546 NortH Carotina Troops, 1861-’65.

this was because of the longer service of thé First in Vir-
ginia and because of some peculiar advantages from its
earliest, dashing, Murat-like field and other officers and espe-
cially because of its opportunities for fame ahead of the other
regiments. But the Fifth was actually just as good as the
First in every way and either regiment of the brigade was
worthy to ride in the front rank of “The Old Guard” in
a charge or fight, dismounted, side by side with the best Brit-
ish infantry of to-day. The First, fortunately for itself,
simply won its great fame earlier and most worthily main-
tained it to the end. And the officers of the First have most
beautifully and harmoniously vied with each other in perpet-
uating that fame, as can readily be seen by reading its splen-
did history in the first of these volumes. I wish that in
North Carolina’s “Temple of Fame” there were such glorious
paintings, deservedly glorious paintings, of each regiment of
our great cavalry brigade as the officers of the First, have in
unison, made for it; where, Aeneas-like, the children of the im-
mortal men of that brigade, regardless of regiments, together
could stand and say: Of all these glories our fathers were
“a great part.” And it painfully hurts me that I cannot
make such a painting for the Fifth North Carolina Cavalry.

THE AUTHENTICITY OF THIS PAPER.

1. It is based largely on the printed reports of Confederate
and Federal cavalry officers in that great work published by
the United States Government and entitled Oficial Records of
the Union and Confederate Armies. To the volumes of
which I will refer by their serial number as Vol. —, p. —.
The serial number is in figures on back of all the books after
and including No. 36.

Every Confederate soldier and their children for all time
should ever be grateful to the United States for the publica-
tion of those records. They make complete and eternal the
fame of our dead Confederacy as nothing else could. And
when, in the distant future, far from the sound of the guns
and untouched by any of the feelings of our war, the great,
cool, philosophical historian, whom God shall give this be-
loved republic, under the guidance of the “spirit of truth”

Sixtry-Turrp REGIMENT. 547

and seeking the truth and the truth alone for the love of
truth, shall have given his entire life to a careful examination
and study of those great volumes and shall have fully and
faithfully done his work, as he will, it will reflect the splen-
dors and glories of the South for the admiration of the ages,
the stigma of “rebellion” all forever gone under the light of
truth.

2. I have recently visited and talked with every member
of the regiment I could reach and taken down, in their pres-
ence, their memories. I have written to many others whom I
could not see and asked their recollections. Some have most
kindly and generously helped me and some have not. And
where any deserved mention of the regiment or any member
of it is not made I am not responsible. I did not see it all
and could not remember it if I had. But I did my best to
get personal incidents especially.

3. Asa courier at headquarters of the North Carolina Cay-
alry Brigade, I had a large scope of observation and I used
it. In this capacity I had the very best opportunities to com-
pare and judge the regiments of this brigade in their camps,
and on their marches and especially as I rode, with orders,
along their lines of battle. My judgment of the regiments
of the brigade is, therefore, the result of careful comparison,
without which no judgment is good.

4, And it is also based on printed “Sketches of the North
Carolina Cavalry Brigade,” which I published in the Concord
Sun in April, 1881, from “full notes and official reports,”
made contemporaneously with the events. Of these sketches
General Barringer and Colonel Cheek, Colonel of the First
North Carolina Cavalry, wrote as follows to the editor of the
Sun, at the time of their publication.

General Barringer wrote thus:

Cuartorter, N. C., May 3, 1881.

Mr. Wade H. Harris, Editor of The Sun, Concord, N. C.:

Dear Str: I have read with very great interest “Sketches
of the North Carolina Cavalry Brigade,” by Colonel P. B.
Means, and I have often been asked if these articles give au-
thentic reports of the operations of my old command. I am