Cavalry

Hoping to disengage from the Wilderness without giving the appearance of retreat, Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant began moving south around the Confederate right flank toward Spotsylvania. Lee anticipated Grant's movement and had already started his army on the march toward Spotsylvania. Lee intended to use his cavalry, commanded by Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, to slow the Union advance, and the Union cavalry, which had been used to protect Grant's enormous wagon train, was ordered to clear a path to Spotsylvania.

One thing missing from this weekend's re-enactment at Boonsboro of the 1862 Civil War Battle of South Mountain will be the prelude of widespread cavalry skirmishing that accompanied Gen. Robert E. Lee's first invasion of Maryland. These deadly clashes, and the men who fought in them, are all but forgotten by history.About 1,500 Civil War buffs will take part in the re-enactment. Admission is $5. Children under 12 are admitted free. Profit from the event will be used for preservation of the South Mountain battlefield.

CHARLES CITY, Va. - Confederate Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee had every reason to be confident when his troops pulled up outside Fort Pocahontas on May 24, 1864.Beside him rode nearly 2,500 cavalrymen, including some of the South's most seasoned fighters. Defending the isolated, partly unfinished outpost before him were a few Yankee officers - and an African-American force made up of about 1,100 ex-slaves.But nearly 134 years after the bullets began to fly, Civil War enthusiasts gathered this week to honor the unlikely Union victors with a highway marker commemorating their historic triumph.

WASHINGTON -- There's an Alice-in-Wonderland quality to all the Republican celebrating and Democratic cautious optimism over the two parties' agreement to balance the federal budget by the year 2002.Only a few weeks ago, the notion that the budget could be balanced and tax cuts enacted at the same time, along with more money for education and the protection of Medicare and Social Security, seemed the stuff of political fantasy. Following the day-to-day newspaper accounts of the negotiations, and all the pessimistic back-and-forth, was like watching for grass to come up in the Sahara.

AT FIRST THE international response to the July 25 coup in which Tutsi Major Pierre Buyoya ousted the Hutu president of Burundi, Sylvestre Ntibantunganya, was tough talk.Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's spokeswoman ,declared that "the international community will on no account accept a change of government in Burundi by force or other illegitimate means." And Kofi Annan, the U.N. Undersecretary General for Peacekeeping Operations, reportedly called for intervention that could "beat up on people if necessary" to try to stop the killing.

Visitors to the Union Mills Homestead this weekend can walk into the Civil War.The 26th Volunteer Infantry, a Civil War re-enactment group, will live in history during a two-day encampment to mark the 131st anniversary of the days preceding the Battle of Gettysburg."

Cas Taylor's political future looked grim last Monday morning.His dream job -- to become speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates -- was suddenly, unexpectedly within his grasp. But it appeared to have been promised to someone else.Word that House Speaker R. Clayton Mitchell Jr. was preparing to announce his retirement had already generated a plan to replace him with his second in command, Del. Gary Alexander of Prince George's County.The idea was that Mr. Alexander, who has said he won't seek re-election in 1994, would be a caretaker speaker for a year.

To understand how a quiet, obscure Pennsylvania town with no industry, no military significance at all in July of 1863, became the fiercely contested ground in the bloodiest three days of fighting in the Civil War -- now the subject of the new Turner Pictures epic "Gettysburg" -- one has only to consult a map of the countryside.Ten different roads led into Gettysburg in those days from the surrounding Pennsylvania and Maryland countryside, making it the natural rallying point for a scattered army trying to quickly piece itself together.

The following is excerpted from George Kenney's Civil War-era novel "Fringe of Battle."Confederate Lt. John W. Murray has ridden to the Lockweed farm with an advance party to ask Mrs. Lockweed's permission for his troops to bivouac in her fields. During their conversation, the cavalry officer suspects someone is watching from behind a curtain. It is Hope, an orphaned cousin in her late teens who lives with the family. John, the Lockweed's 14-year-old son, narrates.Before the Reb officer could move another step, Hope came out of the house.

Next weekend Oatlands Plantation in Leesburg, Va., will be the site of the largest historical equestrian event ever held in the United States. "Hoofbeats in History" commemorates the 130th anniversary of the Battle of Brandy Station, the largest cavalry engagement of the Civil War.Visitors will see a complete interpretive program each day, with dozens of military demonstrations, maneuvers, lectures and portrayals of daily camp life -- including inspections, the...