Cavalry (which had lost its commander) for a month. He commanded a battalion of Sheridan's cavalry at the Battle of Yellow Tavern, in which J.E.B. Stuart was killed. Wells was promoted to colonel on June 4, 1864. From September 1864 to April 1865, he was several times in command of the Third Cavalry Division. In the Battle of Tom's Brook, Virginia (October 9, 1864), a cavalry action, Wells commanded a brigade of Custer's division, and at Cedar Creek, his brigade took a foremost part in turning the rout of the morning into a decisive victory at nightfall, capturing forty-five of the forty-eight pieces of artillery taken from Jubal Early's fleeing army. Wells was appointed brevet brigadier general of volunteers on February 22, 1865. On the personal recommendations of Generals Sheridan and Custer, Wells was commissioned brigadier general May 16, 1865, and he was appointed brevet major general of volunteers, March 30, 1865, "for gallant and meritorious service," having received more promotions than any other Vermont officer during the war (from Private to General in less than three and a half years). Wells served under Generals Kilpatrick, Sheridan, and Custer, and was with Kilpatrick in his famous raid on Richmond, and with James H. Wilson in his daring foray to the south of that city. At Appomattox Court House, on the morning of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, Wells' brigade had started on its last charge and was stopped by General Custer in person. He distinguished himself repeatedly in action. Sheridan remarked: "He is my ideal of a cavalry officer." Following Appomattox, the departure of Sheridan and Custer for Texas left Wells as the ranking officer and last commander of the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac. At the Grand Review in Washington, D.C. on May 22, 1865, he commanded the Second Brigade of Custer's Division of the Cavalry Corps, which led the advance. Wells participated in seventy cavalry engagements, in eighteen of which he led a brigade or division. He was honorably mustered out of army January 15, 1866. Postbellum career Soon after General Wells' return to civil life, he became a partner in a firm of wholesale druggists at Waterbury. In 1868 they transferred their business to Burlington, which was thereafter his residence. He represented Waterbury in the legislature of 1865-66, being chairman of the military committee and an influential legislator. In 1866 he