General Merritt and his Staff

General Wesley Merritt (seated, center) poses with his staff before the camera of Mathew Brady in this 1864 photograph. A highly competent cavalry officer, Merritt commanded the First Cavalry Division of General Philip Sheridan’s Army of the Shenandoah. His commendable performance at the Battle of Brandy Station, Virginia, in June 1863, in part led to his unprecedented leap in promotion from captain to brigadier general of volunteers.