The reprisals at Rectorville put an end to the most blatant violations of military code, but they left behind a festering bitterness in Custer and his men. That bitterness was compounded by a surprise attack on Custer’s camp at Lacey Springs in mid-December by members of Brig. Gen. Thomas Rosser’s skeleton cavalry force. With the two opposing armies largely locked into place for the winter, only the cavalry could negotiate the ice-wracked countryside, and Custer and his troopers had set out on a raid toward Staunton. Instead, nine miles above Harrisonburg, Custer’s camp was overrun by Rosser’s hard-charging riders. Little real damage was done, but the blow embarrassed the Union cavalry commander, not least because Rosser had been his best friend at West Point, and Custer was forced to explain to Sheridan — somewhat sheepishly — how he had managed to get himself attacked in his camp in the first place.

Subscribe Today

• Did you enjoy our article?
• Read more in America's Civil War magazine
• Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!!!
 

Fortunately for Custer, Sheridan was in a forgiving mood, and the incident at Lacey Springs was quickly dismissed, if not forgotten. Custer spent the rest of the winter with his wife, Elizabeth, who had come south to join her husband during his triumphant visit to Washington following the Battle of Cedar Creek. The popular cavalry commander had been selected by Sheridan to lead an honor guard to present a number of captured Confederate battle flags to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. It was the sort of extravagant ceremony that Custer always excelled at, and even the hard-to-please Stanton was impressed by the young general’s gleaming demeanor. ‘A gallant officer always makes gallant soldiers,’ the secretary told him. Following the ceremony, the Custers made their way back to the Shenandoah Valley — carefully escorted by 150 handpicked men — and set up housekeeping at the home of Robert and Sarah Glass, four miles outside Winchester. The Glasses were Quakers and, in the words of Libbie Custer,’such nice people.’

With winter campaigning at a standstill, the Custers took a 20-day furlough in late January, visiting family and friends in their hometown of Monroe, Mich. A fellow traveler on the train to Michigan jotted down a hasty, hero-worshiping account of the general in his diary. ‘Genl Custar [sic] reminded me of Tennyson’s description of King Arthur,’ wrote Lewis T. Ives. ‘He is tall straight with light complexion, clear blue eyes, golden hair which hangs in curls on his shoulders[,] has a fine nose.’ Kingly or not, Custer took advantage of his furlough to put himself right with God. At a Sunday evening service at the Monroe Presbyterian Church, he experienced a religious conversion, one that left him feeling, Custer said:’somewhat like the pilot of a vessel who has been steering his ship upon familiar and safe waters but has been called upon to make a voyage fraught with danger. Having in safety and with success completed one voyage, he is imbued with confidence and renewed courage, and the second voyage is robbed of half its terror. So it is with me.’

When Custer returned to Winchester in mid-February, he quickly learned from Sheridan what that second voyage would be. For the past four months, since the great Union victory at Cedar Creek, Grant had been urging Sheridan to cut the Virginia Central Railroad at or around Charlottesville and then move eastward toward Richmond and the rear of Robert E. Lee’s lines at Petersburg. For various reasons — inclement weather, Mosby’s guerrillas, the threat of Confederate reinforcements in the valley and just plain stubbornness — Sheridan had resisted. But Grant was impossible to dissuade, and he sent Sheridan a new set of discretionary orders: Sheridan was to destroy the Virginia Central Railroad and the James River canal, capture Lynchburg and then either return to Winchester or link up with Sherman’s army in North Carolina. Sheridan decided to obey Grant’s orders — but only up to a point.

At dawn on February 27, 1865, Sheridan and his cavalry broke camp at Winchester and headed south. Along with two full cavalry divisions and a section of artillery, the blue-clad force included a long train of supply wagons, a pontoon train, 12 ambulances and two medical wagons. Each trooper rode out with five days’ worth of rations for himself, 30 pounds of forage for his horse and 75 rounds of ammunition. Winchester resident Emma Reily observed the departure of the Union invaders. ‘I witnessed one of the grandest spectacles that can ever be imagined as they were leaving,’ she wrote, ‘10,000 cavalry passing our house four abreast, thoroughly equipped in every detail. Their horses, having been in winter quarters so long, had been fed high and curried and rubbed until their coats shone like satin. Each man had a new saddle, bridle and red blanket, and all their accouterments such as swords, belts, etc., shone like gold. It was a grand sight, requiring hours in passing.’

Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to