The Little Jeff; The Jeff Davis Legion, Cavalry, Army of Northern Virginia. By Donald A. Hopkins. Hard Cover, Dust Jacket, 325pp.

The Little Jeff

by Donald A. Hopkins

During the spring of 1861 throughout the Confederacy more than 650,000 men volunteered their services. Of these volunteers, many tried for the cavalry, as it was looked upon as somewhat glamourous and reminiscent of Sir Walter Scottís knights who defended their ladiesí honor and their sacred soil. Only about two thirds of these patiotic Southrons were accepted for military service and most of those for the infantry.

The Jeff Davs Legion, when organized in late 1861, was made up mostly of Mississippi companies under command of a Mississippian, though there was one company from Alabama. Throughout the war it remained a small regimental sized unit, with later additions of other companies from Alabama and Georgia. It was considered a Mississippi unit and, as such, was the only way regimental sized cavalry unit from Mississippi to fight with the Army of Northern Virginia.

Without question, a hearty criticism of the cavalry by those in the infantry persisted throughout the war, and indeed persisted into post-war years. In 1921, F.J. Quarterman, who had served with Company G of the Little Jeff responded to one of those critics who had asked, "Who has ever seen a dead cavalryman?" saying:

I can tell him I have seen piles of dead Cavalrymen, in heaps, and I have many times seen Cavalrymen dismount and fight on food like infantry, and when night came the cavalry went on picket next to the enemy and kept guard while the infantry slept. In all the great battles in Virginia the cavalrymen had their part of the line to hold; they had to supply their own horses and when a cavalrymanís horse was disabled, he had to find another or go to the trenches with the infantry.