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CHAPTER VII.

For the next few days the battalion was engaged in skirmishing about Hanover
Court House, the enemy occupying them there whilst his columns were crossing at
Dabney's Ferry, and pressing on toward Richmond.

On the 1st of June, 1864, the enemy moved on the South Anna bridges,
Johnson's small command of one hundred and fifty sabres and Griffin's Baltimore
Light Artillery contesting every foot of ground in a fight lasting from daylight
until 2 o'clock in the afternoon, when they were driven back by a brigade of the
enemy's cavalry.

In this encounter the First Maryland Cavalry suffered an irreparable loss in
the death of the noble Lieutenant-Colonel Ridgely Brown, who was killed by a
stray bullet when all was comparatively calm, and no fighting going on. In many
respects Ridgely Brown reminded one of the heroic and lamented Turner Ashby.
A Christian gentleman, quiet, unassuming, dashing, brave, and, like all brave men,
generous to a fault, Colonel Brown was the idol of his command, and his men
never hesitated to follow his lead, it made no difference how desperate the
undertaking. Like Ashby, after having survived a hundred fierce fights, though
wounded time and again, he lost his life in a comparatively insignificant
skirmish. In the death of Colonel Brown, Colonel Johnson lost an officer who had
been invaluable to him, for to his sound judgment and advice that officer attributed
much of his success in thwarting Kilpatrick and Dahlgren in their designs
against Richmond.

In a general order issued on the 6th of June Colonel Johnson thus speaks
of his death :

HEADQUARTERS MARYLAND LINE, June 6, 1864.
General Order No. 26.

Lieutenant-Colonel Ridgely Brown, commanding First Maryland Cavalry, fell in battle
on the 1st instant, near the South Anna. He died, as a soldier prefers to die, leading his men
in a victorious charge. As an officer, kind and careful; as a soldier, brave and true; as a
gentleman, chivalrous; as a Christian, gentle and modest; no one in the Confederate Army
surpassed him in the hold he had on the hearts of his men, and the place in the esteem of his
superiors. Of the rich blood that Maryland has lavished on every battle-field, none is more
precious than his, and that of our other brave comrades in arms who fell during the four days
previous on the hillsides of Hanover. His command has lost a friend most steadfast, but his
commanding officer is deprived of an assistant invaluable. To the first he was ever as careful
as a ftther; to the latter as true as a brother.