Butler and His Cavalry 1861-65, by U.R. Brooks, 6th SC Cavalry. Hard Cover, 594pp. Service or Butler in the Hampton Legion, later 2nd Cavalry, and "Butler's Brigade" of the 4th, 5th and 6th SC Cavalry.

Butler & His Cavalry in the War of Seccession 1861-1865: The South Carolina Brigade

By U.R. Brooks

An old man living in Kentucky during the Seccession War had two sons; one enlisted in the Confederate Army and the other in the United States Army. Within twelve months one was brought home dead, and within a short time the other was brought home like his brother, having also been killed in battle. Both were buried in his garden side by side and this inscription was placed upon monument: ìGod alone knows which was right.î

It is not left with me to decide who was right or who was wrong. I think that some one should write a history of the gallant deeds of the men who composed the brigade to which he belonged. I have attempted to write the history of ìButler and his Cavalry.î Though very imperfectly done, I console myself because it was the best I could do.

îHistory is a brilliant illustration of the past, and leads us into a charmed field of wonder and delight. It reflects the deeds of men, and throws its rays upon the just and unjust, and leads us upward and onward to that mention of facts bearing directly upon a brilliancy surrounding our everyday lifeñas it was and as it is.î

In the language of Gen. Johnson Hagood, "My comrades, it is a long time since we have looked into each other's eyes and grasped each other's hands. In the long ago we together toiled in the weary march and looked upon 'battle's magnificently stern array'; together we have felt the mad excitement of the charge, the glorious enthusiasm of victory, the sullen anger of defeat; and harder, sterner duties have been our lot. Together we have passed through the valley and the shadow of political reconstruction. We have seen civil rights, sacred from tradition and baptized in the blood of a patriotic ancestry, trampled in the dust. We have seen the accumulations of two centuries of thrift and industry swept away and the State plundered as a ship by a pirate crew. But "God fulfills Himself in many ways."

U.R. Brooks.