1st Louisiana Regulars Infantry Regiment, Shiloh, Movement to Corinth and scouting
When Lew Wallace's division debarked at Crump's Landing on 13 March, Adams led a detachment that reconnoitered the Union positions, burning cotton bales owned by Unionists. Wallace sent out cavalry on the same day to conduct an expedition towards the Mobile and Ohio Railroad near Purdy, Tennessee, where Gladden had stationed 700 infantry of the regiment and the 22nd Alabama; the cavalrymen skirted Purdy to damage a bridge before Wallace reembarked.


1st Louisiana Regulars Infantry Regiment, Shiloh, Movement to Corinth and scouting
William Tecumseh Sherman's division, attempting to cut the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, landed at Tyler's Landing near Yellow Creek on 14 March, sending out companies from the 5th Ohio Cavalry to conduct reconnaissance. The latter drove in the pickets of Jaquess' detachment of the regiment watching the area. Jaquess decided not to engage due to the small size of his force and retreated to Farmington due to lack of rations and heavy rains. The rains made the roads in the area impassable, forcing Sherman to turn back before achieving his objective.


1st Louisiana Regulars Infantry Regiment, Shiloh, Movement to Corinth and scouting
In the next two weeks, five divisions of Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee encamped on the western bank of the Tennessee River at Pittsburg Landing, but the Union troops did not entrench, not expecting an attack. There, they awaited the arrival of Don Carlos Buell's Army of the Ohio pending an attack on Corinth.


1st Louisiana Regulars Infantry Regiment, Shiloh, Prelude and 6 April
Johnston decided to attack before Buell could arrive, and on 3 April the regiment left Corinth with the army. For the Battle of Shiloh, the regiment was part of Gladden's brigade of Brigadier General Jones M. Withers' division of Bragg's corps, together with the 21st, 22nd, 25th, and 26th Alabama. After marching along crowded, packed roads, Bragg's corps arrived in its starting positions for the battle on 5 April. The corps was tasked with attacking behind William J. Hardee's corps against the Union left to turn the opposing flank and cut Grant's army off from the Tennessee River. Gladden's brigade moved forward to take position in Hardee's line, partially filling a gap between the end of the latter and Lick Creek, with the 1st Louisiana positioned on the far right.


1st Louisiana Regulars Infantry Regiment, Shiloh, Prelude and 6 April
When Gladden's brigade began its attack around 08:00 on the next morning against Colonel Madison Miller's brigade of Benjamin Prentiss' division, the Union troops were not surprised as the battle had already been in progress for some time. Advancing toward the open Spain Field up a gradual rise, the brigade was exposed to volleys from Miller's brigade, which inflicted heavy losses. Gladden was mortally wounded leading the 26th Alabama, which had become disorganized due to the terrain in the march to the battlefield and come up on the right of the 1st Louisiana. Adams took command of the brigade, which retreated under the pounding, covered by Robertson's Alabama Battery. In the absence of Jaquess, Farrar became acting regimental commander.


1st Louisiana Regulars Infantry Regiment, Shiloh, Prelude and 6 April
Chalmers' brigade came up on the right, outflanking Miller, and Adams, holding the colors of the 1st Louisiana, ordered an advance at the double-quick against the 18th Missouri and 61st Illinois on Miller's right, supported by the fire of Robertson's battery. The outnumbered Union troops broke under the pressure of Chalmers' and Gladden's brigades, abandoning their tents, where men of the 1st Louisiana captured seven stands of colors. The regiment lost 28 killed and 89 wounded in the initial fighting; among the dead was Company G Captain John Thomas Wheat, the former secretary of the Louisiana secession convention. Prentiss' division quickly unraveled and the Confederates paused to loot the abandoned camp.


1st Louisiana Regulars Infantry Regiment, Shiloh, Prelude and 6 April
Johnston, moving forward to direct the action, incorrectly believed that he had found the Union left and began the anticipated turning movement. Gladden's brigade was ordered out of the camp shortly after 09:00 and pushed forward to exchange fire at long range against W. H. L. Wallace's division, deploying for battle. After Johnston learned of Gladden's wounding, he pulled the brigade back and replaced it with John K. Jackson's brigade. The brigade, positioned in reserve in Prentiss' camp to reform, later formed square in the erroneous anticipation of a Union cavalry attack.


1st Louisiana Regulars Infantry Regiment, Shiloh, Prelude and 6 April
In the next several hours the regiment and its brigade replenished their ammunition. Adams was wounded about 11:30 and command of the brigade fell to 22nd Alabama Colonel Zachariah C. Deas. In the late afternoon, the brigade participated in the flanking and encirclement of Prentiss' reformed division at the Hornet's Nest, with the 1st Louisiana being ordered to advance by Bragg with the exhortation "My old bodyguard I see your ranks are thinner but enough are yet left to carry your flag to victory—Forward". They ran into stubborn resistance, but Prentiss' encircled troops surrendered around 17:30.


1st Louisiana Regulars Infantry Regiment, Shiloh, Prelude and 6 April
As the day came to a close, the 1st Louisiana and 22nd Alabama left behind the other three regiments and advanced under Deas' command when Bragg ordered a final assault at 18:00, with the Louisianans on the right to the left of Jackson's brigade. They crossed the deep Dill Branch ravine, "hugging the ground" to dodge artillery fire, which stopped forward progress. General P. G. T. Beauregard, who had taken command of the army after Johnston was mortally wounded in the afternoon, soon ordered a halt to rest for the next day. With the regiments exhausted and low on ammunition, Deas encamped the two regiments to the rear for the night, finding the Louisiana Regulars with just 101 men present for duty and the 22nd Alabama similarly reduced.


1st Louisiana Regulars Infantry Regiment, Shiloh, 7 April
While the Confederates spent a wet and uncomfortable night, Buell's army and Lew Wallace's division reached the field, the latter from Crump's Landing. The Union troops counterattacked on the morning of 7 April and Deas brought the 1st Louisiana and 22nd Alabama up on the left of Colonel Robert Russell's Tennessee brigade after 10:00, holding the far left of the Confederate line west of the Jones Field towards Owl Creek with the regiment still to the left of the Alabamians. Bragg, separated from his corps, commanded the troops on this section of the Confederate line, and Russell took command of a composite division that included the regiment.


1st Louisiana Regulars Infantry Regiment, Shiloh, 7 April
Deas' regiments were advancing when skirmishers from Lew Wallace's division outflanked them, forcing a retreat. In intense fighting amidst the hills and valleys of the Crescent Field, they engaged two brigades of Wallace's division for half an hour, with attacks failing against the weight of the Union numbers. The regiments were steadily forced back until 13:00, when Wallace outflanked them again. Falling back, they participated in Beareaugard's final attack launched at 16:00, buying time for the Confederate retreat, with Deas' command reduced to roughly 60 men. With the army, the 1st Louisiana retreated back to Corinth, unpursued by the victorious Union troops. In the two days of the battle, the regiment suffered 232 casualties.


1st Louisiana Regulars Infantry Regiment, Corinth to surrender
After the Battle of Shiloh ended, Adams never returned to the 1st Louisiana Regulars, being promoted to command of another brigade. Jaquess succeeded him as colonel on 23 May, with Farrar becoming lieutenant colonel and Company F Captain James Strawbridge major. The regiment went on to participate in the Siege of Corinth between 29 April and 11 June before retreating with the army to Tupelo, Mississippi. By 30 June, the regiment was assigned to Colonel Arthur M. Manigault's brigade of Withers' Reserve Corps as part of Bragg's army, but was on detached duty.


1st Louisiana Regulars Infantry Regiment, Corinth to surrender
In July, Bragg entrained the infantry of the army for Chattanooga, Tennessee via Mobile, while the regiment marched there overland with the army wagon trains. When the 21st Louisiana Infantry Regiment, its strength much reduced by disease and desertion, was disbanded by Bragg's order on 25 July, the 1st Louisiana Regulars received at least 99 men from the regiment. These men ultimately proved unreliable as a high percentage of them later took the oath of allegiance to the Union after being captured.


1st Louisiana Regulars Infantry Regiment, Corinth to surrender
The 1st Louisiana Regulars were part of Withers' division during the Confederate invasion of Kentucky between 28 August and 19 October. It missed the Battle of Perryville because Withers' Division was detached to support other Confederate forces near Lexington on the day before Perryville, 7 October. The regiment retreated into Tennessee with the army and encamped at Tullahoma. It suffered 102 casualties at the Battle of Stones River between 31 December and 2 January 1863. Farrar was mortally wounded in the battle and died the day after it ended.


1st Louisiana Regulars Infantry Regiment, Corinth to surrender
For his conduct at Stones River, Jaquess was court martialed and cashiered on 13 February, being replaced as colonel by Strawbridge. Strawbridge, having moved up to lieutenant colonel after Farrar's death, became the final colonel of the regiment. Major F.M. Kent became lieutenant colonel and Company H Captain S.S. Batchelor became major. After supporting the army reserve artillery in the spring and summer of that year, the 1st Louisiana Regulars were temporarily consolidated with the 8th Arkansas Infantry to fight in the Battle of Chickamauga between 19 and 20 September.


1st Louisiana Regulars Infantry Regiment, Corinth to surrender
Due to further losses at Chickamauga, the regiment was assigned as army headquarters guard during the Chattanooga campaign, reduced to less than a hundred men. Continuing headquarters guard duty into the early spring of 1864 at Dalton, Georgia, the regiment joined Randall L. Gibson's Louisiana brigade in April. Kent died on 2 April and was replaced by Batchelor; Company I Captain Douglas West became major. It participated in the marches of the Atlanta campaign but saw little action until the 28 July Battle of Ezra Church. Among those killed at Ezra Church was Company G Captain William H. Sparks. After the fall of Atlanta, the regiment participated in the Franklin–Nashville Campaign, including the Battle of Nashville between 15 and 16 December.


1st Louisiana Regulars Infantry Regiment, Corinth to surrender
After the defeat of the army at Nashville, the regiment and its brigade were sent to Mobile in February 1865. There, the regiment was consolidated with the 16th and 20th Louisiana Infantry and the 4th Louisiana Battalion during the month to form a combined unit under 16th Louisiana Colonel Robert Lindsay that totalled 103 effectives. The regiment fought at the Battle of Spanish Fort between 27 March and 8 April. After the evacuation from Mobile, they surrendered at Gainesville, Alabama on 12 May. During the war, the regiment's dead numbered 176 killed in action, 52 of disease, two by accident, one murdered, and two executed.


1st Luftwaffe Field Division
The 1st Luftwaffe Field Division (German: 1. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division) was an infantry division of the Luftwaffe branch of the Wehrmacht that fought in World War II. It was formed using surplus ground crew of the Luftwaffe and served on the Eastern Front from late 1942 to early 1944 at which time it was disbanded.


1st Luftwaffe Field Division, Operational history
The 1st Luftwaffe Field Division, the first of several such divisions, was formed in mid-1942 in Königsberg, Eastern Prussia, under the command of Oberst Gustav Wilke. Intended to serve as infantry, its personnel were largely drawn from surplus Luftwaffe (German Air Force) ground crew. The division included four battalions of infantry, as well as artillery, engineer and signal units although it lacked regimental staff. After training was completed in December 1942 it was sent to Army Group North as part of the 18th Army although still under Luftwaffe command. Stationed near Novgorod, it was transferred to the Army in December 1943. The division saw little fighting until the withdrawal from Leningrad in January 1944 during which it was involved in heavy defensive battles north of Novgorod.


1st Luftwaffe Field Division, Operational history
The division's personnel were inadequately trained for its role as infantry and due to the heavy losses incurred in the Soviet attacks of the 1943/1944 winter, the division itself was disbanded shortly afterwards. Its surviving personnel were absorbed by the 28th Jager Division.


1st Luftwaffe Field Division, War commentary
11400 graves of soldiers of the 1st Luftwaffe Field Division are found at the war cemetery in Veliky Novgorod.


1st Lumières Awards
The 1st Lumières Awards ceremony, presented by the Académie des Lumières, was held on 29 January 1996. The ceremony was chaired by Isabella Rossellini. La Haine won two awards including Best Film and Best Director.


1st Lux Style Awards
The 2002 Lux Style Awards, officially known as the 1st Lux Style Awards ceremony, presented by the Lux Style Awards, honours the best films of 2001 and took place between 18–20 February 2002. The programme was developed by Naheed Chowdhry, who co-created the concept with Frieha Altaf, the producer of the tv series Lux Style Ki Duniya. "I wanted to ensure that there was a sustainable legacy created  that impartially assessed contributors and gave back to society through scholarships in the arts and culture arena", says Chowdhry. "One that would go on to be recognised as the 'Oscars' of Pakistan."


1st Lux Style Awards
This year, the city of Karachi played host to the Pakistani Film Industry.


1st Lux Style Awards
The official ceremony took place on 18 February 2002, at the Karachi Naval Base, in Karachi. During the ceremony, Lux Style Awards were awarded in 27 competitive categories. The ceremony was televised in Pakistan and internationally on ARY Digital. Actor Reema Khan hosted the ceremony.


1st Lux Style Awards, Background
The Lux Style Awards is an award ceremony held annually in Pakistan since 2002. The awards celebrate "style" in the Pakistani entertainment industry, and honour the country's best talents in film, television, music, and fashion. Around 30 awards are given annually.


1st MMC – Blagoevgrad
1st Multi-member Constituency - Blagoevgrad is a constituency whose borders are the same as Blagoevgrad Province.


1st MMC – Blagoevgrad, Background
In the 2009 Bulgarian parliamentary election, 1st MMC – Blagoevgrad elected 10 members in the Bulgarian National Assembly, 9 of which were through proportionality vote and 1 was through first-past-the-post voting.


1st Macau International Movie Festival
The 1st Macau International Movie Festival ceremony, presented by the Macau Film and Television Media Association and China International Cultural Communication Center, honored the best films of 2008 and 2009 and took place on December 28, 2009, at Macau Tower, in Macau.


1st Macau International Movie Festival
Lan was the biggest winner, receiving two awards (Best Actor and Best Director).


1st Machine Gun Battalion (Australia)
The 1st Machine Gun Battalion was an infantry support unit of the Australian Army that was raised for service during World War I as part of the all volunteer Australian Imperial Force. It was one of five such units raised as part of the AIF during the war. Formed in March 1918, the battalion consisted of four machine gun companies, which had previously existed as independent companies assigned mainly at brigade level.


1st Machine Gun Battalion (Australia)
The battalion consisted of 64 medium machine guns, and took part in the final stages of the war, seeing action during the Allied defensive operations during the German spring offensive and then the Allied Hundred Days Offensive, which finally brought an end to the war. The battalion was disbanded in mid-1919 during the demobilisation of the AIF.


1st Machine Gun Battalion (Australia), History
Assigned to the 1st Division, the unit was formed in France on 2 March 1918 from Australian Machine Gun Corps personnel, following a re-organisation of the AIF, which saw the previously independent machine gun companies that were assigned to each division being grouped together under a battalion structure. Each machine gun battalion had an authorized strength of 46 officers and 890 other ranks. The 1st Machine Gun Battalion consisted of four such companies, each equipped with 16 Vickers medium machine guns. Its constituent companies were the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 21st Machine Gun Companies.


1st Machine Gun Battalion (Australia), History
The first three of these had been formed in Egypt in March 1916, and had been assigned to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Brigades respectively, fighting with them through the early battles of Australia's involvement on the Western Front including Pozieres, Mouquet Farm and the Third Battle of Ypres.


1st Machine Gun Battalion (Australia), History
The 21st Machine Gun Company, however, had been formed in England in February 1917, initially as the 16th Machine Gun Company, with the intention that it would be assigned to the newly formed 16th Brigade, but it was redesignated in March 1917 and assigned to the 1st Division to supplement the brigade machine gun companies. The battalion's first commanding officer was Lieutenant Colonel Iven Mackay, and he led them through their first battle at Hazebrouck during the German spring offensive. After the German offensive was turned back, the battalion took part in the Allied Hundred Days Offensive, which finally brought an end to the war. The battalion was disbanded in mid-1919 during the demobilisation of the AIF.


1st Machine Gun Battalion (Australia), History
The battalion's unit colour patch was a black and gold horizontal rectangle, which was usually worn above the crossed guns badge of the Machine Gun Corps. While the battalion's constituent companies had previously been issued distinctive UCPs, upon the formation of the battalion these were replaced by the single battalion style. The black and gold colours were chosen to signify that the unit as a machine gun unit, while the horizontal rectangle showed that the 1st Machine Gun Battalion was part of the 1st Division, which used the same shape UCP for the majority of its units.


1st Machine Gun Battalion (Australia), History
A total of five such units would be raised by the AIF during the war: the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th. The establishment of machine gun battalions within the AIF was the final step in the evolution of the organisation of direct fire support during the war. At the start of the war, Maxim machine guns had been assigned within line infantry battalions on a limited scale of two per battalion.


1st Machine Gun Battalion (Australia), History
As it was realised that there was a need for increased fire support, this was later increased to four guns per battalion, operated by a section of one officer and 32 other ranks. At the end of the Gallipoli Campaign, the AIF was reorganised, and the machine gun sections within each infantry battalion had been consolidated into companies assigned at brigade level. These companies had consisted of four sections, each equipped with four Vickers guns, operated by 10 officers and 142 other ranks. This had given each division a total of three such companies.


1st Machine Gun Battalion (Australia), History
In early 1917, this had been increased to four companies, with a total establishment of 50 officers and 870 other ranks. In addition, infantry battalions were provided with Lewis machine guns, on a scale of first eight and then up to 20 in 1918. During the final stages of the war, the machine gun battalions proved highly effective, providing both direct and indirect fire support during attacks. In the indirect role, they were used to fire barrages of machine gun fire into the rear areas behind the German defences over a prolonged period.


1st Machine Gun Battalion (Australia), Legacy
After the war, the concept of machine gun battalions was discontinued in the Australian Army and in the 1920s medium machine gun platoons were added to the organization of standard infantry battalions. However, the machine gun battalion was revived again in 1937 as fears of war in Europe surfaced again, and four Australian Light Horse regiments – the 1st, 16th, 17th and 18th – were converted into machine gun regiments. Following the outbreak of World War II, four machine gun battalions were eventually raised as part of the Second Australian Imperial Force, each assigned at divisional level.


1st Machine Gun Battalion (Australia), Legacy
Several more units were raised within the Militia including the 6th and 7th Machine Gun Battalions, which served in New Guinea, while several more light horse regiments were also converted for home defence, including: the 14th, 19th, 25th and 26th. The 5th Machine Gun Battalion was also re-raised and undertook garrison duties as part of Torres Strait Force. At the end of that war, though, the decision was made to return machine guns to the establishment of individual infantry battalions and consequently since then no further machine gun battalions have been raised as part of the Australian Army.


1st Machine Gun Battalion (Australia), Legacy
According to Alexander Rodger, as a result of the decision not to re-raise machine gun battalions in the early interwar years, no battle honours were subsequently awarded to the 1st Machine Gun Battalion – or any other First World War machine gun battalion – as there was no equivalent unit to perpetuate the honours when they were promulgated by the Australian Army in 1927.


1st Machine-Gun Squadron (New Zealand)
The 1st Machine-Gun Squadron was a sub-unit of the New Zealand Military Forces during the First World War. It was part of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade, and served with them in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign from 1916 to 1918.


1st Machine-Gun Squadron (New Zealand)
The squadron was formed in Egypt during 1916 by amalgamating three machine-gun sections, belonging to three separate regiments: the Auckland Mounted Rifles, the Canterbury Mounted Rifles and the Wellington Mounted Rifles. Each section was initially equipped with two Maxim guns but following their experience in the Gallipoli Campaign, where the value of the guns in attack and defence was realised, their strength was increased to four guns.


1st Machine-Gun Squadron (New Zealand)
The squadron primarily fought against the forces of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, first in Egypt during 1916, then in Palestine and the Jordan Valley in 1917 to 1918.


1st Machine-Gun Squadron (New Zealand), Background
In common with the other national armies in the British Empire, in January 1916 the New Zealand Expeditionary Force was required to form a Machine-Gun Corps. The corps would initially have three companies to serve with the New Zealand Division and a squadron to serve with the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade.


1st Machine-Gun Squadron (New Zealand), Background
The origins of the 1st Machine-Gun Squadron can be traced back to the raising of three machine-gun sections, belonging to three different regiments. These regiments were: the Auckland Mounted Rifles, recruited from the  region around Auckland on the North Island of New Zealand; the Canterbury Mounted Rifles, from the Canterbury region on the South Island of New Zealand; and the Wellington Mounted Rifles from the region around Wellington, also on the North Island. In August 1914, when the sections were formed, they each consisted of two Maxim guns, with one officer in command, and twenty-six other ranks, mounted on twenty riding horses and sixteen draught horses.


1st Machine-Gun Squadron (New Zealand), Background, Formation
On 15 July 1916, the three mounted regiments lost their machine-gun sections, which were amalgamated to form the brigade Machine-Gun Squadron, commanded by Captain Robin P. Harper, DSO, DCM, MC, who had previously been the Brigade Machine-Gun Officer. All the men, horses and their equipment were transferred and were in place by 24 July, when the squadron began training. However, a shortage of equipment meant that they only had six of the newer Vickers machine guns, and six older Maxim guns, which on operations, when not being used, were transported on pack horses.


1st Machine-Gun Squadron (New Zealand), Background, Formation
The full establishment of the Machine-Gun Squadron was eight officers, 222 other ranks and 321 horses. By way of comparison, the regiments they had come from only had an establishment of 523 all ranks. Gun crews normally comprised five or six men. The No.1 in action fired the gun and when needed carried the tripod. The No.2 carried the gun itself, and in action fed the ammunition belt into the gun. Two men, No.3 and No.4, carried all the extra ammunition. There was also a range finder and sometimes a scout or spare man for the gun. Other men in the section were detailed to look after their horses. So well did they perform during operations, by the end of the war the squadron had earned the reputation of being the "most efficient unit" in the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade.


1st Macondo Awards
The 1st Macondo Awards ceremony, presented by the Colombian Academy of Cinematography Arts and Sciences, honored the best audiovisual productions of 2010. It took place on October 21, 2010, at the Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Theatre in Bogotá. The ceremony awarded 12 categories and was broadcast by Señal Colombia.


1st Macondo Awards
The film The Wind Journeys won the award for Best Film.


1st Madras Assembly
The first Legislative Assembly of Madras state was constituted in May 1952. This was following the first election held in Madras state after the Indian Independence.


1st Madras Assembly, Overview
Under the New Constitution of India, The Legislature consists of the Governor and two Houses known as the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly. The Madras Legislative Assembly consisted of 375 seats to be filled by election, distributed in 309 constituencies, 243 single-members constituencies, 62 double-member constituencies in each of which a seat had been reserved for Scheduled Castes and four two-member constituencies in each of which a seat had been reserved for Scheduled Tribes. Three seats were uncontested.


1st Madras Assembly, Overview
In 1953, after the formation of Andhra State which consisting of the Telugu-speaking areas and Bellary district was also merged with the Mysore State which consisting of Kannada speaking area. The Members of the Madras Legislative Assembly was reduced to 231. Consequent on the States Reorganisation Act, the number of members of the Assembly was again reduced to 190.


1st Madras Assembly, Overview
In the 1952 Madras State legislative assembly election, no single party obtained a simple majority to form an independent Government. C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji) of the Indian National Congress became the Chief Minister after a series of re-alignments among various political parties and Independents. Rajaji was resigned in 1954 after the heavy opposition to his Hereditary education policy. In the ensuing leadership struggle, Kamaraj defeated Rajaji's chosen successor C. Subramaniam and became the Chief Minister on 31 March 1954.


1st Madras Assembly, Cabinet, Rajagopalachari's Cabinet
The Cabinet under Rajagopalachari was sworn in on 10 April 1952.


1st Madras Assembly, Cabinet, Kamaraj's Cabinet
Members of cabinet who served between 13 April 1954 - 13 April 1957 under the Chief Ministership of Kamraj are:


1st Magritte Awards
The 1st Magritte Awards ceremony, presented by the Académie André Delvaux, honored the best films of 2010 in Belgium and took place on 5 February 2011 at the Square in the historic site of Mont des Arts, Brussels, beginning at 7:30 p.m. CET. During the ceremony, the Académie André Delvaux presented Magritte Awards in twenty categories. The ceremony, televised in Belgium by BeTV, was produced by José Bouquiaux and directed by Vincent J. Gustin. Film director Jaco Van Dormael presided the ceremony, while actress Helena Noguerra hosted the evening. The pre-show ceremony was hosted by film director Fabrice Du Welz.


1st Magritte Awards
Mr. Nobody won six awards, including Best Film and Best Director for Jaco Van Dormael. Other winners included Illegal, Private Lessons, and A Town Called Panic with two awards each, and The Barons, The Boat Race, Looking for Eric, Paths of Memory, Sleepless Night, and Soeur Sourire with one.


1st Magritte Awards, Background
In 2010, the Académie André Delvaux was established by Patrick Quinet, president of the Francophone Film Producers Association (UPFF), and Luc Jabon, president of Pro Spère, to unite the five branches of the film industry: actors, directors, producers, technicians and writers. It aims to recognize excellence in Belgian francophone cinematic achievements in order to have a Belgian counterpart of the French César Awards. Charly Herscovici, who created the Magritte Foundation, allowed the academy to use the name of the Belgian artist René Magritte.


1st Magritte Awards, Background
Overseen by the Académie André Delvaux, the Magritte Awards replace the Joseph Plateau Awards, which were disestablished in 2007. During the first ceremony, 18 merit categories and two special awards were presented, honoring artists, directors and other personalities of the film industry for their works during the 2009–2010 period.


1st Magritte Awards, Winners and nominees
The nominees for the 1st Magritte Awards were announced on 13 January 2011 at the Square in Mont des Arts, Brussels, by Patrick Quinet and Luc Jabon, co-presidents of the Académie André Delvaux. Illegal received the most nominations with eight total, followed by Mr. Nobody and Private Lessons with seven each. The nominees for the Magritte Awards for Best Short Film and Best Documentary Film were announced on December 29, 2010.


1st Magritte Awards, Winners and nominees
The winners were announced during the awards ceremony on 5 February 2011. Mr. Nobody won six awards, the most for the ceremony: Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay for Jaco Van Dormael, Best Cinematography for Christophe Beaucarne, Best Original Score for Pierre Van Dormael, and Best Editing for Matyas Veress. Illegal and Private Lessons received two acting awards apiece. A Town Called Panic received two technical awards. On 25 January 2011 the Honorary Magritte Award was bestowed posthumously to André Delvaux.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment
The 1st Maine Cavalry Regiment was a volunteer United States cavalry unit from Maine used during the American Civil War.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history
The regiment was organized in Augusta, Maine, on October 31, 1861, and served for three years. The original members were detached from the regiment on September 15, 1864, when their service was up, and mustered out back in Portland on November 25. Later recruits, along with the Maine men of the 1st District of Columbia Cavalry (men recruited in the Augusta, Maine area between January and March 1864 and consolidated into seven companies) and those who chose to reenlist, were retained in the regiment. The regiment was split into three battalions of four companies each. One battalion was made up of former 1st District men and the other two were a mix of 1st Maine veterans and DC men. These three battalions continued until the regiment's mustering out at Petersburg, Virginia, on August 1, 1865.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Initial organization in 1861
Maine had responded to Lincoln and Congress's April 25, 1861, call for ten regiments of infantry of which eight had been organized and left the state by the end of August. That month the federal government had put out a call for five more regiments of infantry, six batteries of light artillery, a company of sharpshooters, and a regiment of cavalry to serve three years.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Initial organization in 1861
This cavalry regiment was intentionally raised at large from all counties of Maine and organized into twelve companies. The regiment's staff consisted of a colonel (COL), lieutenant colonel (LTC), three majors (MAJ), a first (1LT) or second lieutenant (2LT) as adjutant (1LT), surgeon, assistant surgeon, chaplain, regimental quartermaster, regimental commissary of subsistence, and three first (1LT) or second lieutenants (2LT) serving as battalion quartermasters. The regiment rated a sergeant major (SMAJ), a sergeant (SGT) as a chief bugler, a veterinary surgeon, a regimental quartermaster sergeant (QMSGT), regimental commissary sergeant (CSGT), hospital steward, saddler sergeant, sergeant farrier, and an ordnance sergeant.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Initial organization in 1861
A captain (CAPT) commanded each company in the 1st Maine with a first lieutenant and a second lieutenant commanding the two platoons. The company commander also had the aid of a company first sergeant (1SGT) a company quartermaster sergeant, a company commissary sergeant, a farrier, and a sergeant (SGT) acting as the company commander's orderly. Each lieutenant in the platoon had two sergeants, four corporals (CPL), a bugler, and 39 privates (PVT). This gave each company a paper strength of 100 men.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Initial organization in 1861
The regiment had high standards for its recruits and the quality of its mounts. Recruiters were to enlist "none but sound, able-bodied men in all respects, between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five years of correct morals and temperate habits, active, intelligent, vigorous, and hardy, weighing not less than one hundred and twenty-five or more than one hundred and sixty pounds" While the average United States Infantryman was 26 and 5′ 8.25″ tall and 155 pounds, the average United States Cavalryman was the same age but slightly shorter at 5′ 7″ and lighter at 145 pounds). It encamped at Augusta at the State Fairground, renamed Camp Penobscot, where recruits initially learned military discipline and drill. Horses would arrive in December.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Initial organization in 1861
The 1st Maine Volunteer Cavalry Regiment mustered into federal service at Augusta on November 5, 1861, as a three-year volunteer cavalry regiment. It was commanded by COL John Goddard from Cape Elizabeth. A Regular Army cavalry officer, LTC Thomas Hight, was the second-in-command. Another regular, CAPT Benjamin F Tucker served as the Adjutant with the rest of the field and staff officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) being Maine men. In the companies, apart from the Company H commander, CAPT George J. Summat and the 1st Lieutenant in Company L, 1LT Constantine Taylor, all the company officers and NCOs were Maine volunteers.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Initial organization in 1861
The 1st Maine had an advantage in recruiting over the infantry and artillery. Many recruits found the idea of riding rather than walking incredibly attractive. Also, the cavalry had an air of glamor and romance that the other branches did not have:


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Initial organization in 1861
There hung about the cavalry service a dash and an excitement which attracted those men who had read and remembered the glorious achievements of 'Light Horse Harry' and his brigade, and of 'Morgan's Men' in the revolutionary war, or who had devoured the story of 'Charles O'Malley,' and similar works. In short, men who had read much in history or in fiction, preferred the cavalry service.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Initial organization in 1861
It is unclear whether the 1st Maine received either the 1854 cavalry shell jacket or 1857 sack coat or both. The army did issue all ranks the same standard sky-blue double-breasted winter overcoat with attached cape and a rubberized poncho for rainwear. They also received the special sky-blue wool cavalry trousers with the reinforcing double layer in the seat and inside leg due to the expected extended time in the saddle.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862
There were prejudices against the cavalry in the War Department as it was originally thought it would not be of much use during the expected short period of conflict. MGEN George McClellan felt that it took a minimum of two years to professionally train volunteer cavalry and that they would have nothing to do but be couriers and pickets. There was also the added factor that the cost to equip and mount a Union cavalry regiment in 1861 was between $500,000 and $600,000, or roughly twice that of an infantry regiment. Some of the leadership in the command understood the lack of faith:


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862
The men of the south were born horsemen, almost. Old and young were nearly or quite as much at home on horseback as on foot, and the horses, also, were used to the saddle. Therefore, they could put cavalry regiments into the field with great facility and in comparatively good fighting condition, as witness the famous Black Horse Cavalry. In the northern and eastern states, it was different. Equestrianism was almost one of the lost arts.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862
Few, especially in cities, were accustomed to riding, and the great majority of men who would enlist in the cavalry must learn to ride and to use arms on horseback, as well as learn drill, discipline, camp duties, and the duties of service generally. "A sailor on horseback," is a synonym for all that is awkward, but the veriest Jack tar on horseback was no more awkward than was a large proportion of the men who entered the cavalry service in the north and east.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862
While the federal government figured out where to send the regiment, they continued training at the camp living in army issue camp tents through a cold winter. The recruits were soon finding the reality of cavalry life to be quite different from their preconceived notions. The command stressed the importance of caring for their mounts and had a stable built before the first horses arrived. The necessary caring for their means of mobility, their mounts, made the men's days busier and longer than the infantryman's. During the cold, in which the regiment lost 200 men to disease and injuries, the men noted that their horses "had quarters that winter more comfortable than did the men, in comparison with the usual accommodations for man and beast."


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862
When Edwin Stanton replaced the disgraced Simon Cameron as Secretary of War, the 1st Maine narrowly avoided disbandment before they even saw service. They were saved by the intervention of an officer who was impressed by their enthusiasm and rapid learning. As training continued, the men and horses gradually meshed into a cohesive unit overcoming the fact that many horses had no prior experience with being ridden and some of the men had no prior experience riding.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862
COL Goddard resigned his commission on March 1, 1862, and in response, MAJ Samuel H. Allen was commissioned Colonel by the governor and took command. To replace him, CAPT Warren L. Whitney of Company A was promoted to Major. In turn, 1LT Sidney W. Thaxter was made Captain and new Company A commander. Due to being passed over in favor of Allen, LTC Hight resigned and returned to command his company, in the 4th U.S. Cavalry.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862
At that time, the regiment was organized into three battalions: 1st Battalion (under MAJ Warren L. Whitney with companies A, D, E and F), 2nd Battalion (under MAJ Calvin S. Douty with companies B, I, H and M), and 3rd Battalion (under MAJ David P. Stowell with companies C, G, K and L).


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862
Still without weapons, the 1st Maine's training was drawn from the experience and training of the regular army personnel assigned to the regiment and concentrated on getting the men and their horses to work efficiently as a team in the various formations called for by cavalry regulations.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862
The officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) read and studied their copies of two manuals, McClellan's Regulations and Instructions for the Field Service of the United States Cavalry in Time of War and Cooke's, Cavalry Tactics, or, Regulations for the instruction, formations, and movements of the cavalry of the army and volunteers of the United States (both published in 1861 at the start of the conflict). Through these manuals and the guidance of the regulars, the Maine troopers learned the various formations for travel and combat, the basics of setting up pickets and vedettes, and the various bugle calls to command and coordinate all these activities.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862
Dismounted drill was of secondary importance, but it was not forgotten. The lack of sabers was part of the shortage that plagued the U.S. volunteer cavalry organizations during the first year of the war led to "some ludicrous improvisations." The 1st Maine's solution was to buy wooden laths:


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862
Some time during the winter laths were procured, for the purpose of learning and practicing the sabre exercise. These were made into swords of the most grotesque shape by the men, and the exercise was looked upon very generally as a farce, was 1aughed at by outsiders, and was discontinued after a very short time; yet there is no doubt that the rudiments of the use of the sabre learned with the aid of those wooden swords was never forgotten, and proved to be of advantage when the real sabre was put into the hands of the· men. No arms were furnished, except a few old muskets for use on guard duty, till the regiment arrived at Washington."


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, Departure for Washington and the front
Finally, in March the regiment was ordered to the front in Virginia. 1st Battalion left for Washington on Friday, March 14, 1862, under command of COL Allen, arriving on Wednesday, the 19th without COL Allen who had fallen sick and was hospitalized in New York City. Delayed by a late winter snowstorm, 2nd Battalion departed Augusta on Thursday, March 20, under MAJ. Douty, arriving on Monday, the 24th. On that day, 3rd Battalion under MAJ Stowell left and pulled into DC on the 28th.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, Departure for Washington and the front
The battalions all entrained in box cars in Augusta, eight horses and men per box car, and rode to New York city via Portland, Boston, and Providence. After a ferry across the Hudson, the detachments had a more comfortable transit to Washington with the horses in the box cars, but the men in passenger cars.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, Departure for Washington and the front
As each company in the regiment detrained and reported at the Washington Depot or New Jersey Avenue Station, each trooper received his official government arms issue of a Model 1860 Light Cavalry Saber and a pair of Colt Model 1860 revolver. The regiment also received an issue of ten breech-loaded Sharps Carbines per company, however, by now, a number of the regiment's men had privately purchased breech-loaded Sharps, Burnsides, Smith, and Merrill carbines in Maine before departure or from one of the merchants along the rail route, to give themselves a weapon with a greater range. This meant that the 1st Maine had a slightly higher proportion of carbines than the average U.S. Volunteer cavalry regiment. In Washington, the regiment pitched their tents with other reinforcements on Capitol Hill on the 29th. In camp, the regiment immediately began grinding and sharpening their newly issued blades.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, Departure for Washington and the front
On Sunday, March 30, the regiment received orders to send send five companies to Harper's Ferry and join the Federal troops providing security for the Baltimore & Ohio's link between Washington and the Ohio Valley. On that day, the line had reopened, and the War Department wanted to guard it against rebel raids. MAJ Douty took five companies with the largest number of carbines and organized them into a new 1st Battalion. The remainder of the regiment would stay in Washington awaiting the return of COL Allen. The regiment, "five months after its organization, was at Washington, armed and equipped, and a portion of it under marching orders."


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, Departure for Washington and the front
The 1st Battalion, comprising companies A, B, E, H, and M, loaded on box cars Monday, March 31 for Harper's Ferry, by way of Frederick and joined the " Railroad Brigade" commanded by COL Dixon Stansbury Miles, which guarded the important logistical route. The battalion's companies were separated and assigned to duty at different points along the railroad.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, Departure for Washington and the front
The remainder of the regiment remained in Washington DC. They spent the days after the 1st Battalion's departure honing their sabers and "in drill, mounted and dismounted, and in the manual of arms, and in generally preparing for active service."


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
To win the war, the United States needed to defeat the Confederate armies in the field. To win the war, the rebels had to break the will of the Federals to fight. The Shenandoah Valley, between the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Appalachians, figured in both of those war aims and ergo its control was strategically important. Known as the breadbasket of the Confederacy, the Shenandoah Valley provided a route for rebel attacks into Maryland, Washington, and Pennsylvania, thereby cutting the link between Washington and the midwest — directly attacking the United States' will to fight.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
The valley "was rich in grain, cattle, sheep, hogs, and fruit and was in such a prosperous condition that the Rebel army could march itself down and up it, billeting on the inhabitants." which meant that Yankee control of the valley would weaken the rebel armies helping to defeat them. Because of its strategic importance it was the scene of three major campaigns.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
The valley, especially in the lower northern section, was also the scene of bitter partisan fighting as the region's inhabitants were deeply divided over loyalties, and Confederate partisan John Mosby and his Rangers frequently operated in the area. Due its strategic importance, the valley saw an ebb and flow between the contesting armies until the last autumn of the war.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
Transport of goods from the valley to the east was done via a network of macadamized pikes/turnpikes and rail between the larger towns supported by numerous smaller dirt roads and canals knitting them further. Much of this system had been put in place by Virginia Board of Public Works (VBPW) under the guidance of Claudius Crozet. The main north–south road transportation was the Valley Turnpike, a public-private venture through the VBPW running 68 miles (109 km) from Martinsburg up through Winchester, Harrisonburg, and ending at Staunton. There were several other macadamized roads running between the larger towns and railroads.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
Three rail lines were the main east–west routes with B&O in the lower valley, Manassas Gap in the middle/upper, and the Virginia Central in the upper, southern end all connecting to the Valley Pike. The B&O met it at Martinsburg, the Manassas Gap met it at Strasburg after passing through the Blue Ridge Mountains at Manassas Gap at Front Royal, and the Virginia Central met it at Staunton after comin through the mountains in Crozet's Blue Ridge Tunnel.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
Rebels under Jackson had severed the B&O at the northern end of the lower Shenandoah Valley during the late spring and summer of the prior year. Repeated raids and operations by Jackson's cavalry subordinate Turner Ashby and his the 7th Virginia Cavalry ("Ashby's Brigade") damaged so much railway infrastructure that it took over ten months to reopen the line on March 30, 1862. The paved roads were a great asset to the rebels in the valley being unaffected by inclement weather.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
An official report described Martinsburg as "on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, at the northern terminus of the Valley Pike—a broad macadamized road, running up the valley, through Winchester, and terminating at Staunton." Besides being a node between road and rail, Martinsburg was also home to the large, important B&O maintenance shop and roundhouse.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
For the United States, the Maine men in the five companies were vital to keeping the B&O open. The battalion (and the rest of the regiment that remained in D.C.) would have an eventful Spring in 1862 marked by participation in operations against Jackson in the Shenandoah Campaign.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
MAJ Douty and his five companies arrived in Harper's Ferry and were immediately posted to key facilities along the line. CAPT George M. Brown's Company M remained in Harper's Ferry. The rest were loaded aboard the B&O and sent to their posts. MAJ Douty and CAPT Sidney W. Thaxter's Company A were the first stop and offloaded at the B&O maintenance shop in Martinsburg. CAPT Black Hawk Putnam's Company E was the next to detrain at Back Creek where the B&O crossed it before flowing past Allensville and emptying into the Potomac. Company H commanded by CAPT George J. Summat was dropped off along the rail line opposite Hancock, MD. CAPT Jonathan B. Cilley and Company B was furthest west and last off at the Berkely Springs resort.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
As well as scouting and patrolling along the rail beds, the companies patrolled out from their bases along several of the macadamized pikes. In this period along the important artery, the men of the 1st Battalion learned their craft well gaining valuable experience in the saddle. There were a handful of skirmishes, and the men of the 1st Maine captured some rebel prisoners during this period, successfully defending the line and keeping it open. On April 14, MAJ Douty received a promotion to Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
During their time on this duty, the men of this battalion began to learn what a valuable source the local black population, enslaved and free, was for intelligence as well as who and where the local Unionists were. Of note the men in Company A were greatly pleased to be in Martinsburg where the overwhelming majority of Unionists caused the rebels to call it "Little Massachusetts".


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
Throughout April and May, Banks and his Department of the Shenandoah had been receiving direct tasking from Secretary of War Stanton on coordinating with MGEN John C. Fremont's Mountain Department and MGEN McDowell's Department of the Rappahannock. This had led to stripping of assets from Banks and changing orders between joining with one of the other departments. As April rolled into May, Banks continued to receive frequent directives daily from the War Department over the telegraph. This revolution in communications hindered Banks in that it kept him on a tether of sorts inhibiting his freedom of action.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
On Friday, May 9, 1862, the 1st Battalion came together from the various company posts to Martinsburg and went up the valley (south) to join MGEN Nathaniel P. Banks' forces at Strasburg. They joined BGEN John P. Hatch's cavalry brigade. By May 13, the men of the 1st Maine found that Banks had divided his force to an extent that he only had 6,500 men with him astride the Valley Pike in Strasburg and 2,500 in Front Royal, fifteen miles east-southeast on the east side of the valley.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
On that day, BGEN Shields had departed from Front Royal on the Manassas Gap Railroad to go east and join McDowell's department. The small garrison (COL John Kenly, his Union 1st Maryland Infantry, and Companies B and D of 5th New York Cavalry) at the Front Royal station was to prevent rebel movement along the Manassas Gap rail line. Hatch's brigade covered the approaches to Strasburg with Hatch encamped at Middletown. On May 20, Douty was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
At the point in the valley where Banks had advanced, the Manassas Gap rail met another macadamized road, Winchester-Front Royal Pike, that ran eighteen miles along the eastern side of the valley and met Valley Pike at Winchester, 25 miles southwest of Harper's Ferry. Valley Pike passed seven miles over Cedar Creek down to Middletown, three miles further to Newtown (present day Stephens City), and finally seven miles into Winchester where it met the Winchester-Front Royal road. Several dirt roads ran between these to paved roads on either side of the valley. The men of LTCOL Douty's battalion go to know the lay of the land during their patrols in the upper Shenandoah Valley in the next couple of weeks. They learned who the Unionists were and where the back roads went.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
Soon, Banks started getting intelligence from the local Unionists and black population that MGEN Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's corps of 17,000 men, fresh from whipping MGEN John C. Frémont's at McDowell was heading his way. Banks had been stripped of men and artillery so that his force of 23,000 at the beginning of May to 9,000 by the 21st.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
Since Jackson was now positioned to block him from joining with Fremont, Banks began wondering if his now reduced force around Strasburg and Front Royal, fifteen miles east-southeast on the east side of the valley, would be able to resist any contact with Jackson. On May 23, Banks received reports of Jackson attacking the garrison at Front Royal before the telegraph link was severed and decided to begin withdrawing to Winchester taking the Valley Turnpike so that he could take as much of his supply train with him. By 03:00, on May 24 the twelve-mile-long column of Banks' wagons began to roll north down the Valley Turnpike to Winchester.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
By 07:00 on May 24, 1862, a Saturday, MGEN Banks at Strasburg wired when he confirmed and wired Secretary Stanton that Jackson's 17,000 had completely routed the garrison at Front Royal "with considerable loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners." and were closing on him, turning his position. Under these circumstances, Banks figured that if he could reach Winchester, he would preserve his lines of communication and increase the odds of reinforcement before contact. At dawn, Banks called Hatch forward from Middletown and had him push patrols to Woodstock and along Manassas Gap Railroad.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
He also tasked Hatch to round up any stragglers and put to torch any supplies of military value that could not be carried off. He then retreated north along the Valley Pike taking Doughty's battalion and two companies of the 1st Vermont under MAJ William D. Collins (a force of around 400 men) as an escort up the road to Middletown. Banks was anxious and wanted to know where the rebels were. He sent two companies of the 29th Pennsylvania Infantry and elements of the 1st Michigan Cavalry to head east on Chapel Road, a country lane which connected Middletown, four miles north, with Cedarville (modern North Front Royal) the site of Kenly's surrender, in turn, four miles north of Front Royal.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
The 1st Battalion and the two companies took up position in the rear guard of the column as Banks' column set out on the road to Winchester. As the column passed through Middletown, Banks still had not heard from the 29th Pennsylvania and 1st Michigan. In "one of the smartest moves he made all day," Banks erred on the side of caution, sent messengers to LTC Douty to come up and turn tight back down the Chapel Road to see if they could find the enemy.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
Feeling a bit more secure, at 09:00, Banks ordered the 500-wagon train to continue the 20-mile trek to Winchester. The 1st Battalion's duties were the normal cavalry tasks "to ascertain if the enemy was in force in that vicinity, to gain all possible information of his movements, and report often. If [they] met the enemy advancing [they were] told to hold him in check if possible."


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
Unknown to the 1st Battalion. they were about to spoil Jackson's two-pronged plan to trap Banks between Middletown and Newtown. Jackson and Richard S. Ewell had spent the night at Cedarville and sent elements out on the Front Royal-Winchester Turnpike by 06:00. Jackson sent BGEN George Hume Steuart, in command of the 2nd and 6th Virginia Cavalry, off the roads and across country to Newtown on the Valley Pike between Middletown and Winchester "to observe the movements of the enemy at that point."


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
Ewell's division was to advance on Middletown from Cedarville while BGEN Charles S. Winder and the rest of his division continued up Front Royal Pike to turn at Nineveh and advance on the road to Newton and meet Steuart. BGEN Isaac Trimble's) and BGEN Richard Taylor's brigades would be coming right at the Maine and Vermont cavalry troopers.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
Steuart's force reached Newtown and found the road crowded with the lead portion of Banks' wagon train. Steuart charged the United States forces, captured prisoners, spread panic, and sent reported his contact back to Jackson. During the breakfast halt, Trimble drew Jackson's attention to a column of smoke coming from the direction of Strasburg. Opting to intercept Banks at Middletown, Jackson retraced his route to Cedarville. Ewell, with Trimble's Brigade, the 1st Maryland Infantry, and supporting artillery, remained at Nineveh to await instructions.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
COL Turner Ashby was to advance toward up the dirt Chapel Road, made muddy by a morning rain shower, with his men from the 7th Virginia Cavalry and probe across the fields toward Strasburg, followed by the rest of the army. The slogging through the mud was laborious and none of the Confederate columns knew what to expect to their front.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
Two miles short of the Front Royal Pike (three-quarters of a mile short of Molly Camel Run), at 10:00, the 1st met earlier patrol of the 29th Pennsylvania and 1st Michigan who had not seen enemy. Unbeknownst to the earlier patrol, Jackson also sent his cartographer, MAJ Jedediah Hotchkiss with a small cavalry detachment to scout further up Chapel Road toward Middletown. Douty threw out skirmishers to right and left of the road and sent the men armed with carbines ahead as skirmishers into the woods along the road. He sent riders back to the signal officer in Middletown for relay to Hatch and Banks.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
As the rebels' advance men came into view, the Maine and Vermont troopers drove them back with heavy fire, and the Confederates retreated out of sight. Douty consulted with Collins and both realized that the woods would prevent them from seeing any flanking movements by the rebels from their position. at 11:00, having seen no more sign of the rebels, Douty called in his skirmish line and left out vedettes in the road and in the fields to keep watch.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
At the advice of MAJ Collins, he pulled the rest of his small command two miles back toward Middletown to Providence Church (present-day Reliance United Methodist Church) where they were able to see the fields for miles on either side of the road. Hotchkiss had returned to Jackson to report contact, leading Ashby to change direction from Strasburg to Chapel Road.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
At 12:00, the vedettes came up the road and rejoined with word that Rebel cavalry and infantry were following them. Within fifteen minutes, Hotchkiss, and his party with two companies of the 8th Louisiana Infantry appeared, halted, and kept out of carbine range. In the ensuing half-hour, the rebels brought up artillery and unlimbered them in the road.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
Around 12:45, the rebel artillery opened on Douty and his men and the infantry and dismounted cavalry advanced. Holding fire until the regrouped, reinforced rebels came into range, Douty's men kept up a heavy fire that threw back the enemy, particularly the 21st North Carolina Infantry from Taylor's Brigade. This led Hotchkiss to believe he was facing a much larger force of infantry in the woods as well as Douty's cavalry astride the road. This managed to buy Banks more time as Jackson sent word to Ewell's Division to halt until he knew against whom he was fighting.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
In response, rebel artillery continued firing on the 1st Maine and the now empty woods. This led Douty to bring in his skirmishers and make fighting withdrawal. "stubbornly for every inch of ground" back to Middletown. As they withdrew, the rebels pushed forward. He executed a steady and deliberate withdrawal the four miles back along Chapel Road to Middletown, causing enough uncertainty in Jackson's mind that it delayed the advance by nearly two hours. Under the pressure of the advance, Douty got his command back to Middleton with the loss of a horse.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
At 14:30 Douty turned off the Chapel Road and onto Church Street a block east of Valley Turnpike. The signal officer on duty told him that Banks had already through and BGEN Hatch was expected at any moment. Douty led his men into the village of Middletown, south of the crossroads, to wait for Hatch.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
The 8th Louisiana now appeared north of town and the accompanying guns of Chew's Battery from Steuart's Brigade began shelling Douty's and Collins' men. Douty was about to call for a withdrawal back to Strasburg when Hatch arrived around 15:30. He deployed Douty and Collins into the side streets and fields east of the turnpike, and waited for 5th New York and the remainder of the 1st Vermont to catch up from burning the last of the stores at Strasburg.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
At the same time, Ashby's men appeared on the high ground on their flank to the southeast of town. Despite the macadam, travel along the shoulders had thrown up a great cloud of dust all along the pike. Within minutes, 8th Louisiana had moved down from the high ground, cut the pike, and began plundering the wagon train while Chew's artillery began firing on wagons further north. Hatch kept Douty's command in a skirmish line to the east between Jackson's Corps and the town. The 1st Battalion and the Vermonters kept the 1st Virginia and 21st North Carolina at bay.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
At 16:00, Hatch realized his command was surrounded when messengers sent to contact Banks' retreating wagon train returned with news that the Valley Pike was blocked by wagons and manned by rebels. Hatch said to LTC Douty, "We must cut our way through." This was the seed of the 1st Maine's "Middletown Disaster".


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
Hatch had the 1st Maryland Cavalry and 5th New York Cavalry with him as well as Douty's small command. COL Charles H Tompkins and the remaining ten companies of the 1st Vermont Cavalry and future Medal of Honor winner Charles H. T. Collis and his independent company of Pennsylvania Zouaves d'Afrique (manning wagons) were still en route from Strasburg. He sent riders back to warn Tompkins and Collis to skirt to the west of Middletown and take back roads to Winchester since the rebels held the Valley Turnpike.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
As rebel artillery continued to sporadically fire shells into downtown Middletown, Hatch formed up his brigade along the turnpike by the town square in columns of fours. The 1st Battalion and the 1st Vermont fell in at the rear of the brigade's column at the southern edge of Middletown. Taking the lead, Hatch moved out on the turnpike. Already receiving sporadic rifle fire before going very far, Hatch took the column off the pike onto a dirt road a half-mile out of town.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
Upon contact with the enemy on this road, Hatch charged and the whole column galloped down the road shooting and slashing at any rebels in their path. This generated a cloud of dust that obscured the turn off the Valley Turnpike. At the head of the column as the charge continued, Hatch saw that Ashby had managed to get one of his batteries behind a wagon barricade back on the turnpike and supported it with elements of the 21st North Carolina. Seeing more rebels moving off the pike and cutting a dirt lane parallel to the pike by several hundred yards, Hatch continued west on his path and smashed through the handful of Ashby's cavalry on that road, bypassing the artillery.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
Looking back over the fields, the column could see see the two companies of the 1st Vermont followed by the Maine battalion continuing in a charge down the Valley Turnpike. Unfortunately for the 1st Battalion, the huge cloud of dust had obscured the column departing the macadam from MAJ Collins. The rebels had seen them, as well, and a quick-thinking officer on Jackson's staff, LT Douglas quickly rushed a company of infantry to a stonewall in a blocking position over the Turnpike.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
LTC Douty had been at the rear seeing to a severely wounded CAPT Cilley of Company B when he noticed the Vermont companies moving out at the trot. When MAJ Collins and two 1st Vermont companies missed the turn and came out of the dust cloud, they saw a rebel battery supported by an infantry blocking the Valley Turnpike. With the stone walls alongside the road leaving no other option, at point-blank range, they charged:


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
Moving at a rapid rate in sections of four, in a cloud of dust, supposing they wore following their General, coming suddenly upon this battery in a narrow road where it was impossible to maneuver, a terrible scene of confusion followed. Those at the head of the column wore suddenly stopped, those in the roar unable to restrain their horses rushed upon each other, and men and horses were thrown in a confused heap.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
And as they wore all the while exposed to the shot, and shell, and bayonets, of the enemy, it is not strange that their loss was severe, numbering one hundred and seventy men with an equal number of horses. At the same time companies A and B at a little distance were under a severe fire, during which [Captain] Putnam, and Lieutenant Estes were wounded. Escaping from this perilous position, Lieut. Colonel Douty fell back on the pike, and taking an intersecting road and making a detour to the left. After a hard march rejoined the main column at Newtown [sic, actually Winchester] the next day, and was immediately ordered to support a battery.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
As the column had moved out, Douty had mounted his horse and rode toward the head of the Vermont companies to join Collins. Before passing the last company, the column had already broken into a gallop and "was charging up the pike amid a shower of shell and bullets." He found the dust so thick that he could see nothing but what was close by him. He began seeing men and horses strewn on the wayside.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
By the time he reached the third company from the end, Company M, the bodies of horses and men, alive and dead, were contained so tightly that they could not continue, and men started retreating. The battalion spilled over the stonewalls and into the surrounding fields cutting their way through the rebels. Many Maine men were unhorsed by the collision with those ahead of them as well as by rebel artillery and musketry. Many these were taken prisoner by Wheat's "Louisiana Tigers" in Taylor's Brigade. Many took off on foot to try to escape.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
Luckily for those who were able to put some distance between themselves and the enemy, the presence of abandoned wagons from Banks' train loaded with supplies provided a welcome distraction as more and more of Trimble's and Taylor's left the firing line to men rifle through it. This gave Douty and his men the chance escape. Douty gathered what men he could and pulled back into Middletown.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
He reformed his command in the center of town. A company of Ewell's infantry formed up at the southern end of town and opened fire on the New England cavalrymen. LTCOL Douty pulled his men back out of their range and turned left down the side-streets and rode west out of Middletown out of sight of the rebels. Eventually, he turned his group north the Middle Road and found Hatch and the brigade after a two-mile gallop.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
The rest of Hatch's brigade who had seen the debacle across the fields had continued parallel to the Valley Turnpike but found that every time they tried to regain the pike and join Banks, their way was blocked by Ewell's troops. They ended up cutting through Ashby's cavalry and rejoined Banks at Newtown. There Hatch found Col George Henry Gordon and his brigade with five companies of the 1st Michigan Cavalry giving ground slowly. Hatch's men joined in the rear-guard action making Winchester at 22:00, Saturday evening.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
At dawn on Sunday, May 25, BGEN Charles Winder's Stonewall Brigade occupied the hill due south of the town. As Winder attacked down toward Winchester, Banks' artillery soon found their range and began an effective, punishing fire. The 1st Battalion was ordered to provide support for one of these batteries. The Stonewall Brigade stalled in their attack. Jackson ordered Taylor's Brigade to outflank the Union right which they did with a strong charge pushing the right flank back into town. At the same time, Ewell's men got around the extreme left of the Union line. With the impending double envelopment, around 07:00, Banks' line pulled back through the streets of town. The 1st Battalion covered the battery as they limbered up and headed north on the Valley Pike.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
As the U.S. troops pulled out of the town, the Maine troopers noted that the local secessionist civilians were jeering them, throwing boiling water, and even shooting at them. Along with the rest of Hatch's brigade, they found themselves fighting their way out of the town under attack from all sides.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
Instead of a wild flight, Jackson later wrote that Banks's troops "preserved their organization remarkably well" through the town. Elated, Jackson rode cheering after the retreating enemy shouting "Go back and tell the whole army to press forward to the Potomac!" Luckily for the 1st Battalion in the rearguard, the Confederate pursuit was ineffective. Ashby and the rest of the rebel cavalrymen had conducted vigorous pursuits of U.S. forces to the south and east. By the time they rejoined Jackson, their horses were blown and men too exhausted to effectively chase down Banks' rearguard leading Jackson to write, "Never was there such a chance for cavalry. Oh that my cavalry was in place!"


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
As Hatch's brigade swept back and forth at the rear to keep the occasional pursuer at arm's length the outnumbered Federals fled relatively unimpeded for 35 miles in 14 hours, crossing the Potomac River into Williamsport, Maryland after dark around 21:00, Sunday evening. Hatch noted the fine performance of the 1st Maine Cavalry in his post action reports. Union casualties were 2,019 (62 killed, 243 wounded, and 1,714 missing or captured), Confederate losses were 400 (68 killed, 329 wounded, and 3 missing).


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
First Winchester had proven costly to the 1st Maine. Several the companies in the 1st Battalion suffered more than half their number as prisoners after the mess in the road with the rebel battery. Company A suffered the most, arriving at Winchester with eighteen men. During this action, the battalion lost three killed, one mortally wounded, nine wounded, twelve wounded and taken prisoner, one mortally wounded and taken prisoner, forty-nine taken prisoner of whom five would die in rebel captivity, and 176 horses and equipment.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
Over the next three weeks, many men who had eluded capture or had escaped captivity straggled in to rejoin the regiment. On Tuesday, forty odd men arrived with COL DeForest of the 5th New York Cavalry with thirty-two wagons of supplies that they had managed to spirit away from Confederate hands at Middletown, having been forced by rebel pursuers to cut through the mountains and ford the Potomac upriver by Clear Spring. Some stragglers arrived on foot having lost their mounts in the fighting.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
A group of twenty had been held in Winchester when they encountered MAJ Whitney and his small command en route to MGEN Banks on June 3. Additionally, thirty or more of the men being transported south on the Valley Turnpike to captivity in Richmond managed to escape the night of the May 24 and make their way back to the 1st Maine in Maryland. A group of fourteen troopers from Companies A and L managed to report back in to the regiment at Westport on May 27 after escaping through the mountains via Pughtown and Bath. Some mpore men arrived on


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
In Williamsport, while Douty worked diligently remounting his command, the news of Banks's ouster from the Valley caused a stir in Washington lest Jackson continue north and threaten the capital. Lincoln, who in the absence of a general in chief was exercising day to day strategic control over his armies in the field, took aggressive action in response. He planned trap on Jackson using three armies. Frémont's would move to Harrisonburg on Jackson's supply line, Banks would move back in the Valley, and 20,000 men under McDowell would move to Front Royal and attack Jackson driving him against Frémont at Harrisonburg.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
Unfortunately, this plan was complex and required synchronized movements by separate commands. Banks declared his army was too shaken to move. It would remain north of the Potomac until June 10. Frémont and McDowell bungled it completely. Jackson defeated the two in detail – Frémont at the Battle of Cross Keys on June 8 and McDowell at Battle of Port Republic on June 9. Of note, one of the 1st Maine's nemeses, Turner Ashby died on Chestnut Ridge near Harrisonburg in a skirmish with Frémont's cavalry.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, The Shenandoah, the "Middletown Disaster," and First Winchester
On June 12, the 1st Battalion crossed the Potomac and returned to Winchester. Company K continued down the Valley Pike to Strasburg. Companies E and M traveled south on the also macadam Front Royal-Winchester Road to Front Royal, where they were joined on the 20th by companies A and B, and the brigade placed attached to BGEN Crawford's infantry brigade. The remainder of LTC Douty's command's time in the Shenandoah was uneventful save a brief skirmish at Milford, on July 2 (CAPT Thaxter commanding). On July 9, Douty received orders to rejoin the regiment at Warrenton.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, In the Department of the Rappahannock
The main body of the regiment had remained in Washington, DC while the 1st Battalion operated in and around the Shenandoah Valley. On April 2, 1862, orders arrived for a march to Warrenton, VA on Friday, April 4. The troopers spent Thursday sharpening their sabers and checking their equipment. When their departure was delayed by a day, the regiment continued honing their edged weapons. On Friday evening, the men were given a patriotic send-off including a concert sung by ladies from Maine who were residing in Washington.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, In the Department of the Rappahannock
At midday Saturday, the regiment departed their encampment on Capitol Hill led by MAJ Stowell (COL Allen was still recuperating in New York). The inexperienced regiment "accompanied by a baggage train long enough for a whole corps later in the war," rode down Maryland Avenue SW and crossed the Potomac on Long Bridge.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, In the Department of the Rappahannock
On the Virginia side, it checked in at Fort Runyon. At the fort, they received orders to report to BGEN McDowell's Department of the Rappahannock's forces at Warrenton Junction (present day Calverton, Virginia) via the Columbia, Little River, and Warrenton Turnpikes. The regiment crossed the Alexandria Canal and climbed up the Columbia Turnpike passing Fort Albany on the left as they crested the rise. The regiment continued on and could see Robert E Lee's home, Arlington House on a rise to the right. The men of the 1st Maine were taking in the sights as they traveled for the first time in rebel territory.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, In the Department of the Rappahannock
The first impressions of Virginia were not very favorable. The roads were muddy and in bad order, and houses were few, far between, not particularly good, even before the war, and now presenting a dilapidated, tumble-clown appearance. The whole country wore a deserted, unhealthy look, to which the earthworks, abandoned camp-grounds, and the waste and destruction which accompany an army, even when not in active operation, added an extra gloom.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, In the Department of the Rappahannock
Here the men saw for the first time the desolating effects of war. On their line of march to and from this point nearly every house,was deserted of its owners. Its doors and its windows and the fences that enclosed it, and the birds that sang and the flowers that bloomed around it, all were gone. The music of singing birds and the sweeter music of children's voices had ceased ... The pleasant dwellings had been left desolate, and no cheerful salutations of neighbors and no ringing laugh of youthful glee was heard. Instead of these the streets resounded with the roll of the drum, the stern word of command and the heavy tramp of armed men


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, In the Department of the Rappahannock
As Lee's home faded into the distance, the men descended a small vale to Arlington Mills Station crossing both 4 Mile Run and the Alexandria, Loudoun, and Hampshire Railroad (AL&H). The men noted heavy use of the railway as they crossed it seeing other troops and supplies at the station. A mile beyond the railway and above the dell, at 15:00, the regiment briefly stopped at Bailey's Crossroads to water their horses. They had taken three hours to travel the nine miles from the encampment on Capitol Hill to the crossroads.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, In the Department of the Rappahannock
Once the horses were watered, the regiment mounted up and continued down Columbia Turnpike. At Padgett's Tavern, the regiment turned right on the Little River Turnpike another macadamized road. They crossed the unfinished new rail cut that would run from the Orange and Alexandria Railroad through Annandale and Fairfax to Haymarket. By sunset on Saturday, April 5, 1862, the 1st Maine had reached Fairfax Courthouse.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, In the Department of the Rappahannock
The men in the regiment were familiar with the history of the courthouse "where the eloquence of a Patrick Henry and a ·William ·Wirt bad exerted its magic power." While dismayed at its state of ruin, the troopers still were fascinated by the building, the grounds, and the various remnants of the county records strewn about the location. Picketing the horses in the Courthouse's yards, the troopers were crammed into the Courthouse's various buildings.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, In the Department of the Rappahannock
The regiment was up at dawn on Sunday morning, April 6. By 09:00, they had groomed their horses, broke fast, and were on the Little River Turnpike once more heading west. A mile down the pike, the command made a left turn in the village of Germantown and rode onto the Warrenton Turnpike heading west-southwest where Centreville, VA lay six miles away. They continued passing vacant fields on either side of the road.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, In the Department of the Rappahannock
Ahead on a slight ridge on either side of the pike, the men saw some of the rebel "Quaker guns," manned with stuffed dummies that the rebels had placed there to give their pickets on the rise the look of a fortified position from the distance. At noon they passed them and entered Centreville. A water halt was made there for the horses, and after seeing to their mounts, the men inspected the effigies with great interest. Within an hour, the command had remounted and left Warrenton Pike and turned onto a dirt road heading south to Manassas Junction.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, In the Department of the Rappahannock
Shortly, they found themselves crossing Bull Run over a partially rebuilt bridge which had been destroyed by the Confederates when they retreated. Although on the edge of the battlefield, the Maine men saw solitary chimneys where houses used to be. Dead rotting horses generated "that peculiar stench which afterwards became familiar to all soldiers." As the march continued, many a Maine trooper was sobered by the sight of numerous soldiers' graves on the roadside along Warrenton Turnpike. At dark the regiment was at Manassas Junction.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, In the Department of the Rappahannock
Their horses were picketed by the side of the road and the men had their first experience (of many) in sleeping out-of-doors. The weather was fair, and morale was high, and the "boys, though tired, were in good spirits, and inclined to make the best of the circumstances. The command had marched 17 miles from Fairfax Courthouse.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, In the Department of the Rappahannock
Monday, April 7, 1862, was a gray, drizzly day, as the 1st Maine traveled along the dirt road that paralleled the Orange & Alexandria past Bristoe Station and Catlett's Station all the way to Warrenton Junction. They saw ripe wheat fields and fine manors, all abandoned. It started drizzling in the late morning, and after a midday water stop, the rain increased. The muddy road and numerous fords over creeks made the march a difficult one, but after twelve miles, around 15:00 they reported to McDowell's Department of the Rappahannock in Warrenton Junction. The baggage train were still on the dirt road having been held up at a ford that was too deep for their transit.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, In the Department of the Rappahannock
After scrounging for rations the first day in camp, the wagons finally caught up with the regiment having taught the men a valuable lesson – always have some rations and extra ammunition on their person or mount. Graced with an early spring snowstorm on Tuesday, the men made the best of camp life, drilling, and seeing to their horses.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, In the Department of the Rappahannock
First assigned to Gen. Abercrombie's brigade, and soon afterwards to Gen. Ord's division within McDowell's department, the 1st Maine was learning its job. The occasional patrols were the primary means for this on-the-job-training. Companies were detached singly, in twos, threes, and more to conduct these reconnaissances. Friday, April 11, they spent the night scouting Warrenton and returned Saturday morning. They made several more such patrols through the remainder of April and into May. In this time, they became adept at river-crossings, bringing the right amount of gear for a mission, and handling their horses while also learning how valuable a source of intelligence both the enslaved and free black population would be.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, In the Department of the Rappahannock
On Tuesday, April 15, Company C under CAPT Dyer made a patrol down the Orange & Alexandria to the Rappahannock where they saw black slaves building earthworks on the opposite side of the river north of the railroad. As they moved north, they could see a large, white plantation house which they surmised to be the rebel headquarters. Two slaves who had escaped across the river estimated that there were between 5,000 and 7,000 troops total in the area. Examination of the field works through binoculars led Dyer to believe they alone could hold 3,000–4,000 men. As they turned to report back, three rebel batteries opened fire on them. After getting out of range and sight of the rebels, they learned from some black women the identities of several locals who were visiting their camp and reporting back to the rebels.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, In the Department of the Rappahannock
The next evening, Wednesday, April 16, LTC Willard Sayles, commander of the 1st Rhode Island Cavalry, took a squadron of his regiment and Companies D and F of the 1st Maine on a patrol toward Liberty Church to interrogate and arrest the reported rebel informants. After receiving accurate intelligence from the suspects' slaves, three men were arrested and turned over to the brigade headquarters.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, In the Department of the Rappahannock
On Tuesday, April 22, COL Allen rejoined his command. The regiment was being moved around and attached to various infantry brigades. Sometimes various companies were detached for provost or courier duties. Other than these command duties their time was spent on picket duty and scouting patrols for their various attached commands. Their constant reassignment led, by mid-May, to the common query among the men, "whose kite are we going to be tail to next?" In fact, this problem affected not only the 1st Maine but all volunteer cavalry regiments in the eastern theater. The Army of the Potomac's cavalry would not serve as a unified force until the upcoming Maryland Campaign.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, In the Department of the Rappahannock
The only patrol where the regiment operated as one body was a reconnaissance patrol to Culpeper Court House on Sunday, May 4, 1862, through Monday, May 5. Under BGEN Hartsuff's direction, the 1st Maine took up their line of march Sunday, May 4, 1862, at 17:00, for reconnaissance to the Rappahannock River and beyond Culpeper Courthouse. The expedition was led by MAJ Stowell due to COL Allen's continued infirmity. and the men were tasked with bringing three days rations with them.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, In the Department of the Rappahannock
After proceeding en miles in the darkness, Stowell halted at 20:30 and obtained a local Unionist as guide who took them two miles further to the road along the north side of the Rappahannock. The command then took this road two miles further north to Beverly's Ford. With the water up to five feet deep and a strong current, the regiment did not finish crossing until midnight.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, In the Department of the Rappahannock
The guide suggested that the best place for a horse and water was the Cunningham plantation, or Elkwood Plantation, Farley Hill, by Farley Road over Ruffian's Run, the late headquarters of the Confederate Army. Around 01:00, the command gained access to the main house from the overseer who provided valuable intelligence on the geography of Culpeper County and the local rebel order of battle.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, In the Department of the Rappahannock
At 04:00, the 1st Maine resumed their march, with the overseer guiding them. Instead of taking a dirt track (present day Farley Road) which went through a wood and low land, Stowell accepted the guide's suggestion to ride along Fleetwood Hill that gave a view of the river and railroad as well as of the surrounding country, thus precluding being surprised by the enemy. Pushing on toward Brandy Station, Stowell had thrown out a company of skirmishers and a formidable rear guard, which covered more than a mile of the country.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, In the Department of the Rappahannock
Stowell found the general appearance of the country favorable, gently rolling, open, highly cultivated, and fruitful, rich plantations, with an abundance of forage and subsistence. He noted the brush was much heavier than about Warrenton Junction. After crossing the river, the men had found no real road leading south and on their left until they arrived at Brandy Station. There they found remains of an old plank road, connecting the Fredericksburg and Culpeper Plank Roads with the Old Carolina and Kelly's Ford Roads.


1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, Service history, Training, deployment, and operations in 1862, In the Department of the Rappahannock
The patrol found that the rebels on the Rappahannock had fallen back to Gordonsville, and there has been no force this side of there of any great amount. Stowell noted that the "planters on our route, as near as I could judge, are nearly all secesh [sic], and a little bleeding would reduce their fever a little and do them good."