George Armstrong Custer's fabled Fifth Regiment fought with great distinction throughout the war and suffered the thrid highest total of men killed in the entire Union cavalry. A twenty-four-year-old farmer and new father from Hopkins, Michigan, named James Henry Avery was one of Custer's feared "Wolverines." Besides eloquently describing his personal experiences, Sergeant Avery's wartime journals and postwar reminiscences provide uniquely detailed descriptions of Civil War cavalry movements and the only known account that addresses the escape of elements of the Fifth Michigan Cavalry on the first day of the Battle of Trevilian Station.