...that was the hardest fight we ever had. It beats Bulls Run and Fredericksburg all to nothing because we got whipped, I suppose, at both of those places.

Autograph letter signed by George M. Warner (1843-1864). Camp at Warrington Junct[ion], 4 August 1863. 4 page, 8vo, on blue paper. 

A letter with thrilling content from capture to triumph at the Battle of Gettysburg. George M. Warner writes to his cousin with a tale of valor: "Eddy, I did not tell Mardin in my last letter how I was taken prisoner. I was taken at Gettysburg. We made a charge and I was along Gen. Kilpatrick and we charged into some rebel infantry and I had my horse shot and they took me prisoner, took my arms away from me, and started to go to their rear when our cavalry came down upon them again and I jumped over a fence and got away from them so I saved myself from going to Richmond, I believe, but that was the hardest fight we ever had. It beats Bulls Run and Fredericksburg all to nothing because we got whipped, I suppose, at both of those places."

George M. Warner (1843-1864) enlisted on 21 August 1861 as a private into Company F of the 2nd New York Cavalry (Harris Light Cavalry). After early reconnaissance duty, the cavalry joined Pope's Campaign in Northern Virginia, including the Second Battle of Bull Run and Fredericksburg, which Warner references in his letter. 

In 1863 the regiment joined Dix's Peninsula Campaign, assigned to 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 4th Corps in the Department of Virginia. It is recorded on their monument at Gettysburg that it engaged in skirmishes as part of the Cavalry Corps until the brigade reached Hanover Junction on 30 June before they "moved hastily to Manchester to guard trains against rumored movements of the enemy...July 4th [they] joined 3rd Division in pursuit of the enemy and participated in the Cavalry engagements until the enemy retreated into Virginia."

The regiment participated in the Bristoe Campaign, during which Warner was taken as a prisoner of war at Stevensville on 3 November 1863. He was confined at Andersonville and died there on 27 July 1864. He is buried in the Andersonville National Cemetery. 

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