The statement that only 75 men of Gary's brigade were mounted is far too low. The 75 men you refer to Bryce, is apparently the number who formed for the charge referred to. That was by men of the 7 S.C. Cavalry only. I do not have the numbers of men paroled with their horses, except for the Hampton Legion, and there were substantially more than that mounted in that unit alone. The only way I know to determine who was mounted and who was not is to go through the individual paroles found in Compiled Service Records. But I am confident that the number of men mounted and paroled as such substantially exceeded 250. Without looking at my individual data for the Legion, I estimate that about 40% were paroled dismounted, and 60% mounted, for that unit alone. I would have to manually go through the rosters for a precise figure, and I cannot do that at this time.

The Hampton Legion and the 7th S.C. Cavalry were of approximately the same size at the time of parole, while the 24th Virginia Cavalry was substantially smaller. Many of its men came from counties in the Richmond area, and fell out during the retreat. But it still mustered a considerable total at the surrender. Gary's brigade was far from "annhilated." It was clearly outnumbered by Sheridan's cavalry corps, but it fought well at Appomattox Station and again on the mroning of the 9th. My recollection is that Custer's men had to make 5 or 6 charges before they finally drove Gary and the reserve artillerymen away from the neighborhood of the station.

The 7th Georgia Cavalry was assinged to Gary's brigade in early November, 1864, but it had seen ahrd service, and most of its men were dismounted. The bulk of that regiment was sent back to Georgia under Colonel Anderson to obtain new mounts, and were held in Georgia by the Confederate authorities to help defend Savannah, and never returned to the ANV. Only a small segment, about the size of two companies, remained with Gary until the end of the war. The unit still maintained regimental formation, but it did not add any appreciable strength to Gary's brigade.

The 7th Georgia did not have an artillery battery, but in the fall of 1864 the Surry (Va) Light Artillery, which had operated on the North Side of the James all during the summer, was attached to Gary's Brigade. During the retreat, it first accompanied Gary, then joined the Reserve Artillery. It escaped the melee around Appomattox Station on the night of the 8th, and disbanded at Oak Hill the following day.

Incidentally, a fair number of men of Gary's brigade cut their way out and did nto surrender. There are no numbers for this, but I can identify three separate groups, two of which apparently turned west on the night of the engagement at Appomattox Station. One smaller group, probably no more than 15-20 men, under Lieutenant James Hawthorne, of Gary's staff, reached Newton, N.C., where they were captured by Stoneman's cavalry; the other, under Major Benjamin E. Nicholson, the second in command of the Legion, and containing about 100 men, returned to S.C., where it disbanded. None of those men are found on any parole lists, to my knowledge. Gary himself and a small group, size not known, but including his brother, escaped through the lines after the ceasefire but before the surrender, and made theri way to Greensboro, N.C., where he found about 200 men of the Legion (and probably more from the 7th S.C. CAV) who were returning from furloughs to mount, and this group accompied Jefferson Davis as far as Charlotte. Some, under Gary himself, continued on with Davis to Cokesbury, South Carolina, near Abbeville, where Davis spent the night in the home of Gary's mother. Gary left the entourage at this point, and was never paroled.