To The Editor:

Originally published June 2020 · p. 2

Thanks for the review of the long overdue history of the 39th Battalion Virginia Cavalry. I am familiar with the role the 39th played especially during the Gettysburg Campaign, and look forward to reading about this unit. The reviewer Tim Talbot did not mention it, but there is a brief unit history about the 39th Battalion included in a 1996 publication by authors Robert J. Drive Jr. and Kevin C. Ruffner titled 1st Battalion Virginia Infantry, 39th Battalion Virginia Cavalry, 24th Battalion Virginia Partisan Rangers, as part of the Virginia Regimental Histories Series. Since only 28 pages of this study are devoted to the 39th, I have ordered a copy of Michael C. Hardy’s version. It is a good bet that members of the 39th accompanied Gen. Robert E. Lee’s staff engineer, Capt. Samuel Johnston, on his now infamous reconnaissance on the morning of July 2 at Gettysburg to pinpoint the left flank of the Union army prior to Longstreet’s attack that afternoon. Tom Ryan