Eye Witness to History

Colonel Gustavus W. Dorsey, CSA

As told by Frank Dorsey, Baltimore MD, December 20, 1902, I will now give an account of that great calamity to the South, the mortal wounding of General Stuart, in the terse, soldier words of Colonel (then Captain of Company K, First Virginia Cavalry) ‘Gus’ W. Dorsey, as taken from a letter written to me on April 21, 1902, and as printed in the Staunton Spectator. ‘I was stationed on the Telegraph road with my company, K, numbering about seventy men, and the first I knew about our troops being whipped and driven back on the left was when General Stuart came down to my position, with a view of ordering me back; and just as he rode up to the company the Yankees charged. He halted a moment and encouraged the men with the words: “Bully for old K! Give it to them, boys!” and just as K had repulsed the Yankees he was shot through the stomach. He reeled on his horse and said: “I am shot,” and then, “Dorsey, save your men.” I caught him and took him from his horse. He insisted I should leave him and save my men. I told him we would take him with us; and, calling Corporal Robert Bruce and Private Charles Wheatley, we sent him to the rear. No other troops were near General Stuart when he was shot that I saw.’ “Gus” W. Dorsey was Lieutenant-Colonel commanding the First Maryland Cavalry, Munford's Brigade, April 28, 1865.