TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. This book has only one Footnote and it has been placed close to its anchor [1], in Appendix A. Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book. [Illustration: (photo portrait of O. B. Boyd, with his signature)] CAVALRY LIFE IN TENT AND FIELD BY MRS. ORSEMUS BRONSON BOYD NEW YORK J. SELWIN TAIT & SONS 65 FIFTH AVENUE 1894 COPYRIGHT, 1894, BY MRS. ORSEMUS BRONSON BOYD. _All Rights Reserved._ C. J. PETERS & SON, TYPE-SETTERS AND ELECTROTYPERS, BOSTON, U.S.A. CAVALRY LIFE IN TENT AND FIELD. TO MY DEAR BROTHER JAMES, I Dedicate this Little Book AS A FAINT TOKEN OF GRATITUDE FOR THE LOVE THAT A WHOLE LIFETIME OF DEVOTION WOULD NOT BE SUFFICIENT TO REPAY. THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. I take pleasure in directing attention to the kind and affectionate tribute paid my husband, Captain Orsemus Bronson Boyd, and contained in the Appendix of this volume. It is from the pen of a former classmate, the gifted writer, Colonel Richard Henry Savage. I trust my readers will not think this introduction too lengthy. The perusal of it seems necessary to a proper understanding of my reasons for describing, in the following pages, the pains, perils, and pleasures experienced by land and sea in the various peregrinations of a cavalry officer’s wife. With Colonel Savage’s testimonial it furnishes a completeness to the narrative that would otherwise be lacking. * * * * * In 1861, when every heart, both North and South, was fired by military ardor, two brothers, named Amos and Orsemus Boyd, lived in the small town of Croton, Delaware County, New York State. Immediately on the declaration of civil war they experienced but one desire—to join the Northern Army. The brothers had lost their mother when very young, but the stepmother their father had given them always endeavored to faithfully fill her place.