Sketches (Reminiscences) of the Campaign of General Floyd (contd.)

There we assembled & were about to partake
of a bounteous & splendid repast when in
rushed a messenger breathless with excitement
& bore tidings from Davis that the enemy were
at Meadow Bluff & advancing upon Lewisburg.
All was haste & excitement. The General seemed
delighted at the prospect of a fight but
expressed his disbelief of the report. This was
8 o'clock P.M. A hasty meal was taken & an
unceremonious departure for camp.
By 5 o'clock we were on the march to
meet the enemy. In my hurry I brought
no baggage excepting a blanket behind
my Saddle. Onward we marched until we
arrived in the night near Meadow Bluff
12 mls. from Lewisburg. That night no
enemy attacked us, nor the next day.
Scouting parties of the enemy came in con-
tact with Col. Davis' cavalry a few miles
west of Meadow Bluff & he, with fertile
imagination, magnified the barking
of the squirrel into the roar of the majestic
lion. From this time our watchword was
onward. Our marches from day to day were
short in order that Gen. Wise with 3
regiments might overtake us, which
he did when we came to the top of Big
Sewel Mountain. The campaign thus
far would have been dull & uninteresting
in the extreme, had ^'not' the gallant Col.
Lucius Davis headed our scouting
parties, & diverted us daily, nightly, &
almost hourly by his peculiar & charac-
teristic dispatches, which would more
properly have emanated from the brain
of some heroic bard, whose dreams
were only of wars, military disasters
& successes, for in his emphatically
ridiculous communications, he fought
& planed more battles than Homer
ever ascribed to the warlike Hector or
Achilles. It may here be remarked that
history relates no instances of men
so peculiarly, so unfortunately tender
on their flanks & in rear as the follow-
ing two men, Gen. Wise & Col. Davis.
No movement could be proposed or
executed that they did not express
their fear, & unbounded horror of
a flank or rear attack, thereby exposing
[word line out] their tenderness on those points
to the ridicule of all.

James Lucius Davis, 1813-1871. Author of "The Trooper's Manual: or, Tactics for light dragoons and mounted riflemen." Colonel of the 46th Virginia and later the 10th Virginia Cavalry. Wounded and taken prisoner at Gettysburg.