History of Pennsylvania volunteers, 1861-5; prepared in compliance with acts of the legislature, by Samuel P. Bates.

ONE HTUNDRED AND SIXTY-THIRD,
]EIGHTEENTH CAVALRY.
HE troops for this regiment were recruited in the city of Philapelphia, and
in the counties of Greene, Crawford, Allegheny, Chester, Somerset,
Westmoreland, Luzerne, Susquehanna, Dauphin, Washington, Fayette, Bucks,
Lycoming, Indiana, and Cumberland, during the fall and winter of 1862.
They rendezvoused at Camp Curtin, where a partial organization was effected,
and horses were furnished, but without equipments. On the 8th of December,
the command moved to a camp at Bladensburg, Maryland, near Washington.
Here it was partially armed and equipped, and its drill commenced. On the
ist of January, 1863, it went into Virginia, and encamped near the head of
Long Bridge, and two weeks later proceeded to Germantown, two miles from
Fairfiax Court House, on the Little River Turnpike. About the 1st of February, companies L, and M, which had hitherto been wanting for a full complement, were added, and the organization was completed with the following field
officers: Timothy M. Bryan, Jr., Colonel; James Gowan, Lieutenant Colonel;
Joseph Gilmore, William B. Darlington, and Henry B. Van Voorhis, Majors. It
was brigaded with the Fifth New York, and First Vermont Cavalry, under command of Colonel Percy Wyndham, and was immediately placed on duty, picketing the long line covering the defenses of Washington on the Virginia shore, and
scouting on its front. This was an enemy's country, the stamping ground
of Moseby and his guerrillas, and was extremely difficult duty, veterans,
towards the close of the war, often declaring that they had rather go to duty
on the picket line in face of Lee's army, than on this ground. For this
perilous duty, the Eighteenth was armed with only a condemned sabre. The
character of the enemy which it was called to meet, can be gathered by the
following extract from an officer's diary: "They were citizens by day, and
soldiers by night. They would come within the Union lines and learn the
disposition of our pickets, and then with sufficient force, surround and capture
an out-post by night. When pursued, they scattered to their homes, and were
citizens again. If arrested and sent to Washington, they took the oath of
allegiance and were released. Some of our forces went to a house near Aldie,
and were told by the lady of the house that her husband was very sick, and
could not be seen; but they insisted, and actually found the gentlemen in bed
with his boots and spurs on. They did not pretend to fight in the open field.
Colonel Moseby said to a Union officer in Richmond, in 1864, that fighting
was not his business; that he cared nothing for taking prisoners; he only
wanted horses, arms, and equipments, to sell to the Confederate authorities/'2
The arms of the Eighteenth were not suited -to Moseby's wants, and on