662 "COLE'S CAVALRY," FIRST REGIMENT POTOMAC HOME BRIGADE CAVALRY.

The regiment was now assigned to Merritt's Cavalry Division of Torbert's Cavalry
Corps, Army of the Shenandoah.

In the autumn of 1862, the armies of Sheridan and Early alternately advanced up
and down the Shenandoah Valley, the cavalry corps, including "Cole's Cavalry," being
almost constantly engaged, until Sheridan, by his brilliant battles at Opequan (Win-
chester), Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek, effectually destroyed Early's Confederate
Army and compelled its remnants to retreat towards the James river.

A raiding party of the enemy's cavalry, under General Rosser, into Western Vir-
ginia, in the winter of 1864-5, necessitated the sending of "Cole's Cavalry" into West Vir-
ginia to protect that section, and the subsequent capture and burning of trains on the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, in Western Virginia, by Mosby's Guerrillas, compelled the
command to be assigned to duty in West Virginia during the remainder of the Civil War.

On the 28th day of June, 1865, "Cole's Cavalry" was mustered out of the military ser-
vice of the United States, at Harper's Ferry, Va., by orders of the War Department,
and, by reason of the close of war, proceeded thence to Baltimore, where the regiment
was finally discharged.

"Cole's Cavalry," during its nearly four years of active, arduous service in scouting
and raiding in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, from Gettysburg,
Pa., to Lynchburg, Va., from the Potomac river south to the James river, and west
to the Kanawha and the Ohio river, marched over seven thousand (7000) miles.

The death list of "Cole's Cavalry" was as follows : Killed in battle, two (2) com-
missioned officers and forty-five (45) enlisted men; total forty-seven (47); died of wounds,
in prison, etc., two (2) commissioned officers and one hundred and twenty (120) enlisted
men; total, one hundred and twenty-two (122); or an aggregate death list of one hun-
dred and sixty-nine (169).

"Cole's Cavalry" participated in the following skirmishes, engagements and battles
during the Civil War, either by company, detachments, battalions or as a regiment, viz.:
South Branch Bridge, Va., October 26, 1861; Hancock, Md., January 5 and 6, 1862;
Bloomery Gap, Va., February 14, 1862; Martinsburg, Va., March 3, 1862 ; Bunker
Hill, Va'., March 5, 1862; Stephenson's Depot, Va., March 7 and 8, 1862; Winches-
ter, Va., March 12, 1862; Kernstown, Va., March 22 and 23, 1862 ; Edinburg, Va.,
April 1, 1862; Grass Lick, Va., April 23, 1862; Wordensfield, Va., May 7, 1862;
Charlestown, Va., May 28, 1862 ; Leesburg, Va., September 2, 1862 ; Harper's Ferry,
Va., September 13 and 14, 1862; Sharpsburg, Md., September 15, 1862; Hyatts-
town, Md., October 12, 1862; Charlestown, Va., November 14, 1862; Charlestown,
Va., December 2, 1862; Berryville, Va., December 3, 1862; Winchester, Va.,
December 5, 1862; Hall Town, Va., December 20, 1862; Berryville, Va., June 13,
1863 ; Martinsburg, Va,, June 14, 1863 ; Williamsport, Md., June 15, 1863; Catoctin
Creek, June 17, 1863; Sharpsburg, Md., July, 1863; Fountain Dale, Pa., July 1,
1863; Frederick, Md., June 22, 1863; Gettysburg, Pa., July 1 to 3, 1863; Emmits-
burg, Md., July 5, 1863; Falling Waters, July 6, 1863; Harper's Ferry, July 6,
1863 ; Catoctin Mountain, Va., September 14, 1863; Snickersville, Leesburg, Rector's
X Roads and Bloomfield, Va., September, 1863 ; Upperville, Va., September 25, 1863 ;
Charlestown, Va., October 18, 1863; Mt. Jackson, Va., November 17, 1863; Wood-
stock and Ashby's Gap, November, 1863 ; Upperville, Va., December 10, 1863 ; Edin-