongside of a private soldier of the
United States Army, and a gentleman. He then asked me to call upon him
the next morning, when he gave me a letter addressed to the Hon. John
Potts, the chief clerk of the War Department and an old friend of his,
which recommended me for a commission. I never presented this
letter,[3] however. He subsequently wrote letters[3] to Governor
Seymour, and Adjutant-General D. Townsend, U. S. A., copies of which he
gave me, and to General Kilpatrick. General Kilpatrick later gave me a
copy of the one he received.[3]

About this time, General Kilpatrick, hearing that my friends at home had
interested themselves in the matter of procuring me a commission, wrote
a letter to the Hon. George T. Cobb, an influential member of Congress
from New Jersey, a copy of which Captain L. G. Estes, his
adjutant-general, gave me.[3] In February an order from the War
Department discharging me as a private from the Harris Light Cavalry to
accept a commission in the Twenty-fourth New York cavalry was received
at General Kilpatrick's headquarters at Stevensburg. I did not care to
leave the General and went to him for advice; yet the idea of going home
on a furlough with promotion was quite attractive, and the General told
me that he thought,