Major General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick, Custer's commanding officer, sent only two companies of cavalry against the two brigades of Confederates at Falling Waters. It was a lost opportunity and he did not wait for more units to arrive. To cover up his mistake, he claimed that his division took more than 1,500 prisoners. In an unusual move, Lee refuted this claim in the Northern newspapers. A correspondent for the New York Times gave yet another account: "The charge made upon the earthworks was one of the most gallant on record -- a squadron of fifty-seven men charging upon three or four brigades behind earthworks, killing one Major-General, (Pettigrew,) capturing more than 1,000 prisoners, and strewing the field with the killed and wounded of the enemy."