"I am not one of those who, clinging to the old superstitions that the Will of Heaven is revealed in the immediate results of trial by combat, fancy that right must be on the side of might and speak of Appomattox as a judgment of God…instead of accepting the defeat of the South as a divine verdict against her. I regard it as but another instance of truth on the scaffold and wrong on the throne." Robert C. Cave

Robert Catlett Cave of Orange County, Virginia promised his dying father that he would serve Virginia as long as she might need his services. He joined the Montpelier Guard, Company A, Thirteenth Virginia Infantry Regiment, Army of Northern Virginia, C.S.A. This unit participated in more than seventy engagements during its career—from Manassas to Appomattox.