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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/19194-h.zip b/19194-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c2aacfe --- /dev/null +++ b/19194-h.zip diff --git a/19194-h/19194-h.htm b/19194-h/19194-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..736009c --- /dev/null +++ b/19194-h/19194-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2020 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Rebel Raider, by H. Beam Piper + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + .tr {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 2em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: solid black 1px;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Rebel Raider, by H. Beam Piper + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Rebel Raider + +Author: H. Beam Piper + +Release Date: September 6, 2006 [EBook #19194] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REBEL RAIDER *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="tr"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:</p> +<p>This etext was produced from "True: The Man's Magazine," December 1950. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.</p></div> +<p> </p> + +<h1>Rebel Raider</h1> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h2>by H. Beam Piper</h2> +<p> </p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> + + +<p>It was almost midnight, on January 2, 1863, and the impromptu party at +the Ratcliffe home was breaking up. The guest of honor, General J. E. +B. Stuart, felt that he was overstaying his welcome—not at the +Ratcliffe home, where everybody was soundly Confederate, but in +Fairfax County, then occupied by the Union Army.</p> + +<p>About a week before, he had come raiding up from Culpepper with a +strong force of cavalry, to spend a merry Christmas in northern +Virginia and give the enemy a busy if somewhat less than happy New +Year's. He had shot up outposts, run off horses from remount stations, +plundered supply depots, burned stores of forage; now, before +returning to the main Confederate Army, he had paused to visit his +friend Laura Ratcliffe. And, of course, there had been a party. There +was always a party when Jeb Stuart was in any one place long enough to +organize one.</p> + +<p>They were all crowding into the hallway—the officers of Stuart's +staff, receiving their hats and cloaks from the servants and buckling +on their weapons; the young ladies, their gay dresses showing only the +first traces of wartime shabbiness; the matrons who chaperoned them; +Stuart himself, the center of attention, with his hostess on his arm.</p> + +<p>"It's a shame you can't stay longer, General," Laura Ratcliffe was +saying. "It's hard on us, living in conquered territory, under enemy +rule."</p> + +<p>"Well, I won't desert you entirely, Miss Ratcliffe," Stuart told her. +"I'm returning to Culpepper in the morning, as you know, but I mean to +leave Captain Mosby behind with a few men, to look after the loyal +Confederate people here until we can return in force and in victory."</p> + +<p>Hearing his name, one of the men in gray turned, his hands raised to +hook the fastening at the throat of his cloak. Just four days short of +his thirtieth birthday, he looked even more youthful; he was +considerably below average height, and so slender as to give the +impression of frailness. His hair and the beard he was wearing at the +time were very light brown. He wore an officer's uniform without +insignia of rank, and instead of a saber he carried a pair of +1860-model Colt .44's on his belt, with the butts to the front so that +either revolver could be drawn with either hand, backhand or +crossbody.</p> + +<p>There was more than a touch of the dandy about him. The cloak he was +fastening was lined with scarlet silk and the gray cock-brimmed hat +the slave was holding for him was plumed with a squirrel tail. At +first glance he seemed no more than one of the many young gentlemen of +the planter class serving in the Confederate cavalry. But then one +looked into his eyes and got the illusion of being covered by a pair +of blued pistol muzzles. He had an aura of combined ruthlessness, self +confidence, good humor and impudent audacity.</p> + +<p>For an instant he stood looking inquiringly at the general. Then he +realized what Stuart had said, and the blue eyes sparkled. This was +the thing he had almost given up hoping for—an independent command +and a chance to operate in the enemy's rear.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In 1855, John Singleton Mosby, newly graduated from the University of +Virginia, had opened a law office at Bristol, Washington County, +Virginia, and a year later he had married.</p> + +<p>The son of a well-to-do farmer and slave-owner, his boyhood had been +devoted to outdoor sports, especially hunting, and he was accounted an +expert horseman and a dead shot, even in a society in which skill with +guns and horses was taken for granted. Otherwise, the outbreak of the +war had found him without military qualifications and completely +uninterested in military matters. Moreover, he had been a rabid +anti-secessionist.</p> + +<p>It must be remembered, however, that, like most Southerners, he +regarded secession as an entirely local issue, to be settled by the +people of each state for themselves. He took no exception to the +position that a state had the constitutional right to sever its +connection with the Union if its people so desired. His objection to +secession was based upon what he considered to be political logic. He +realized that, once begun, secession was a process which could only +end in reducing America to a cluster of impotent petty sovereignties, +torn by hostilities, incapable of any concerted action, a fair prey to +any outside aggressor.</p> + +<p>However, he was also a believer in the paramount sovereignty of the +states. He was first of all a Virginian. So, when Virginia voted in +favor of secession, Mosby, while he deplored the choice, felt that he +had no alternative but to accept it. He promptly enlisted in a locally +organized cavalry company, the Washington Mounted Rifles, under a +former U. S. officer and West Point graduate, William E. Jones.</p> + +<p>His letters to his wife told of his early military experiences—his +pleasure at receiving one of the fine new Sharps carbines which +Captain Jones had wangled for his company, and, later, a Colt .44 +revolver: his first taste of fire in the Shenandoah Valley, where the +company, now incorporated into Colonel Stuart's First Virginia +Cavalry, were covering Johnston's march to re-enforce Beauregard: his +rather passive participation in the big battle at Manassas. He was +keenly disappointed at being held in reserve throughout the fighting. +Long afterward, it was to be his expressed opinion that the +Confederacy had lost the war by failing to follow the initial victory +and exploit the rout of McDowell's army.</p> + +<p>The remainder of 1861 saw him doing picket duty in Fairfax County. +When Stuart was promoted to brigadier general, and Captain Jones took +his place as colonel of the First Virginia, Mosby became the latter's +adjutant. There should have been a commission along with this post, +but this seems to have been snarled in red tape at Richmond and never +came through. It was about this time that Mosby first came to Stuart's +personal attention. Mosby spent a night at headquarters after +escorting a couple of young ladies who had been living outside the +Confederate lines and were anxious to reach relatives living farther +south.</p> + +<p>Stuart had been quite favorably impressed with Mosby, and when, some +time later, the latter lost his place as adjutant of the First by +reason of Jones' promotion to brigadier general and Fitzhugh Lee's +taking over the regiment, Mosby became one of Stuart's headquarters +scouts.</p> + +<p>Scouting for Jeb Stuart was not the easiest work in the world, nor the +safest, but Mosby appears to have enjoyed it, and certainly made good +at it. It was he who scouted the route for Stuart's celebrated "Ride +Around MacClellan" in June, 1862, an exploit which brought his name to +the favorable attention of General Lee. By this time, still without +commission, he was accepted at Stuart's headquarters as a sort of +courtesy officer, and generally addressed as "Captain" Mosby. Stuart +made several efforts to get him commissioned, but War Department red +tape seems to have blocked all of them. By this time, too, Mosby had +become convinced of the utter worthlessness of the saber as a +cavalryman's weapon, and for his own armament adopted a pair of Colts.</p> + +<p>The revolver of the Civil War was, of course, a percussion-cap weapon. +Even with the powder and bullet contained in a combustible paper +cartridge, loading such an arm was a slow process: each bullet had to +be forced in the front of the chamber on top of its propellant charge +by means of a hinged rammer under the barrel, and a tiny copper cap +had to be placed on each nipple. It was nothing to attempt on a +prancing horse. The Union cavalryman was armed with a single-shot +carbine—the seven-shot Spencer repeater was not to make its +battlefield appearance until late in 1863—and one revolver, giving +him a total of seven shots without reloading. With a pair of +six-shooters, Mosby had a five-shot advantage over any opponent he was +likely to encounter. As he saw it, tactical strength lay in the number +of shots which could be delivered without reloading, rather than in +the number of men firing them. Once he reached a position of +independent command, he was to adhere consistently to this principle.</p> + +<p>On July 14, 1862, General John Pope, who had taken over a newly +created Union Army made up of the commands of McDowell, Banks and +Fremont, issued a bombastic and tactless order to his new command, +making invidious comparisons between the armies in the west and those +in the east. He said, "I hear constantly of 'taking strong positions +and holding them,' of 'lines of retreat,' and of 'bases of supplies.' +Let us discard all such ideas. Let us study the probable lines of +retreat of our opponents, and leave our own to take care of +themselves."</p> + +<p>That intrigued Mosby. If General Pope wasn't going to take care of his +own rear, somebody ought to do it for him, and who better than John +Mosby? He went promptly to Stuart, pointing out Pope's disinterest in +his own lines of supply and communication, and asked that he be given +about twenty men and detailed to get into Pope's rear and see what +sort of disturbance he could create.</p> + +<p>Stuart doubted the propriety of sending men into what was then +Stonewall Jackson's territory, but he gave Mosby a letter to Jackson, +recommending the bearer highly and outlining what he proposed doing, +with the request that he be given some men to try it. With this +letter, Mosby set out for Jackson's headquarters.</p> + +<p>He never reached his destination. On the way, he was taken prisoner by +a raiding force of New York cavalry, and arrived, instead, at Old +Capitol jail in Washington. Stuart requested his exchange at once, and +Mosby spent only about ten days in Old Capitol, and then was sent down +the Potomac on an exchange boat, along with a number of other +prisoners of war, for Hampton Roads.</p> + +<p>The boat-load of prisoners, about to be exchanged and returned to +their own army, were allowed to pass through a busy port of military +embarkation and debarkation, with every opportunity to observe +everything that was going on, and, to make a bad matter worse, the +steamboat captain was himself a Confederate sympathizer. So when +Mosby, from the exchange boat, observed a number of transports lying +at anchor, he had no trouble at all in learning that they carried +Burnside's men, newly brought north from the Carolinas. With the help +of the steamboat captain, Mosby was able to learn that the transports +were bound for Acquia Creek, on the Potomac; that meant that the +re-enforcements were for Pope.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>As soon as he was exchanged, Mosby made all haste for Lee's +headquarters to report what he had discovered. Lee, remembering Mosby +as the man who had scouted ahead of Stuart's Ride Around MacClellan, +knew that he had a hot bit of information from a credible source. A +dispatch rider was started off at once for Jackson, and Jackson struck +Pope at Cedar Mountain before he could be re-enforced. Mosby returned +to Stuart's headquarters, losing no time in promoting a pair of .44's +to replace the ones lost when captured, and found his stock with +Stuart at an all-time high as a result of his recent feat of espionage +while in the hands of the enemy.</p> + +<p>So he was with Stuart when Stuart stopped at Laura Ratcliffe's home, +and was on hand when Stuart wanted to make one of his characteristic +gestures of gallantry. And so he finally got his independent +command—all of six men—and orders to operate in the enemy's rear.</p> + +<p>Whatever Stuart might have had in mind in leaving him behind "to look +after the loyal Confederate people," John Mosby had no intention of +posting himself in Laura Ratcliffe's front yard as a guard of honor. +He had a theory of guerrilla warfare which he wanted to test. In part, +it derived from his experiences in the Shenandoah Valley and in +Fairfax County, but in larger part, it was based upon his own +understanding of the fundamental nature of war.</p> + +<p>The majority of guerrilla leaders have always been severely tactical +in their thinking. That is to say, they have been concerned almost +exclusively with immediate results. A troop column is ambushed, a +picket post attacked, or a supply dump destroyed for the sake of the +immediate loss of personnel or materiel so inflicted upon the enemy. +Mosby, however, had a well-conceived strategic theory. He knew, in +view of the magnitude of the war, that the tactical effects of his +operations would simply be lost in the over-all picture. But, if he +could create enough uproar in the Union rear, he believed that he +could force the withdrawal from the front of a regiment or even a +brigade to guard against his attacks and, in some future battle, the +absence of that regiment or brigade might tip the scale of battle or, +at least, make some future Confederate victory more complete or some +defeat less crushing.</p> + +<p>As soon as Stuart's column started southward, Mosby took his six men +across Bull Run Mountain to Middleburg, where he ordered them to +scatter out, billet themselves at outlying farms, and meet him at the +Middleburg hotel on the night of January 10. Meanwhile he returned +alone to Fairfax County, spending the next week making contacts with +the people and gathering information.</p> + +<p>On the night of Saturday, January 10, he took his men through the gap +at Aldie and into Fairfax County. His first stop was at a farmhouse +near Herndon Station, where he had friends, and there he met a +woodsman, trapper and market hunter named John Underwood, who, with +his two brothers, had been carrying on a private resistance movement +against the Union occupation ever since the Confederate Army had moved +out of the region. Overjoyed at the presence of regular Confederate +troops, even as few as a half-dozen, Underwood offered to guide Mosby +to a nearby Union picket post.</p> + +<p>Capturing this post was no particularly spectacular feat of arms. +Mosby's party dismounted about 200 yards away from it and crept up on +it, to find seven members of the Fifth New York squatting around a +fire, smoking, drinking coffee and trying to keep warm. Their first +intimation of the presence of any enemy nearer than the Rappahannock +River came when Mosby and his men sprang to their feet, leveled +revolvers and demanded their surrender. One cavalryman made a grab for +his carbine and Mosby shot him; the others put up their hands. The +wounded man was given first aid, wrapped in a blanket and placed +beside the fire to wait until the post would be relieved. The others +were mounted on their own horses and taken to Middleburg, where they +were paroled i.e., released after they gave their word not to take up +arms again against the Confederacy. This not entirely satisfactory +handling of prisoners was the only means left open to Mosby with his +small force, behind enemy lines.</p> + +<p>The next night, Mosby stayed out of Fairfax County to allow the +excitement to die down a little, but the night after, he and his men, +accompanied by Underwood, raided a post where the Little River +Turnpike crossed Cub Run. Then, after picking up a two-man road patrol +en route, they raided another post near Fryingpan Church. This time +they brought back fourteen prisoners and horses.</p> + +<p>In all, he and his sextet had captured nineteen prisoners and twenty +horses. But Mosby still wasn't satisfied. What he wanted was a few +more men and orders to operate behind the Union army on a permanent +basis. So, after paroling the catch of the night before, he told John +Underwood to get busy gathering information and establishing contacts, +and he took his six men back to Culpepper, reporting his activities to +Stuart and claiming that under his existing orders he had not felt +justified in staying away from the army longer. At the same time, he +asked for a larger detail and orders to continue operating in northern +Virginia.</p> + +<p>In doing so, he knew he was taking a chance that Stuart would keep him +at Culpepper, but as both armies had gone into winter quarters after +Fredericksburg with only a minimum of outpost activity, he reasoned +that Stuart would be willing to send him back. As it happened, Stuart +was so delighted with the success of Mosby's brief activity that he +gave him fifteen men, all from the First Virginia Cavalry, and orders +to operate until recalled. On January 18, Mosby was back at +Middleburg, ready to go to work in earnest.</p> + +<p>As before, he scattered his men over the countryside, quartering them +on the people. This time, before scattering them, he told them to meet +him at Zion Church, just beyond the gap at Aldie, on the night of the +28th. During the intervening ten days, he was not only busy gathering +information but also in an intensive recruiting campaign among the +people of upper Fauquier and lower Loudoun Counties.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In this last, his best selling-point was a recent act of the +Confederate States Congress called the Scott Partisan Ranger Law. This +piece of legislation was, in effect, an extension of the principles of +prize law and privateering to land warfare. It authorized the +formation of independent cavalry companies, to be considered part of +the armed forces of the Confederacy, their members to serve without +pay and mount themselves, in return for which they were to be entitled +to keep any spoil of war captured from the enemy. The terms "enemy" +and "spoil of war" were defined so liberally as to cover almost +anything not the property of the government or citizens of the +Confederacy. There were provisions, also, entitling partisan companies +to draw on the Confederate government for arms and ammunition and +permitting them to turn in and receive payment for any spoil which +they did not wish to keep for themselves.</p> + +<p>The law had met with considerable opposition from the Confederate +military authorities, who claimed that it would attract men and horses +away from the regular service and into ineffective freebooting. There +is no doubt that a number of independent companies organized under the +Scott Law accomplished nothing of military value. Some degenerated +into mere bandit gangs, full of deserters from both sides, and +terrible only to the unfortunate Confederate citizens living within +their range of operations. On the other hand, as Mosby was to +demonstrate, a properly employed partisan company could be of +considerable use.</p> + +<p>It was the provision about booty, however, which appealed to Mosby. As +he intended operating in the Union rear, where the richest plunder +could be found, he hoped that the prospect would attract numerous +recruits. The countryside contained many men capable of bearing arms +who had remained at home to look after their farms but who would be +more than willing to ride with him now and then in hope of securing a +new horse for farm work, or some needed harness, or food and blankets +for their families. The regular Mosby Men called them the +"Conglomerates," and Mosby himself once said that they resembled the +Democrat party, being "held together only by the cohesive power of +public plunder."</p> + +<p>Mosby's first operation with his new force was in the pattern of the +other two—the stealthy dismounted approach and sudden surprise of an +isolated picket post. He brought back eleven prisoners and twelve +horses and sets of small arms, and, as on the night of the 10th, left +one wounded enemy behind. As on the previous occasions, the prisoners +were taken as far as Middleburg before being released on parole.</p> + +<p>For this reason, Mosby was sure that Colonel Sir Percy Wyndham, +commander of the brigade which included the Fifth New York, Eighteenth +Pennsylvania and the First Vermont, would assume that this village was +the raiders' headquarters. Colonel Wyndham, a European-trained +soldier, would scarcely conceive of any military force, however small, +without a regular headquarters and a fixed camp. Therefore, Wyndham +would come looking for him at Middleburg. So, with a companion named +Fountain Beattie, Mosby put up for what remained of the night at the +home of a Mr. Lorman Chancellor, on the road from Aldie a few miles +east of Middleburg. The rest of the company were ordered to stay +outside Middleburg.</p> + +<p>Mosby's estimate of his opponent was uncannily accurate. The next +morning, about daybreak, he and Beattie were wakened by one of the +Chancellor servants and warned that a large body of Union cavalry was +approaching up the road from Aldie. Peering through the window +shutters, they watched about 200 men of the Fifth New York ride by, +with Colonel Wyndham himself in the lead. As soon as they were out of +sight up the road, Mosby and Beattie, who had hastily dressed, dashed +downstairs for their horses.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to keep an eye on these people," Mosby told Beattie. +"Gather up as many men as you can, and meet me in about half an hour +on the hill above Middleburg. But hurry! I'd rather have five men now +than a hundred by noon."</p> + +<p>When Beattie with six men rejoined Mosby, he found the latter sitting +on a stump, munching an apple and watching the enemy through his field +glasses. Wyndham, who had been searching Middleburg for "Mosby's +headquarters," was just forming his men for a push on to Upperville, +where he had been assured by the canny Middleburgers that Mosby had +his camp.</p> + +<p>Mosby and his men cantered down the hillside to the road as Wyndham's +force moved out of the village and then broke into a mad gallop to +overtake them.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It was always hard to be sure whether jackets were dirty gray or faded +blue. As the Union soldier had a not unfounded belief that the +Virginia woods were swarming with bushwhackers (Confederate +guerillas), the haste of a few men left behind to rejoin the column +was quite understandable. The rearguard pulled up and waited for them. +Then, at about twenty yards' range, one of the New Yorkers, a +sergeant, realized what was happening and shouted a warning:</p> + +<p>"They're Rebs!"</p> + +<p>Instantly one of Mosby's men, Ned Hurst, shot him dead. Other +revolvers, ready drawn, banged, and several Union cavalrymen were +wounded. Mosby and his followers hastily snatched the bridles of three +others, disarmed them and turned, galloping away with them.</p> + +<p>By this time, the main column, which had not halted with the +rearguard, was four or five hundred yards away. There was a brief +uproar, a shouting of contradictory orders, and then the whole column +turned and came back at a gallop. Mosby, four of his men, and the +three prisoners, got away, but Beattie and two others were captured +when their horses fell on a sheet of ice treacherously hidden under +the snow. There was no possibility of rescuing them. After the capture +of Beattie and his companions, the pursuit stopped. Halting at a +distance, Mosby saw Wyndham form his force into a compact body and +move off toward Aldie at a brisk trot. He sent off the prisoners under +guard of two of his men and followed Wyndham's retreat almost to Aldie +without opportunity to inflict any more damage.</p> + +<p>During his stop at Middleburg, Wyndham had heaped coals on a growing +opposition to Mosby, fostered by pro-Unionists in the neighborhood. +Wyndham informed the townspeople that he would burn the town and +imprison the citizens if Mosby continued the attacks on his outposts. +A group of citizens, taking the threat to heart, petitioned Stuart to +recall Mosby, but the general sent a stinging rebuke, telling the +Middleburgers that Mosby and his men were risking their lives which +were worth considerably more than a few houses and barns.</p> + +<p>Mosby was also worried about the antipathy to the Scott Law and the +partisan ranger system which was growing among some of the general +officers of the Confederacy. To counteract such opposition, he needed +to achieve some spectacular feat of arms which would capture the +popular imagination, make a public hero of himself, and place him +above criticism.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>And all the while, his force was growing. The booty from his raids +excited the cupidity of the more venturesome farmers, and they were +exchanging the hoe for the revolver and joining him. A number of the +convalescents and furloughed soldiers were arranging transfers to his +command. Others, with no permanent military attachment, were drifting +to Middleburg, Upperville, or Rectortown, inquiring where they might +find Mosby, and making their way to join him.</p> + +<p>There was a young Irishman, Dick Moran. There was a Fauquier County +blacksmith, Billy Hibbs, who reported armed with a huge broadsword +which had been the last product of his forge. There were Walter +Frankland, Joe Nelson, Frank Williams and George Whitescarver, among +the first to join on a permanent basis. And, one day, there was the +strangest recruit of all.</p> + +<p>A meeting was held on the 25th of February at the Blackwell farm, near +Upperville, and Mosby and most of his men were in the kitchen of the +farmhouse, going over a map of the section they intended raiding, when +a couple of men who had been on guard outside entered, pushing a Union +cavalry sergeant ahead of them.</p> + +<p>"This Yankee says he wants to see you, Captain," one of the men +announced. "He came on foot; says his horse broke a leg and had to be +shot."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm Mosby," the guerrilla leader said. "What do you want?"</p> + +<p>The man in blue came to attention and saluted.</p> + +<p>"I've come here to join your company, sir," he said calmly.</p> + +<p>There was an excited outburst from the men in the kitchen, but Mosby +took the announcement in stride.</p> + +<p>"And what's your name and unit, sergeant?"</p> + +<p>"James F. Ames: late Fifth New York Cavalry, sir."</p> + +<p>After further conversation, Mosby decided that the big Yankee was +sincere in his avowed decision to join the forces of the Confederacy. +He had some doubts about his alleged motives: the man was animated +with a most vindictive hatred of the Union government, all his former +officers and most of his former comrades. No one ever learned what +injury, real or fancied, had driven Sergeant Ames to desertion and +treason, but in a few minutes Mosby was sure that the man was through +with the Union Army.</p> + +<p>Everybody else was equally sure that he was a spy, probably sent over +by Wyndham to assassinate Mosby. Eventually Mosby proposed a test of +Ames' sincerity. The deserter should guide the company to a Union +picket post, and should accompany the raiders unarmed: Mosby would +ride behind him, ready to shoot him at the first sign of treachery. +The others agreed to judge the new recruit by his conduct on the raid. +A fairly strong post, at a schoolhouse at Thompson's Corners, was +selected as the objective, and they set out, sixteen men beside Ames +and Mosby, through a storm of rain and sleet. Stopping at a nearby +farm, Mosby learned that the post had been heavily re-enforced since +he had last raided it. There were now about a hundred men at the +schoolhouse.</p> + +<p>Pleased at this evidence that his campaign to force the enemy to +increase his guard was bearing fruit, Mosby decided to abandon his +customary tactics of dismounting at a distance and approaching on +foot. On a night like this, the enemy would not be expecting him, so +the raiders advanced boldly along the road, Mosby telling Ames to make +whatever answer he thought would be believed in case they were +challenged. However, a couple of trigger-happy vedettes let off their +carbines at them, yelled, "The Rebs are coming!" and galloped for the +schoolhouse.</p> + +<p>There was nothing to do but gallop after them, and Mosby and his band +came pelting in on the heels of the vedettes. Hitherto, his raids had +been more or less bloodless, but this time he had a fight on his +hands, and if the men in the schoolhouse had stayed inside and +defended themselves with carbine fire, they would have driven off the +attack. Instead, however, they rushed outside, each man trying to +mount his horse. A lieutenant and seven men were killed, about twice +that number wounded, and five prisoners were taken. The rest, +believing themselves attacked by about twice their own strength, +scattered into the woods and got away.</p> + +<p>Ames, who had ridden unarmed, flung himself upon a Union cavalryman at +the first collision and disarmed him, then threw himself into the +fight with the captured saber. His conduct during the brief battle at +the schoolhouse was such as to remove from everybody's mind the +suspicion that his conversion to the Confederate cause was anything +but genuine. Thereafter, he was accepted as a Mosby man.</p> + +<p>He was accepted by Mosby himself as a veritable godsend, since he was +acquainted with the location of every Union force in Fairfax County, +and knew of a corridor by which it would be possible to penetrate +Wyndham's entire system of cavalry posts as far as Fairfax Courthouse +itself. Here, then, was the making of the spectacular coup which Mosby +needed to answer his critics and enemies, both at Middleburg and at +army headquarters. He decided to attempt nothing less than a raid upon +Fairfax Courthouse, with the capture of Wyndham as its purpose.</p> + +<p>This last would entail something of a sacrifice, for he had come to +esteem Sir Percy highly as an opponent whose mind was an open book and +whose every move could be predicted in advance. With Wyndham +eliminated, he would have to go to the trouble of learning the mental +processes of his successor.</p> + +<p>However, Wyndham would be the ideal captive to grace a Mosby triumph, +and a successful raid on Fairfax Courthouse, garrisoned as it was by +between five and ten thousand Union troops, would not only secure +Mosby's position in his own army but would start just the sort of a +panic which would result in demands that the Union rear be re-enforced +at the expense of the front.</p> + +<p>So, on Sunday, March 8, Mosby led thirty-nine men through the gap at +Aldie, the largest force that had followed him to date. It was the +sort of a foul night that he liked for raiding, with a drizzling rain +falling upon melting snow. It was pitch dark before they found the +road between Centreville and Fairfax, along which a telegraph line had +been strung to connect the main cavalry camp with General Stoughton's +headquarters. Mosby sent one of his men, Harry Hatcher, up a pole to +cut the wire. They cut another telegraph line at Fairfax Station and +left the road, moving through the woods toward Fairfax Courthouse. At +this time, only Mosby and Yank Ames knew the purpose of the +expedition.</p> + +<p>It was therefore with surprise and some consternation that the others +realized where they were as they rode into the courthouse square and +halted. A buzz of excited whispers rose from the men.</p> + +<p>"That's right," Mosby assured them calmly. "We're in Fairfax +Courthouse, right in the middle of ten thousand Yankees, but don't let +that worry you. All but about a dozen of them are asleep. Now, if you +all keep your heads and do what you're told, we'll be as safe as +though we were in Jeff Davis' front parlor."</p> + +<p>He then began giving instructions, detailing parties to round up +horses and capture any soldiers they found awake and moving about. He +went, himself, with several men, to the home of a citizen named +Murray, where he had been told that Wyndham had quartered himself, but +here he received the disappointing news that the Englishman had gone +to Washington that afternoon.</p> + +<p>A few minutes later, however, Joe Nelson came up with a prisoner, an +infantryman who had just been relieved from sentry duty at General +Stoughton's headquarters, who said that there had been a party there +earlier in the evening and that Stoughton and several other officers +were still there. Mosby, still disappointed at his failure to secure +Wyndham, decided to accept Stoughton in his place. Taking several men, +he went at once to the house where the prisoner said Stoughton had his +headquarters.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Arriving there, he hammered loudly on the door with a revolver butt. +An upstairs window opened, and a head, in a nightcap, was thrust out.</p> + +<p>"What the devil's all the noise about?" its owner demanded. "Don't you +know this is General Stoughton's headquarters?"</p> + +<p>"I'd hoped it was; I almost killed a horse getting here," Mosby +retorted. "Come down and open up; dispatches from Washington."</p> + +<p>In a few moments, a light appeared inside on the first floor, and the +door opened. A man in a nightshirt, holding a candle, stood in the +doorway.</p> + +<p>"I'm Lieutenant Prentiss, on General Stoughton's staff. The general's +asleep. If you'll give me the dispatches ..."</p> + +<p>Mosby caught the man by the throat with his left hand and shoved a +Colt into his face with his right. Dan Thomas, beside him, lifted the +candle out of the other man's hand.</p> + +<p>"And I'm Captain Mosby, General Stuart's staff. We've just taken +Fairfax Courthouse. Inside, now, and take me to the general at once."</p> + +<p>The general was in bed, lying on his face in a tangle of bedclothes. +Mosby pulled the sheets off of him, lifted the tail of his nightshirt +and slapped him across the bare rump.</p> + +<p>The effect was electric. Stoughton sat up in bed, gobbling in fury. In +the dim candlelight, he mistook the gray of Mosby's tunic for blue, +and began a string of bloodthirsty threats of court-martial and firing +squad, interspersed with oaths.</p> + +<p>"Easy, now, General," the perpetrator of the outrage soothed. "You've +heard of John Mosby, haven't you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; have you captured him?" In the face of such tidings, Stoughton +would gladly forget the assault on his person.</p> + +<p>Mosby shook his head, smiling seraphically. "No, General. He's +captured you. I'm Mosby."</p> + +<p>"Oh my God!" Stoughton sank back on the pillow and closed his eyes, +overcome.</p> + +<p>Knowing the precarious nature of his present advantage, Mosby then +undertook to deprive Stoughton of any hope of rescue or will to +resist.</p> + +<p>"Stuart's cavalry is occupying Fairfax Courthouse," he invented, "and +Stonewall Jackson's at Chantilly with his whole force. We're all +moving to occupy Alexandria by morning. You'll have to hurry and +dress, General."</p> + +<p>"Is Fitzhugh Lee here?" Stoughton asked. "He's a friend of mine; we +were classmates at West Point."</p> + +<p>"Why, no; he's with Jackson at Chantilly. Do you want me to take you +to him? I can do so easily if you hurry."</p> + +<p>It does not appear that Stoughton doubted as much as one syllable of +this remarkable set of prevarications. The Union Army had learned by +bitter experience that Stonewall Jackson was capable of materializing +almost anywhere. So he climbed out of bed, putting on his clothes.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>On the way back to the courthouse square, Prentiss got away from them +in the darkness, but Mosby kept a tight hold on Stoughton's bridle. By +this time, the suspicion that all was not well in the county seat had +begun to filter about. Men were beginning to turn out under arms all +over town, and there was a confusion of challenges and replies and +some occasional firing as hastily wakened soldiers mistook one another +for the enemy. Mosby got his prisoners and horses together and started +out of town as quickly as he could.</p> + +<p>The withdrawal was made over much the same route as the approach, +without serious incident. Thanks to the precaution of cutting the +telegraph wires, the camp at Centreville knew nothing of what had +happened at Fairfax Courthouse until long after the raiders were +safely away. They lost all but thirty of the prisoners—in the woods +outside Fairfax Courthouse, they escaped in droves—but they brought +Stoughton and the two captains out safely.</p> + +<p>The results were everything Mosby had hoped. He became a Confederate +hero over night, and there was no longer any danger of his being +recalled. There were several half-hearted attempts to kick him +upstairs—an offer of a commission in the now defunct Virginia +Provisional Army, which he rejected scornfully, and a similar offer in +the regular Confederate States Army, which he politely declined +because it would deprive his men of their right to booty under the +Scott Law. Finally he was given a majority in the Confederate States +Army, with authorization to organize a partisan battalion under the +Scott Law. This he accepted, becoming Major Mosby of the Forty-Third +Virginia Partisan Ranger Battalion.</p> + +<p>The effect upon the enemy was no less satisfactory. When full +particulars of the Fairfax raid reached Washington, Wyndham vanished +from the picture, being assigned to other duties where less depended +upon him. There was a whole epidemic of courts-martial and inquiries, +some of which were still smouldering when the war ended. And +Stoughton, the principal victim, found scant sympathy. President +Lincoln, when told that the rebels had raided Fairfax to the tune of +one general, two captains, thirty men and fifty-eight horses, remarked +that he could make all the generals he wanted, but that he was sorry +to lose the horses, as he couldn't make horses. As yet, there was no +visible re-enforcement of the cavalry in Fairfax County from the +front, but the line of picket posts was noticeably shortened.</p> + +<p>About two weeks later, with forty men, Mosby raided a post at Herndon +Station, bringing off a major, a captain, two lieutenants and +twenty-one men, with a horse apiece. A week later, with fifty-odd men, +he cut up about three times his strength of Union cavalry at +Chantilly. Having surprised a small party, he had driven them into a +much larger force, and the hunted had turned to hunt the hunters. +Fighting a delaying action with a few men while the bulk of his force +fell back on an old roadblock of felled trees dating from the second +Manassas campaign, he held off the enemy until he was sure his +ambuscade was set, then, by feigning headlong flight, led them into a +trap and chased the survivors for five or six miles. Wyndham and +Stoughton had found Mosby an annoying nuisance; their successors were +finding him a serious menace.</p> + +<p>This attitude was not confined to the local level, but extended all +the way to the top echelons. The word passed down, "Get Mosby!" and it +was understood that the officer responsible for his elimination would +find his military career made for him. One of the Union officers who +saw visions of rapid advancement over the wreckage of Mosby's Rangers +was a captain of the First Vermont, Josiah Flint by name. He was soon +to have a chance at it.</p> + +<p>On March 31, Mosby's Rangers met at Middleburg and moved across the +mountain to Chantilly, expecting to take a strong outpost which had +been located there. On arriving, they found the campsite deserted. The +post had been pulled back closer to Fairfax after the fight of four +days before. Mosby decided to move up to the Potomac and attack a +Union force on the other side of Dranesville—Captain Josiah Flint's +Vermonters.</p> + +<p>They passed the night at John Miskel's farm, near Chantilly. The +following morning, April 1, at about daybreak, Mosby was wakened by +one of his men who had been sleeping in the barn. This man, having +gone outside, had observed a small party of Union troops on the +Maryland side of the river who were making semaphore signals to +somebody on the Virginia side. Mosby ordered everybody to turn out as +quickly as possible and went out to watch the signalmen with his field +glasses. While he was watching, Dick Moran, a Mosby man who had +billeted with friends down the road, arrived at a breakneck gallop +from across the fields, shouting: "Mount your horses! The Yankees are +coming!"</p> + +<p>It appeared that he had been wakened, shortly before, by the noise of +a column of cavalry on the road in front of the house where he had +been sleeping, and had seen a strong force of Union cavalry on the +march in the direction of Broad Run and the Miskel farm. Waiting until +they had passed, he had gotten his horse and circled at a gallop +through the woods, reaching the farm just ahead of them. It later +developed that a woman of the neighborhood, whose head had been turned +by the attentions of Union officers, had betrayed Mosby to Flint.</p> + +<p>The Miskel farmhouse stood on the crest of a low hill, facing the +river. Behind it stood the big barn, with a large barnyard enclosed by +a high pole fence. As this was a horse farm, all the fences were eight +feet high and quite strongly built. A lane ran down the slope of the +hill between two such fences, and at the southern end of the slope +another fence separated the meadows from a belt of woods, beyond which +was the road from Dranesville, along which Flint's column was +advancing.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It was a nasty spot for Mosby. He had between fifty and sixty men, +newly roused from sleep, their horses unsaddled, and he was penned in +by strong fences which would have to be breached if he were to escape. +His only hope lay in a prompt counterattack. The men who had come out +of the house and barn were frantically saddling horses, without much +attention to whose saddle went on whose mount. Harry Hatcher, who had +gotten his horse saddled, gave it to Mosby and appropriated somebody +else's mount.</p> + +<p>As Flint, at the head of his cavalry, emerged from the woods, Mosby +had about twenty of his men mounted and was ready to receive him. The +Union cavalry paused, somebody pulled out the gate bars at the foot of +the lane, and the whole force started up toward the farm. Having +opened the barnyard end of the lane, Mosby waited until Flint had come +about halfway, then gave him a blast of revolver fire and followed +this with a headlong charge down the lane. Flint was killed at the +first salvo, as were several of the men behind him. By the time +Mosby's charge rammed into the head of the Union attack, the narrow +lane was blocked with riderless horses, preventing each force from +coming to grips with the other. Here Mosby's insistence upon at least +two revolvers for each man paid off, as did the target practice upon +which he was always willing to expend precious ammunition. The Union +column, constricted by the fences on either side of the lane and +shaken by the death of their leader and by the savage attack of men +whom they had believed hopelessly trapped, turned and tried to +retreat, but when they reached the foot of the lane it was discovered +that some fool, probably meaning to deny Mosby an avenue of escape, +had replaced the gatebars. By this time, the rest of Mosby's force had +mounted their horses, breaches had been torn in the fence at either +side of the lane, and there were Confederates in both meadows, firing +into the trapped men. Until the gate at the lower end gave way under +the weight of horses crowded against it, there was a bloody slaughter. +Within a few minutes Flint and nine of his men were killed, some +fifteen more were given disabling wounds, eighty-two prisoners were +taken, and over a hundred horses and large quantities of arms and +ammunition were captured. The remains of Flint's force was chased as +far as Dranesville. Mosby was still getting the prisoners sorted out, +rounding up loose horses, gathering weapons and ammunition from +casualties, and giving the wounded first aid, when a Union lieutenant +rode up under a flag of truce, followed by several enlisted men and +two civilians of the Sanitary Commission, the Civil War equivalent of +the Red Cross, to pick up the wounded and bury the dead. This officer +offered to care for Mosby's wounded with his own, an offer which was +declined with thanks. Mosby said he would carry his casualties with +him, and the Union officer could scarcely believe his eyes when he saw +only three wounded men on horse litters and one dead man tied to his +saddle.</p> + +<p>The sutlers at Dranesville had heard the firing and were about to move +away when Mosby's column appeared. Seeing the preponderance of blue +uniforms, they mistook the victors for prisoners and, anticipating a +lively and profitable business, unpacked their loads and set up their +counters. The business was lively, but anything but profitable. The +Mosby men looted them unmercifully, taking their money, their horses, +and everything else they had.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>All through the spring of 1863, Mosby kept jabbing at Union lines of +communication in northern Virginia. In June, his majority came +through, and with it authority to organize a battalion under the Scott +Law. From that time on, he was on his own, and there was no longer any +danger of his being recalled to the regular Army. He was responsible +only to Jeb Stuart until the general's death at Yellow Tavern a year +later; thereafter, he took orders from no source below General Lee and +the Secretary of War.</p> + +<p>Even before this regularization of status, Mosby's force was beginning +to look like a regular outfit. From the fifteen men he had brought up +from Culpepper in mid-January, its effective and dependable strength +had grown to about sixty riders, augmented from raid to raid by the +"Conglomerate" fringe, who were now accepted as guerrillas-pro-tem +without too much enthusiasm. A new type of recruit had begun to +appear, the man who came to enlist on a permanent basis. Some were +Maryland secessionists, like James Williamson, who, after the war, +wrote an authoritative and well-documented history of the +organization, Mosby's Rangers. Some were boys like John Edmonds and +John Munson, who had come of something approaching military age since +the outbreak of the war. Some were men who had wangled transfers from +other Confederate units. Not infrequently these men had given up +commissions in the regular army to enlist as privates with Mosby. For +example, there was the former clergyman, Sam Chapman, who had been a +captain of artillery, or the Prussian uhlan lieutenant, Baron Robert +von Massow, who gave up a captaincy on Stuart's staff, or the +Englishman, Captain Hoskins, who was shortly to lose his life because +of his preference for the saber over the revolver, or Captain Bill +Kennon, late of Wheat's Louisiana Tigers, who had also served with +Walker in Nicaragua. As a general thing, the new Mosby recruit was a +man of high intelligence, reckless bravery and ultra-rugged +individualism.</p> + +<p>For his home territory, Mosby now chose a rough quadrangle between the +Blue Ridge and Bull Run Mountain, bounded at its four corners by +Snicker's Gap and Manassas Gap along the former and Thoroughfare Gap +and Aldie Gap along the latter. Here, when not in action, the Mosby +men billeted themselves, keeping widely dispersed, and an elaborate +system, involving most of the inhabitants, free or slave, was set up +to transmit messages, orders and warnings. In time this district came +to be known as "Mosby's Confederacy," and, in the absence of any +effective Confederate States civil authority, Mosby became the +lawgiver and chief magistrate as well as military commander. John +Munson, who also wrote a book of reminiscences after the war, said +that Mosby's Confederacy was an absolute monarchy, and that none was +ever better governed in history.</p> + +<p>Adhering to his belief in the paramount importance of firepower, Mosby +saw to it that none of his men carried fewer than two revolvers, and +the great majority carried four, one pair on the belt and another on +the saddle. Some extremists even carried a third pair down their +boot-tops, giving them thirty-six shots without reloading. Nor did he +underestimate the power of mobility. Each man had his string of +horses, kept where they could be picked up at need. Unlike the regular +cavalryman with his one mount, a Mosby man had only to drop an +exhausted animal at one of these private remount stations and change +his saddle to a fresh one. As a result of these two practices, Union +combat reports throughout the war consistently credited Mosby with +from three to five times his actual strength.</p> + +<p>In time, the entire economy of Mosby's Confederacy came to be geared +to Mosby's operations, just as the inhabitants of seventeenth century +Tortugas or Port Royal depended for their livelihood on the loot of +the buccaneers. The Mosby man who lived with some farmer's family paid +for his lodging with gifts of foodstuffs and blankets looted from the +enemy. There was always a brisk trade in captured U. S. Army horses +and mules. And there was a steady flow of United States currency into +the section, so that in time Confederate money was driven out of +circulation in a sort of reversal of Gresham's law. Every prisoner +taken reasonably close to Army pay day could be counted on for a few +dollars, and in each company there would be some lucky or skillful +gambler who would have a fairly sizeable roll of greenbacks. And, of +course, there was the sutler, the real prize catch; any Mosby man +would pass up a general in order to capture a sutler.</p> + +<p>And Northern-manufactured goods filtered south by the wagonload. Many +of the Mosby men wore Confederate uniforms that had been tailored for +them in Baltimore and even in Washington and run through the Union +lines.</p> + +<p>By mid-June, Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania had begun and the +countryside along Bull Run Mountain and the Blue Ridge exploded into a +series of cavalry actions as the Confederate Army moved north along +the Union right. Mosby kept his little force out of the main fighting, +hacking away at the Union troops from behind and confusing their +combat intelligence with reports of Rebel cavalry appearing where none +ought to be. In the midst of this work, he took time out to dash +across into Fairfax County with sixty men, shooting up a wagon train, +burning wagons, and carrying off prisoners and mules, the latter being +turned over to haul Lee's invasion transport. After the two armies had +passed over the Potomac, he gathered his force and launched an +invasion of Pennsylvania on his own, getting as far as Mercersburg and +bringing home a drove of over 200 beef cattle.</p> + +<p>He got back to Mosby's Confederacy in time to learn of Lee's defeat at +Gettysburg. Realizing that Lee's retreat would be followed by a +pursuing Union army, he began making preparations to withstand the +coming deluge. For one thing, he decided to do something he had not +done before—concentrate his force in a single camp on the top of Bull +Run Mountain. In the days while Lee's army was trudging southward, +Mosby gathered every horse and mule and cow he could find and drove +them into the mountains, putting boys and slaves to work herding them. +He commandeered wagons, and hauled grain and hay to his temporary +camp. His men erected huts, and built corrals for horses and a +stockade for prisoners. They even moved a blacksmith shop to the +hidden camp. Then Mosby sat down and waited.</p> + +<p>A few days later, Meade's army began coming through. The Forty-Third +Partisan Ranger Battalion went to work immediately. For two weeks, +they galloped in and out among the Union columns, returning to their +hidden camp only long enough to change horses and leave the prisoners +they had taken. They cut into wagon trains, scattering cavalry +escorts, burning wagons, destroying supplies, blowing up ammunition, +disabling cannon, running off mules. They ambushed marching infantry, +flitting away before their victims had recovered from the initial +surprise. Sometimes, fleeing from the scene of one attack, they would +burst through a column on another road, leaving confusion behind to +delay the pursuit.</p> + +<p>Finally, the invaders passed on, the camp on the mountain top was +abandoned, the Mosby men went back to their old billets, and the +Forty-Third Battalion could take it easy again. That is to say, they +only made a raid every couple of days and seldom fought a pitched +battle more than once a week.</p> + +<p>The summer passed; the Virginia hills turned from green to red and +from red to brown. Mosby was severely wounded in the side and thigh +during a fight at Gooding's Tavern on August 23, when two of his men +were killed, but the raiders brought off eighty-five horses and twelve +prisoners and left six enemy dead behind. The old days of bloodless +sneak raids on isolated picket posts were past, now that they had +enough men for two companies and Mosby rarely took the field with +fewer than a hundred riders behind him.</p> + +<p>Back in the saddle again after recovering from his wounds, Mosby +devoted more attention to attacking the Orange and Alexandria and the +Manassas Gap railroads and to harassing attacks for the rest of the +winter.</p> + +<p>In January, 1864, Major Cole, of the Union Maryland cavalry, began +going out of his way to collide with the Forty-Third Virginia, the +more so since he had secured the services of a deserter from Mosby, a +man named Binns who had been expelled from the Rangers for some piece +of rascality and was thirsting for revenge. Cole hoped to capitalize +on Binns' defection as Mosby had upon the desertion of Sergeant Ames, +and he made several raids into Mosby's Confederacy, taking a number of +prisoners before the Mosby men learned the facts of the situation and +everybody found a new lodging place.</p> + +<p>On the morning of February 20, Mosby was having breakfast at a +farmhouse near Piedmont Depot, on the Manassas Gap Railroad, along +with John Munson and John Edmonds, the 'teen-age terrors, and a +gunsmith named Jake Lavender, who was the battalion ordnance sergeant +and engaged to young Edmonds' sister. Edmonds had with him a couple of +Sharps carbines he had repaired for other members of the battalion and +was carrying to return to the owners. Suddenly John Edmonds' younger +brother, Jimmy, burst into the room with the news that several hundred +Union cavalrymen were approaching. Lavender grabbed the two carbines, +for which he had a quantity of ammunition, and they all ran outside.</p> + +<p>Sending the younger Edmonds boy to bring re-enforcements, Mosby, +accompanied by John Edmonds, Munson, and Jake Lavender, started to +follow the enemy. He and Munson each took one of Lavender's carbines +and opened fire on them, Munson killing a horse and Mosby a man. That +started things off properly. Cole's Marylanders turned and gave chase, +and Mosby led them toward the rendezvous with Jimmy Edmonds and the +re-enforcements. Everybody arrived together, Mosby's party, the +pursuers, and the re-enforcements, and a running fight ensued, with +Cole's men running ahead. This mounted chase, in the best horse-opera +manner, came thundering down a road past a schoolhouse just as the +pupils were being let out for recess. One of these, a 14-year-old boy +named Cabell Maddox, jumped onto the pony on which he had ridden to +school and joined in the pursuit, armed only with a McGuffy's Third +Reader. Overtaking a fleeing Yank, he aimed the book at him and +demanded his surrender; before the flustered soldier realized that his +captor was unarmed, the boy had snatched the Colt from his belt and +was covering him in earnest. This marked the suspension, for the +duration of hostilities, of young Maddox's formal education. From that +hour on he was a Mosby man, and he served with distinction to the end +of the war.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The chase broke off, finally, when the pursuers halted to get their +prisoners and captured horses together. Then they discovered that one +of their number, a man named Cobb, had been killed. Putting the dead +man across his saddle, they carried the body back to Piedmont, and the +next day assembled there for the funeral. The services had not yet +started, and Mosby was finishing writing a report to Stuart on the +previous day's action, when a scout came pelting in to report Union +cavalry in the vicinity of Middleburg.</p> + +<p>Leaving the funeral in the hands of the preacher and the civilian +mourners, Mosby and the 150 men who had assembled mounted and started +off. Sam Chapman, the ex-artillery captain, who had worked up from the +ranks to a lieutenancy with Mosby, was left in charge of the main +force, while Mosby and a small party galloped ahead to reconnoiter. +The enemy, they discovered, were not Cole's men but a California +battalion. They learned that this force had turned in the direction of +Leesburg, and that they were accompanied by the deserter, Binns.</p> + +<p>Mosby made up his mind to ambush the Californians on their way back to +their camp at Vienna. He had plans, involving a length of rope, for +his former trooper, Binns. The next morning, having crossed Bull Run +Mountain the night before, he took up a position near Dranesville, +with scouts out to the west. When the enemy were finally reported +approaching, he was ready for them. Twenty of his 150, with carbines +and rifles, were dismounted and placed in the center, under +Lieutenant Mountjoy. The rest of the force was divided into two equal +sections, under Chapman and Frank Williams, and kept mounted on the +flanks. Mosby himself took his place with Williams on the right. While +they waited, they could hear the faint boom of cannon from Washington, +firing salutes in honor of Washington's Birthday.</p> + +<p>A couple of men, posted in advance, acted as decoys, and the Union +cavalry, returning empty-handed from their raid, started after them in +hopes of bringing home at least something to show for their efforts. +Before they knew it, they were within range of Mountjoy's concealed +riflemen. While they were still in disorder from the surprise volley, +the two mounted sections swept in on them in a blaze of revolver fire, +and they broke and fled. There was a nasty jam in a section of fenced +road, with mounted Mosby men in the woods on either side and +Mountjoy's rifles behind them. Before they could get clear of this, +they lost fifteen killed, fifteen more wounded, and over seventy +prisoners, and the victorious Mosby men brought home over a hundred +captured horses and large quantities of arms and ammunition. To their +deep regret, however, Binns was not to be found either among the +casualties or the prisoners. As soon as he had seen how the fight was +going, the deserter had spurred off northward, never to appear in +Virginia again. Mosby's own loss had been one man killed and four +wounded.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>For the rest of the spring, operations were routine—attacks on wagon +trains and train wrecking and bridge burning on the railroads. With +the cut-and-try shifting of command of the Union Army of the Potomac +over and Grant in command, there was activity all over northern +Virginia. About this time, Mosby got hold of a second twelve-pound +howitzer, and, later, a twelve-pound Napoleon and added the Shenandoah +Valley to his field of operations.</p> + +<p>From then on, Mosby was fighting a war on two fronts, dividing his +attention between the valley and the country to the east of Bull Run +Mountain, his men using their spare horses freely to keep the Union +rear on both sides in an uproar. The enemy, knowing the section from +whence Mosby was operating, resorted to frequent counter-raiding. +Often, returning from a raid, the Mosby men would find their home +territory invaded and would have to intercept or fight off the +invaders. At this time, Mosby was giving top priority to attacks on +Union transport whether on the roads or the railroads. Wagon trains +were in constant movement, both moving up the Shenandoah Valley and +bound for the Army of the Potomac, in front of Petersburg. To the east +was the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, to the south, across the end +of Mosby's Confederacy, was the Manassas Gap, and at the upper end of +the valley was the B. & O. The section of the Manassas Gap Railroad +along the southern boundary of Mosby's Confederacy came in for special +attention, and the Union Army finally gave it up for a bad job and +abandoned it. This writer's grandfather, Captain H. B. Piper, of the +Eleventh Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, did a stint of duty guarding +it, and until he died he spoke with respect of the abilities of John +S. Mosby and his raiders. Locomotives were knocked out with one or +another of Mosby's twelve-pounders. Track was torn up and bridges were +burned. Land-mines were planted. Trains were derailed and looted, +usually with sharp fighting.</p> + +<p>By mid-July, Mosby had been promoted to lieutenant colonel and had a +total strength of around 300 men, divided into five companies. His +younger brother, William Mosby, had joined him and was acting as his +adjutant. He now had four guns, all twelve-pounders—two howitzers, +the Napoleon and a new rifle, presented to him by Jubal Early. He had +a compact, well-disciplined and powerful army-in-miniature. After the +Union defeat at Kernstown, Early moved back to the lower end of the +Shenandoah Valley, and McCausland went off on his raid in to +Pennsylvania, burning Chambersburg in retaliation for Hunter's +burnings at Lexington and Buchanan in Virginia. Following his +customary practice, Mosby made a crossing at another point and raided +into Maryland as far as Adamstown, skirmishing and picking up a few +prisoners and horses.</p> + +<p>Early's invasion of Maryland, followed as it was by McCausland's sack +of Chambersburg, was simply too much for the Union command. The +Shenandoah situation had to be cleaned up immediately, and, after some +top-echelon dickering, Grant picked Phil Sheridan to do the cleaning. +On August 7, Sheridan assumed command of the heterogeneous Union +forces in the Shenandoah and began welding them into an army. On the +10th, he started south after Early, and Mosby, who generally had a +good idea of what was going on at Union headquarters, took a small +party into the valley, intending to kidnap the new commander as he had +Stoughton. Due mainly to the vigilance of a camp sentry, the plan +failed, but Mosby picked up the news that a large wagon train was +being sent up the valley, and he decided to have a try at this.</p> + +<p>On the evening of the 12th, he was back in the valley with 330 men and +his two howitzers. Spending the night at a plantation on the right +bank of the Shenandoah River, he was on the move before daybreak, +crossing the river and pushing toward Berryville, with scouts probing +ahead in the heavy fog. One of the howitzers broke a wheel and was +pushed into the brush and left behind. As both pieces were of the same +caliber, the caisson was taken along. A lieutenant and fifteen men, +scouting ahead, discovered a small empty wagon train, going down the +valley in the direction of Harper's Ferry, and they were about to +attack it when they heard, in the distance, the rumbling of many +heavily loaded wagons. This was the real thing. They forgot about the +empty wagons and hastened back to Mosby and the main force to report.</p> + +<p>Swinging to the left to avoid premature contact with the train, Mosby +hurried his column in the direction of Berryville. On the way, he +found a disabled wagon, part of the north-bound empty train, with the +teamster and several infantrymen sleeping in it. These were promptly +secured, and questioning elicited the information that the south-bound +train consisted of 150 wagons, escorted by 250 cavalry and a brigade +of infantry. Getting into position on a low hill overlooking the road +a little to the east of Berryville, the howitzer was unlimbered and +the force was divided on either side of it, Captain Adolphus Richards +taking the left wing and Sam Chapman the right. Mosby himself remained +with the gun. Action was to be commenced with the gun, and the third +shot was to be the signal for both Richards and Chapman to charge.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>At just the right moment, the fog lifted. The gun was quickly laid on +the wagon train and fired, the first shot beheading a mule. The second +shell hit the best sort of target imaginable—a mobile farrier's +forge. There was a deadly shower of horseshoes, hand-tools and +assorted ironmongery, inflicting casualties and causing a local panic. +The third shell landed among some cavalry who were galloping up, +scattering them, and, on the signal, Richards and Chapman charged +simultaneously.</p> + +<p>Some infantry at the head of the train met Richards with a volley, +costing him one man killed and several wounded and driving his charge +off at an angle into the middle of the train. The howitzer, in turn, +broke up the infantry. Chapman, who had hit the rear of the train, was +having easier going: his men methodically dragged the teamsters from +their wagons, unhitched mules, overturned, looted and burned wagons. +The bulk of the escort, including the infantry, were at the front of +the train, with Richards' men between them and Chapman. Richards, +while he had his hands full with these, was not neglecting the wagons, +either, though he was making less of a ceremony of it. A teamster was +shot and dragged from his wagon-seat, a lighted bundle of inflammables +tossed into the wagon, and pistols were fired around the mules' heads +to start them running. The faster they ran, the more the flames behind +them were fanned, and as the wagon went careening down the road, other +wagons were ignited by it.</p> + +<p>By 8 a. m., the whole thing was over. The escort had been scattered, +the wagons were destroyed, and the victors moved off, in possession of +500-odd mules, thirty-six horses, about 200 head of beef cattle, 208 +prisoners, four Negro slaves who had been forcibly emancipated to +drive Army wagons, and large quantities of supplies. In one of the +wagons, a number of violins, probably equipment for some prototype of +the U.S.O., were found; the more musically inclined guerrillas +appropriated these and enlivened the homeward march with music.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Of course, there was jubilation all over Mosby's Confederacy on their +return. The mules were herded into the mountains, held for about a +week, and then started off for Early's army. The beef herd was divided +among the people, and there were barbecues and feasts. A shadow was +cast over the spirits of the raiders, however, when the prisoners +informed them, with considerable glee, that the train had been +carrying upwards of a million dollars, the pay for Sheridan's army. +Even allowing for exaggeration, the fact that they had overlooked this +treasure was a bitter pill for the Mosbyites. According to local +tradition, however, the fortune was not lost completely; there were +stories of a Berryville family who had been quite poor before the war +but who blossomed into unexplained affluence afterward.</p> + +<p>Less than a week later, on August 19, Mosby was in the valley again +with 250 men, dividing his force into several parties after crossing +the river at Castleman's Ford. Richards, with "B" Company, set off +toward Charlestown. Mosby himself took "A" toward Harper's Ferry on an +uneventful trip during which the only enemies he encountered were a +couple of stragglers caught pillaging a springhouse. It was Chapman, +with "C" and "D," who saw the action on this occasion.</p> + +<p>Going to the vicinity of Berryville, he came to a burning farmhouse, +and learned that it had been fired only a few minutes before by some +of Custer's cavalry. Leaving a couple of men to help the family +control the fire and salvage their possessions, he pressed on rapidly. +Here was the thing every Mosby man had been hoping for—a chance to +catch house burners at work. They passed a second blazing house and +barn, dropping off a couple more men to help fight fire, and caught up +with the incendiaries, a company of Custer's men, just as they were +setting fire to a third house. Some of these, knowing the quality of +mercy they might expect from Mosby men, made off immediately at a +gallop. About ninety of them, however, tried to form ranks and put up +a fight. The fight speedily became a massacre. Charging with shouts of +"No quarters!", Chapman's men drove them into a maze of stone fences +and killed about a third of them before the rest were able to +extricate themselves.</p> + +<p>This didn't stop the house burnings, by any means. The devastation of +the Shenandoah Valley had been decided upon as a matter of strategy, +and Sheridan was going through with it. The men who were ordered to do +the actual work did not have their morale improved any by the +knowledge that Mosby's Rangers were refusing quarter to incendiary +details, however, and, coming as it did on the heels of the wagon +train affair of the 13th, Sheridan was convinced that something +drastic would have to be done about Mosby. Accordingly, he set up a +special company, under a Captain William Blazer, each man armed with a +pair of revolvers and a Spencer repeater, to devote their entire +efforts to eliminating Mosby and his organized raiders.</p> + +<p>On September 3, this company caught up with Joe Nelson and about 100 +men in the valley and gave them a sound drubbing, the first that the +Mosby men had experienced for some time. It was a humiliating defeat +for them, and, on the other side, it was hailed as the beginning of +the end of the Mosby nuisance. A few days later, while raiding to the +east of Bull Run Mountain, Mosby was wounded again, and was taken to +Lynchburg. He was joined by his wife, who remained with him at +Lynchburg and at Mosby's Confederacy until the end of the war.</p> + +<p>During his absence, the outfit seems to have been run by a sort of +presidium of the senior officers. On September 22, Sam Chapman took +120 men into the valley to try to capture a cavalry post supposed to +be located near Front Royal, but, arriving there, he learned that his +information had been incorrect and that no such post existed. Camping +in the woods, he sent some men out as scouts, and the next morning +they reported a small wagon train escorted by about 150 cavalry, +moving toward Front Royal. Dividing his force and putting half of it +under Walter Frankland, he planned to attack the train from the rear +while Frankland hit it from in front. After getting into position, he +kept his men concealed, waiting for the wagons to pass, and as it did, +he realized that his scouts had seen only a small part of it. The +escort looked to him like about three regiments. Ordering his men to +slip away as quietly as possible, he hurried to reach Frankland.</p> + +<p>"Turn around, Walter!" he yelled. "Get your men out of here! You're +attacking a whole brigade!"</p> + +<p>"What of it?" Frankland replied. "Why, Sam, we have the bastards on +the run already!"</p> + +<p>Chapman, the erstwhile clergyman, turned loose a blast of theological +language in purely secular connotation. Frankland, amazed at this +blasphemous clamor from his usually pious comrade, realized that it +must have been inspired by something more than a little serious, and +began ordering his men to fall back. Before they had all gotten away, +two of the three Union regiments accompanying the wagons came +galloping up and swamped them. Most of the men got away but six of +them, Anderson, Carter, Overby, Love, Rhodes and Jones, were captured.</p> + +<p>Late that night some of the stragglers, making their way back to +Mosby's Confederacy on foot, reported the fate of these six men. They +had been taken into Front Royal, and there, at the personal order of +General George A. Custer, and under circumstances of extreme +brutality, they had all been hanged. Rhodes' mother, who lived in +Front Royal, had been forced to witness the hanging of her son.</p> + +<p>To put it conservatively, there was considerable excitement in Mosby's +Confederacy when the news of this atrocity was received. The senior +officers managed to restore a measure of calmness, however, and it was +decided to wait until Mosby returned before taking any action on the +matter.</p> + +<p>In addition to the hangings at Front Royal, Custer was acquiring a bad +reputation because of his general brutality to the people of the +Shenandoah Valley. After the battle of the Little Bighorn, Sitting +Bull would have probably won any popularity contest in northern +Virginia without serious competition.</p> + +<p>On September 29, Mosby was back with his command; his wound had not +been as serious as it might have been for the bullet had expended most +of its force against the butt of one of the revolvers in his belt. +Operations against the railroads had been allowed to slacken during +Mosby's absence; now they were stepped up again. Track was repeatedly +torn up along the Manassas Gap line, and there were attacks on camps +and strong points, and continual harassing of wood-cutting parties +obtaining fuel for the locomotives. The artillery was taken out, and +trains were shelled. All this, of course, occasioned a fresh wave of +Union raids into the home territory of the raiders, during one of +which Yank Ames, who had risen to a lieutenancy in the Forty-Third, +was killed.</p> + +<p>The most desperate efforts were being made, at this time, to keep the +Manassas Gap Railroad open, and General C. C. Augur, who had charge of +the railroad line at the time, was arresting citizens indiscriminately +and forcing them to ride on the trains as hostages. Mosby obtained +authorization from Lee's headquarters to use reprisal measures on +officers and train crews of trains on which citizens were being forced +to ride, and also authority to execute prisoners from Custer's command +in equal number to the men hanged at Front Royal and elsewhere.</p> + +<p>It was not until November that he was able to secure prisoners from +Custer's brigade, it being his intention to limit his retaliation to +men from units actually involved in the hangings. On November 6, he +paraded about twenty-five such prisoners and forced them to draw lots, +selecting, in this manner, seven of them—one for each of the men +hanged at Front Royal and another for a man named Willis who had been +hanged at Gaines' Cross Roads several weeks later. It was decided that +they should be taken into the Shenandoah Valley and hanged beside the +Valley Pike, where their bodies could serve as an object lesson. On +the way, one of them escaped. Four were hanged, and then, running out +of rope, they prepared to shoot the other two. One of these got away +during a delay caused by defective percussion caps on his +executioner's revolver.</p> + +<p>A sign was placed over the bodies, setting forth the reason for their +execution, and Mosby also sent one of his men under a flag of truce to +Sheridan's headquarters, with a statement of what had been done and +why, re-enforced with the intimation that he had more prisoners, +including a number of officers, in case his messenger failed to return +safely. Sheridan replied by disclaiming knowledge of the Front Royal +hangings, agreeing that Mosby was justified in taking reprisals, and +assuring the Confederate leader that hereafter his men would be given +proper treatment as prisoners of war. There was no repetition of the +hangings.</p> + +<p>By this time the Shenandoah Valley campaign as such was over. The last +Confederate effort to clear Sheridan out of the Valley had failed at +Cedar Creek on October 19, and the victor was going methodically about +his task of destroying the strategic and economic usefulness of the +valley. How well he succeeded in this was best expressed in Sheridan's +own claim that a crow flying over the region would have to carry his +own rations. The best Mosby could do was to launch small raiding +parties to harass the work of destruction.</p> + +<p>By the beginning of December, the northern or Loudoun County end of +Mosby's Confederacy was feeling the enemy scourge as keenly as the +valley, and the winter nights were lighted with the flames of burning +houses and barns. For about a week, while this was going on, Mosby +abandoned any attempt at organized action. His men, singly and in +small parties, darted in and out among the invaders, sniping and +bushwhacking, attacking when they could and fleeing when they had to, +and taking no prisoners. When it was over, the northern end of Mosby's +Confederacy was in ashes and most of the people had "refugeed out," +but Mosby's Rangers, as a fighting force, was still intact. On +December 17, for instance, while Mosby was in Richmond conferring with +General Lee, they went into the valley again in force, waylaying a +column of cavalry on the march, killing and wounding about thirty and +bringing off 168 prisoners and horses.</p> + +<p>When Mosby came back from Lee's headquarters, a full colonel now, his +brother William was made a lieutenant-colonel, and Richards became a +major. The southern, or Fauquier County, end of Mosby's Confederacy +was still more or less intact, though crowded with refugees. There was +even time, in spite of everything, for the wedding of the +Forty-Third's armorer, Jake Lavender, with John and Jimmy Edmonds' +sister.</p> + +<p>While the wedding party was in progress, a report was brought in to +the effect that Union cavalry were in the neighborhood of Salem, a few +miles away. Mosby took one of his men, Tom Love, a relative of one of +the Front Royal victims, and went to investigate, finding that the +enemy had moved in the direction of Rectortown, where they were +making camp for the night. Sending a resident of the neighborhood to +alert Chapman and Richards for an attack at daybreak, Mosby and Love +set out to collect others of his command.</p> + +<p>By this time, it was dark, with a freezing rain covering everything +with ice. Mosby and Love decided to stop at the farm of Ludwell Lake +for something to eat before going on; Love wanted to stay outside on +guard, but Mosby told him to get off his horse and come inside. As +they would have been in any house in the neighborhood, Mosby and his +companion were welcomed as honored guests and sat down with the family +to a hearty meal of spareribs.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>While they were eating, the house was surrounded by Union cavalry. +Mosby rushed to the back door, to find the backyard full of soldiers. +He started for the front door, but as he did, it burst open and a +number of Yankees, officers and men, entered the house. At the same +time, the soldiers behind, having seen the back door open and shut, +began firing at the rear windows, and one bullet hit Mosby in the +abdomen. In the confusion, with the women of the Lake family +screaming, the soldiers cursing, and bullets coming through the +windows, the kitchen table was overturned and the lights extinguished. +Mosby in the dark, managed to crawl into a first-floor bedroom, where +he got off his tell-tale belt and coat, stuffing them under the bed. +Then he lay down on the floor.</p> + +<p>After a while, the shooting outside stopped, the officers returned, +and the candles were relighted. The Union officers found Mosby on the +floor, bleeding badly, and asked the family who he was. They said, of +course, that they did not know, and neither did Tom Love—he was only +a Confederate officer on his way to rejoin his command, who had +stopped for a night's lodging. There was a surgeon with the Union +detachment. After they got most of Mosby's clothes off and put him on +the bed, he examined the wounded Confederate and pronounced his wound +mortal. When asked his name and unit, Mosby, still conscious, hastily +improvised a false identity, at the same time congratulating himself +on having left all his documents behind when starting on this scouting +trip. Having been assured, by medical authority, that he was as good +as dead, the Union officers were no longer interested in him and soon +went away.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Fortunately, on his visit to Lee's headquarters, Mosby had met an old +schoolmate, a Dr. Montiero, who was now a surgeon with the Confederate +Army, and, persuading him to get a transfer, had brought him back with +him. Montiero's new C.O. was his first patient in his new outfit. +Early the next morning, he extracted the bullet. The next night Mosby +was taken to Lynchburg.</p> + +<p>Despite the Union doctor's pronouncement of his impending death, Mosby +was back in action again near the end of February, 1865. His return +was celebrated with another series of raids on both sides of the +mountains. It was, of course, obvious to everybody that the sands of +the Confederacy were running out, but the true extent of the debacle +was somewhat obscured to Mosby's followers by their own immediate +successes. Peace rumors began drifting about, the favorite item of +wish-thinking being that the Union government was going to recognize +the Confederacy and negotiate a peace in return for Confederate help +in throwing the French out of Mexico. Of course, Mosby himself never +believed any such nonsense, but he continued his attacks as though +victory were just around the corner. On April 5, two days after the +Union army entered Richmond, a party of fifty Mosby men caught their +old enemies, the Loudoun Rangers, in camp near Halltown and beat them +badly. On April 9, the day of Lee's surrender, "D" Company and the +newly organized "H" Company fired the last shots for the Forty-Third +Virginia in a skirmish in Fairfax County. Two days later, Mosby +received a message from General Hancock, calling for his surrender.</p> + +<p>He sent a group of his officers—William Mosby, Sam Chapman, Walter +Frankland and Dr. Montiero—with a flag of truce, and, after several +other meetings with Hancock, the command was disbanded and most of the +men went in to take the parole.</p> + +<p>When his armistice with Hancock expired, Mosby found himself with only +about forty irreconcilables left out of his whole command. As General +Joe Johnston had not yet surrendered, he did not feel justified in +getting out of the fight, himself. With his bloodied but unbowed +handful, he set out on the most ambitious project of his entire +military career—nothing less than a plan to penetrate into Richmond +and abduct General Grant. If this scheme succeeded, it was his +intention to dodge around the Union Army, carry his distinguished +prisoner to Johnston, and present him with a real bargaining point for +negotiating terms.</p> + +<p>They reached the outskirts of Richmond and made a concealed camp +across the river, waiting for darkness. In the meanwhile, two of the +party, both natives of the city, Munson and Cole Jordan, went in to +scout. Several hours passed, and neither returned. Mosby feared that +they had been picked up by Union patrols. He was about to send an +older man, Lieutenant Ben Palmer, when a canal-boat passed, and, +hailing it, they learned of Johnston's surrender.</p> + +<p>That was the end of the scheme to kidnap Grant. As long as a +Confederate force was still under arms, it would have been a +legitimate act of war. Now, it would be mere brigandage, and Mosby had +no intention of turning brigand.</p> + +<p>So Mosby returned to Fauquier County to take the parole. For him, the +fighting was over, but he was soon to discover that the war was not. +At that time, Edwin M. Stanton was making frantic efforts to +inculpate as many prominent Confederates as possible in the Booth +conspiracy, and Mosby's name was suggested as a worthy addition to +Stanton's long and fantastic list of alleged conspirators. A witness +was produced to testify that Mosby had been in Washington on the night +of the assassination, April 14. At that time, Stanton was able to +produce a witness to almost anything he wanted to establish. +Fortunately, Mosby had an alibi; at the time in question, he had been +at Hancock's headquarters, discussing armistice terms; even Stanton +couldn't get around that.</p> + +<p>However, he was subjected to considerable petty persecution, and once +he was flung into jail without charge and held incommunicado. His wife +went to Washington to plead his case before President Johnson, who +treated her with a great deal less than courtesy, and then before +General Grant, who promptly gave her a written order for her husband's +release.</p> + +<p>Then, in 1868, he did something which would have been social and +political suicide for any Southerner with a less imposing war record. +He supported Ulysses S. Grant for President. It was about as +unexpected as any act in an extremely unconventional career, and, as +usual, he had a well-reasoned purpose. Grant, he argued, was a +professional soldier, not a politician. His enmity toward the South +had been confined to the battlefield and had ended with the war. He +had proven his magnanimity to the defeated enemy, and as President, he +could be trusted to show fairness and clemency to the South.</p> + +<p>While Virginia had not voted in the election of 1868, there is no +question that Mosby's declaration of support helped Grant, and Grant +was grateful, inviting Mosby to the White House after his inauguration +and later appointing him to the United States consulate at Hong Kong. +After the expiration of his consular service, Mosby resumed his law +practice, eventually taking up residence in Washington. He found time +to write several books—war reminiscences and memoirs, and a volume in +vindication of his former commander, Jeb Stuart, on the Confederate +cavalry in the Gettysburg campaign. He died in Washington, at the age +of eighty-three, in 1916.</p> + +<p>The really important part of John Mosby's career, of course, was the +two years and three months, from January, 1863, to April, 1865, in +which he held independent command. With his tiny force—it never +exceeded 500 men—he had compelled the Union army to employ at least +one and often as high as three brigades to guard against his +depredations, and these men, held in the rear, were as much out of the +war proper as though they had been penned up in Andersonville or Libby +Prison.</p> + +<p>In addition to this, every northward movement of the Confederate Army +after January, 1863, was accompanied by a diversionary operation of +Mosby's command, sometimes tactically insignificant but always +contributing, during the critical time of the operation, to the +uncertainty of Union intelligence. Likewise, every movement to the +south of the Army of the Potomac was harassed from behind.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It may also be noted that Sheridan, quite capable of dealing with the +menace of Stuart, proved helpless against the Mosby nuisance, +although, until they were wiped out, Blazer's Scouts were the most +efficient anti-Mosby outfit ever employed. In spite of everything that +was done against them, however, Mosby's Rangers stayed in business +longer than Lee's army, and when they finally surrendered, it was not +because they, themselves, had been defeated, but because the war had +been literally jerked out from under them.</p> + +<p>Mosby made the cavalry a formidable amalgamation of fire power and +mobility and his influence on military history was felt directly, and +survived him by many years. In his last days, while living in +Washington, the old Confederate guerrilla had a youthful friend, a +young cavalry lieutenant fresh from West Point, to whom he enjoyed +telling the stories of his raids and battles and to whom he preached +his gospel of fire and mobility. This young disciple of Mosby's old +age was to make that gospel his own, and to practice it, later, with +great success. The name of this young officer was George S. Patton, +Jr.—<b>H. Beam Piper</b></p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Jeb Stuart left John Singleton Mosby behind Northern lines +"to look after loyal Confederate people." But before the war +was over, Mosby did a lot more than that....</p></div> + +<p>A True Book-Length Feature</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Rebel Raider, by H. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Rebel Raider + +Author: H. Beam Piper + +Release Date: September 6, 2006 [EBook #19194] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REBEL RAIDER *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from "True: The Man's Magazine," December + 1950. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. + copyright on this publication was renewed. + + + Rebel Raider + + + by H. Beam Piper + + * * * * * + + +It was almost midnight, on January 2, 1863, and the impromptu party at +the Ratcliffe home was breaking up. The guest of honor, General J. E. +B. Stuart, felt that he was overstaying his welcome--not at the +Ratcliffe home, where everybody was soundly Confederate, but in +Fairfax County, then occupied by the Union Army. + +About a week before, he had come raiding up from Culpepper with a +strong force of cavalry, to spend a merry Christmas in northern +Virginia and give the enemy a busy if somewhat less than happy New +Year's. He had shot up outposts, run off horses from remount stations, +plundered supply depots, burned stores of forage; now, before +returning to the main Confederate Army, he had paused to visit his +friend Laura Ratcliffe. And, of course, there had been a party. There +was always a party when Jeb Stuart was in any one place long enough to +organize one. + +They were all crowding into the hallway--the officers of Stuart's +staff, receiving their hats and cloaks from the servants and buckling +on their weapons; the young ladies, their gay dresses showing only the +first traces of wartime shabbiness; the matrons who chaperoned them; +Stuart himself, the center of attention, with his hostess on his arm. + +"It's a shame you can't stay longer, General," Laura Ratcliffe was +saying. "It's hard on us, living in conquered territory, under enemy +rule." + +"Well, I won't desert you entirely, Miss Ratcliffe," Stuart told her. +"I'm returning to Culpepper in the morning, as you know, but I mean to +leave Captain Mosby behind with a few men, to look after the loyal +Confederate people here until we can return in force and in victory." + +Hearing his name, one of the men in gray turned, his hands raised to +hook the fastening at the throat of his cloak. Just four days short of +his thirtieth birthday, he looked even more youthful; he was +considerably below average height, and so slender as to give the +impression of frailness. His hair and the beard he was wearing at the +time were very light brown. He wore an officer's uniform without +insignia of rank, and instead of a saber he carried a pair of +1860-model Colt .44's on his belt, with the butts to the front so that +either revolver could be drawn with either hand, backhand or +crossbody. + +There was more than a touch of the dandy about him. The cloak he was +fastening was lined with scarlet silk and the gray cock-brimmed hat +the slave was holding for him was plumed with a squirrel tail. At +first glance he seemed no more than one of the many young gentlemen of +the planter class serving in the Confederate cavalry. But then one +looked into his eyes and got the illusion of being covered by a pair +of blued pistol muzzles. He had an aura of combined ruthlessness, self +confidence, good humor and impudent audacity. + +For an instant he stood looking inquiringly at the general. Then he +realized what Stuart had said, and the blue eyes sparkled. This was +the thing he had almost given up hoping for--an independent command +and a chance to operate in the enemy's rear. + + * * * * * + +In 1855, John Singleton Mosby, newly graduated from the University of +Virginia, had opened a law office at Bristol, Washington County, +Virginia, and a year later he had married. + +The son of a well-to-do farmer and slave-owner, his boyhood had been +devoted to outdoor sports, especially hunting, and he was accounted an +expert horseman and a dead shot, even in a society in which skill with +guns and horses was taken for granted. Otherwise, the outbreak of the +war had found him without military qualifications and completely +uninterested in military matters. Moreover, he had been a rabid +anti-secessionist. + +It must be remembered, however, that, like most Southerners, he +regarded secession as an entirely local issue, to be settled by the +people of each state for themselves. He took no exception to the +position that a state had the constitutional right to sever its +connection with the Union if its people so desired. His objection to +secession was based upon what he considered to be political logic. He +realized that, once begun, secession was a process which could only +end in reducing America to a cluster of impotent petty sovereignties, +torn by hostilities, incapable of any concerted action, a fair prey to +any outside aggressor. + +However, he was also a believer in the paramount sovereignty of the +states. He was first of all a Virginian. So, when Virginia voted in +favor of secession, Mosby, while he deplored the choice, felt that he +had no alternative but to accept it. He promptly enlisted in a locally +organized cavalry company, the Washington Mounted Rifles, under a +former U. S. officer and West Point graduate, William E. Jones. + +His letters to his wife told of his early military experiences--his +pleasure at receiving one of the fine new Sharps carbines which +Captain Jones had wangled for his company, and, later, a Colt .44 +revolver: his first taste of fire in the Shenandoah Valley, where the +company, now incorporated into Colonel Stuart's First Virginia +Cavalry, were covering Johnston's march to re-enforce Beauregard: his +rather passive participation in the big battle at Manassas. He was +keenly disappointed at being held in reserve throughout the fighting. +Long afterward, it was to be his expressed opinion that the +Confederacy had lost the war by failing to follow the initial victory +and exploit the rout of McDowell's army. + +The remainder of 1861 saw him doing picket duty in Fairfax County. +When Stuart was promoted to brigadier general, and Captain Jones took +his place as colonel of the First Virginia, Mosby became the latter's +adjutant. There should have been a commission along with this post, +but this seems to have been snarled in red tape at Richmond and never +came through. It was about this time that Mosby first came to Stuart's +personal attention. Mosby spent a night at headquarters after +escorting a couple of young ladies who had been living outside the +Confederate lines and were anxious to reach relatives living farther +south. + +Stuart had been quite favorably impressed with Mosby, and when, some +time later, the latter lost his place as adjutant of the First by +reason of Jones' promotion to brigadier general and Fitzhugh Lee's +taking over the regiment, Mosby became one of Stuart's headquarters +scouts. + +Scouting for Jeb Stuart was not the easiest work in the world, nor the +safest, but Mosby appears to have enjoyed it, and certainly made good +at it. It was he who scouted the route for Stuart's celebrated "Ride +Around MacClellan" in June, 1862, an exploit which brought his name to +the favorable attention of General Lee. By this time, still without +commission, he was accepted at Stuart's headquarters as a sort of +courtesy officer, and generally addressed as "Captain" Mosby. Stuart +made several efforts to get him commissioned, but War Department red +tape seems to have blocked all of them. By this time, too, Mosby had +become convinced of the utter worthlessness of the saber as a +cavalryman's weapon, and for his own armament adopted a pair of Colts. + +The revolver of the Civil War was, of course, a percussion-cap weapon. +Even with the powder and bullet contained in a combustible paper +cartridge, loading such an arm was a slow process: each bullet had to +be forced in the front of the chamber on top of its propellant charge +by means of a hinged rammer under the barrel, and a tiny copper cap +had to be placed on each nipple. It was nothing to attempt on a +prancing horse. The Union cavalryman was armed with a single-shot +carbine--the seven-shot Spencer repeater was not to make its +battlefield appearance until late in 1863--and one revolver, giving +him a total of seven shots without reloading. With a pair of +six-shooters, Mosby had a five-shot advantage over any opponent he was +likely to encounter. As he saw it, tactical strength lay in the number +of shots which could be delivered without reloading, rather than in +the number of men firing them. Once he reached a position of +independent command, he was to adhere consistently to this principle. + +On July 14, 1862, General John Pope, who had taken over a newly +created Union Army made up of the commands of McDowell, Banks and +Fremont, issued a bombastic and tactless order to his new command, +making invidious comparisons between the armies in the west and those +in the east. He said, "I hear constantly of 'taking strong positions +and holding them,' of 'lines of retreat,' and of 'bases of supplies.' +Let us discard all such ideas. Let us study the probable lines of +retreat of our opponents, and leave our own to take care of +themselves." + +That intrigued Mosby. If General Pope wasn't going to take care of his +own rear, somebody ought to do it for him, and who better than John +Mosby? He went promptly to Stuart, pointing out Pope's disinterest in +his own lines of supply and communication, and asked that he be given +about twenty men and detailed to get into Pope's rear and see what +sort of disturbance he could create. + +Stuart doubted the propriety of sending men into what was then +Stonewall Jackson's territory, but he gave Mosby a letter to Jackson, +recommending the bearer highly and outlining what he proposed doing, +with the request that he be given some men to try it. With this +letter, Mosby set out for Jackson's headquarters. + +He never reached his destination. On the way, he was taken prisoner by +a raiding force of New York cavalry, and arrived, instead, at Old +Capitol jail in Washington. Stuart requested his exchange at once, and +Mosby spent only about ten days in Old Capitol, and then was sent down +the Potomac on an exchange boat, along with a number of other +prisoners of war, for Hampton Roads. + +The boat-load of prisoners, about to be exchanged and returned to +their own army, were allowed to pass through a busy port of military +embarkation and debarkation, with every opportunity to observe +everything that was going on, and, to make a bad matter worse, the +steamboat captain was himself a Confederate sympathizer. So when +Mosby, from the exchange boat, observed a number of transports lying +at anchor, he had no trouble at all in learning that they carried +Burnside's men, newly brought north from the Carolinas. With the help +of the steamboat captain, Mosby was able to learn that the transports +were bound for Acquia Creek, on the Potomac; that meant that the +re-enforcements were for Pope. + + * * * * * + +As soon as he was exchanged, Mosby made all haste for Lee's +headquarters to report what he had discovered. Lee, remembering Mosby +as the man who had scouted ahead of Stuart's Ride Around MacClellan, +knew that he had a hot bit of information from a credible source. A +dispatch rider was started off at once for Jackson, and Jackson struck +Pope at Cedar Mountain before he could be re-enforced. Mosby returned +to Stuart's headquarters, losing no time in promoting a pair of .44's +to replace the ones lost when captured, and found his stock with +Stuart at an all-time high as a result of his recent feat of espionage +while in the hands of the enemy. + +So he was with Stuart when Stuart stopped at Laura Ratcliffe's home, +and was on hand when Stuart wanted to make one of his characteristic +gestures of gallantry. And so he finally got his independent +command--all of six men--and orders to operate in the enemy's rear. + +Whatever Stuart might have had in mind in leaving him behind "to look +after the loyal Confederate people," John Mosby had no intention of +posting himself in Laura Ratcliffe's front yard as a guard of honor. +He had a theory of guerrilla warfare which he wanted to test. In part, +it derived from his experiences in the Shenandoah Valley and in +Fairfax County, but in larger part, it was based upon his own +understanding of the fundamental nature of war. + +The majority of guerrilla leaders have always been severely tactical +in their thinking. That is to say, they have been concerned almost +exclusively with immediate results. A troop column is ambushed, a +picket post attacked, or a supply dump destroyed for the sake of the +immediate loss of personnel or materiel so inflicted upon the enemy. +Mosby, however, had a well-conceived strategic theory. He knew, in +view of the magnitude of the war, that the tactical effects of his +operations would simply be lost in the over-all picture. But, if he +could create enough uproar in the Union rear, he believed that he +could force the withdrawal from the front of a regiment or even a +brigade to guard against his attacks and, in some future battle, the +absence of that regiment or brigade might tip the scale of battle or, +at least, make some future Confederate victory more complete or some +defeat less crushing. + +As soon as Stuart's column started southward, Mosby took his six men +across Bull Run Mountain to Middleburg, where he ordered them to +scatter out, billet themselves at outlying farms, and meet him at the +Middleburg hotel on the night of January 10. Meanwhile he returned +alone to Fairfax County, spending the next week making contacts with +the people and gathering information. + +On the night of Saturday, January 10, he took his men through the gap +at Aldie and into Fairfax County. His first stop was at a farmhouse +near Herndon Station, where he had friends, and there he met a +woodsman, trapper and market hunter named John Underwood, who, with +his two brothers, had been carrying on a private resistance movement +against the Union occupation ever since the Confederate Army had moved +out of the region. Overjoyed at the presence of regular Confederate +troops, even as few as a half-dozen, Underwood offered to guide Mosby +to a nearby Union picket post. + +Capturing this post was no particularly spectacular feat of arms. +Mosby's party dismounted about 200 yards away from it and crept up on +it, to find seven members of the Fifth New York squatting around a +fire, smoking, drinking coffee and trying to keep warm. Their first +intimation of the presence of any enemy nearer than the Rappahannock +River came when Mosby and his men sprang to their feet, leveled +revolvers and demanded their surrender. One cavalryman made a grab for +his carbine and Mosby shot him; the others put up their hands. The +wounded man was given first aid, wrapped in a blanket and placed +beside the fire to wait until the post would be relieved. The others +were mounted on their own horses and taken to Middleburg, where they +were paroled i.e., released after they gave their word not to take up +arms again against the Confederacy. This not entirely satisfactory +handling of prisoners was the only means left open to Mosby with his +small force, behind enemy lines. + +The next night, Mosby stayed out of Fairfax County to allow the +excitement to die down a little, but the night after, he and his men, +accompanied by Underwood, raided a post where the Little River +Turnpike crossed Cub Run. Then, after picking up a two-man road patrol +en route, they raided another post near Fryingpan Church. This time +they brought back fourteen prisoners and horses. + +In all, he and his sextet had captured nineteen prisoners and twenty +horses. But Mosby still wasn't satisfied. What he wanted was a few +more men and orders to operate behind the Union army on a permanent +basis. So, after paroling the catch of the night before, he told John +Underwood to get busy gathering information and establishing contacts, +and he took his six men back to Culpepper, reporting his activities to +Stuart and claiming that under his existing orders he had not felt +justified in staying away from the army longer. At the same time, he +asked for a larger detail and orders to continue operating in northern +Virginia. + +In doing so, he knew he was taking a chance that Stuart would keep him +at Culpepper, but as both armies had gone into winter quarters after +Fredericksburg with only a minimum of outpost activity, he reasoned +that Stuart would be willing to send him back. As it happened, Stuart +was so delighted with the success of Mosby's brief activity that he +gave him fifteen men, all from the First Virginia Cavalry, and orders +to operate until recalled. On January 18, Mosby was back at +Middleburg, ready to go to work in earnest. + +As before, he scattered his men over the countryside, quartering them +on the people. This time, before scattering them, he told them to meet +him at Zion Church, just beyond the gap at Aldie, on the night of the +28th. During the intervening ten days, he was not only busy gathering +information but also in an intensive recruiting campaign among the +people of upper Fauquier and lower Loudoun Counties. + + * * * * * + +In this last, his best selling-point was a recent act of the +Confederate States Congress called the Scott Partisan Ranger Law. This +piece of legislation was, in effect, an extension of the principles of +prize law and privateering to land warfare. It authorized the +formation of independent cavalry companies, to be considered part of +the armed forces of the Confederacy, their members to serve without +pay and mount themselves, in return for which they were to be entitled +to keep any spoil of war captured from the enemy. The terms "enemy" +and "spoil of war" were defined so liberally as to cover almost +anything not the property of the government or citizens of the +Confederacy. There were provisions, also, entitling partisan companies +to draw on the Confederate government for arms and ammunition and +permitting them to turn in and receive payment for any spoil which +they did not wish to keep for themselves. + +The law had met with considerable opposition from the Confederate +military authorities, who claimed that it would attract men and horses +away from the regular service and into ineffective freebooting. There +is no doubt that a number of independent companies organized under the +Scott Law accomplished nothing of military value. Some degenerated +into mere bandit gangs, full of deserters from both sides, and +terrible only to the unfortunate Confederate citizens living within +their range of operations. On the other hand, as Mosby was to +demonstrate, a properly employed partisan company could be of +considerable use. + +It was the provision about booty, however, which appealed to Mosby. As +he intended operating in the Union rear, where the richest plunder +could be found, he hoped that the prospect would attract numerous +recruits. The countryside contained many men capable of bearing arms +who had remained at home to look after their farms but who would be +more than willing to ride with him now and then in hope of securing a +new horse for farm work, or some needed harness, or food and blankets +for their families. The regular Mosby Men called them the +"Conglomerates," and Mosby himself once said that they resembled the +Democrat party, being "held together only by the cohesive power of +public plunder." + +Mosby's first operation with his new force was in the pattern of the +other two--the stealthy dismounted approach and sudden surprise of an +isolated picket post. He brought back eleven prisoners and twelve +horses and sets of small arms, and, as on the night of the 10th, left +one wounded enemy behind. As on the previous occasions, the prisoners +were taken as far as Middleburg before being released on parole. + +For this reason, Mosby was sure that Colonel Sir Percy Wyndham, +commander of the brigade which included the Fifth New York, Eighteenth +Pennsylvania and the First Vermont, would assume that this village was +the raiders' headquarters. Colonel Wyndham, a European-trained +soldier, would scarcely conceive of any military force, however small, +without a regular headquarters and a fixed camp. Therefore, Wyndham +would come looking for him at Middleburg. So, with a companion named +Fountain Beattie, Mosby put up for what remained of the night at the +home of a Mr. Lorman Chancellor, on the road from Aldie a few miles +east of Middleburg. The rest of the company were ordered to stay +outside Middleburg. + +Mosby's estimate of his opponent was uncannily accurate. The next +morning, about daybreak, he and Beattie were wakened by one of the +Chancellor servants and warned that a large body of Union cavalry was +approaching up the road from Aldie. Peering through the window +shutters, they watched about 200 men of the Fifth New York ride by, +with Colonel Wyndham himself in the lead. As soon as they were out of +sight up the road, Mosby and Beattie, who had hastily dressed, dashed +downstairs for their horses. + +"I'm going to keep an eye on these people," Mosby told Beattie. +"Gather up as many men as you can, and meet me in about half an hour +on the hill above Middleburg. But hurry! I'd rather have five men now +than a hundred by noon." + +When Beattie with six men rejoined Mosby, he found the latter sitting +on a stump, munching an apple and watching the enemy through his field +glasses. Wyndham, who had been searching Middleburg for "Mosby's +headquarters," was just forming his men for a push on to Upperville, +where he had been assured by the canny Middleburgers that Mosby had +his camp. + +Mosby and his men cantered down the hillside to the road as Wyndham's +force moved out of the village and then broke into a mad gallop to +overtake them. + + * * * * * + +It was always hard to be sure whether jackets were dirty gray or faded +blue. As the Union soldier had a not unfounded belief that the +Virginia woods were swarming with bushwhackers (Confederate +guerillas), the haste of a few men left behind to rejoin the column +was quite understandable. The rearguard pulled up and waited for them. +Then, at about twenty yards' range, one of the New Yorkers, a +sergeant, realized what was happening and shouted a warning: + +"They're Rebs!" + +Instantly one of Mosby's men, Ned Hurst, shot him dead. Other +revolvers, ready drawn, banged, and several Union cavalrymen were +wounded. Mosby and his followers hastily snatched the bridles of three +others, disarmed them and turned, galloping away with them. + +By this time, the main column, which had not halted with the +rearguard, was four or five hundred yards away. There was a brief +uproar, a shouting of contradictory orders, and then the whole column +turned and came back at a gallop. Mosby, four of his men, and the +three prisoners, got away, but Beattie and two others were captured +when their horses fell on a sheet of ice treacherously hidden under +the snow. There was no possibility of rescuing them. After the capture +of Beattie and his companions, the pursuit stopped. Halting at a +distance, Mosby saw Wyndham form his force into a compact body and +move off toward Aldie at a brisk trot. He sent off the prisoners under +guard of two of his men and followed Wyndham's retreat almost to Aldie +without opportunity to inflict any more damage. + +During his stop at Middleburg, Wyndham had heaped coals on a growing +opposition to Mosby, fostered by pro-Unionists in the neighborhood. +Wyndham informed the townspeople that he would burn the town and +imprison the citizens if Mosby continued the attacks on his outposts. +A group of citizens, taking the threat to heart, petitioned Stuart to +recall Mosby, but the general sent a stinging rebuke, telling the +Middleburgers that Mosby and his men were risking their lives which +were worth considerably more than a few houses and barns. + +Mosby was also worried about the antipathy to the Scott Law and the +partisan ranger system which was growing among some of the general +officers of the Confederacy. To counteract such opposition, he needed +to achieve some spectacular feat of arms which would capture the +popular imagination, make a public hero of himself, and place him +above criticism. + + * * * * * + +And all the while, his force was growing. The booty from his raids +excited the cupidity of the more venturesome farmers, and they were +exchanging the hoe for the revolver and joining him. A number of the +convalescents and furloughed soldiers were arranging transfers to his +command. Others, with no permanent military attachment, were drifting +to Middleburg, Upperville, or Rectortown, inquiring where they might +find Mosby, and making their way to join him. + +There was a young Irishman, Dick Moran. There was a Fauquier County +blacksmith, Billy Hibbs, who reported armed with a huge broadsword +which had been the last product of his forge. There were Walter +Frankland, Joe Nelson, Frank Williams and George Whitescarver, among +the first to join on a permanent basis. And, one day, there was the +strangest recruit of all. + +A meeting was held on the 25th of February at the Blackwell farm, near +Upperville, and Mosby and most of his men were in the kitchen of the +farmhouse, going over a map of the section they intended raiding, when +a couple of men who had been on guard outside entered, pushing a Union +cavalry sergeant ahead of them. + +"This Yankee says he wants to see you, Captain," one of the men +announced. "He came on foot; says his horse broke a leg and had to be +shot." + +"Well, I'm Mosby," the guerrilla leader said. "What do you want?" + +The man in blue came to attention and saluted. + +"I've come here to join your company, sir," he said calmly. + +There was an excited outburst from the men in the kitchen, but Mosby +took the announcement in stride. + +"And what's your name and unit, sergeant?" + +"James F. Ames: late Fifth New York Cavalry, sir." + +After further conversation, Mosby decided that the big Yankee was +sincere in his avowed decision to join the forces of the Confederacy. +He had some doubts about his alleged motives: the man was animated +with a most vindictive hatred of the Union government, all his former +officers and most of his former comrades. No one ever learned what +injury, real or fancied, had driven Sergeant Ames to desertion and +treason, but in a few minutes Mosby was sure that the man was through +with the Union Army. + +Everybody else was equally sure that he was a spy, probably sent over +by Wyndham to assassinate Mosby. Eventually Mosby proposed a test of +Ames' sincerity. The deserter should guide the company to a Union +picket post, and should accompany the raiders unarmed: Mosby would +ride behind him, ready to shoot him at the first sign of treachery. +The others agreed to judge the new recruit by his conduct on the raid. +A fairly strong post, at a schoolhouse at Thompson's Corners, was +selected as the objective, and they set out, sixteen men beside Ames +and Mosby, through a storm of rain and sleet. Stopping at a nearby +farm, Mosby learned that the post had been heavily re-enforced since +he had last raided it. There were now about a hundred men at the +schoolhouse. + +Pleased at this evidence that his campaign to force the enemy to +increase his guard was bearing fruit, Mosby decided to abandon his +customary tactics of dismounting at a distance and approaching on +foot. On a night like this, the enemy would not be expecting him, so +the raiders advanced boldly along the road, Mosby telling Ames to make +whatever answer he thought would be believed in case they were +challenged. However, a couple of trigger-happy vedettes let off their +carbines at them, yelled, "The Rebs are coming!" and galloped for the +schoolhouse. + +There was nothing to do but gallop after them, and Mosby and his band +came pelting in on the heels of the vedettes. Hitherto, his raids had +been more or less bloodless, but this time he had a fight on his +hands, and if the men in the schoolhouse had stayed inside and +defended themselves with carbine fire, they would have driven off the +attack. Instead, however, they rushed outside, each man trying to +mount his horse. A lieutenant and seven men were killed, about twice +that number wounded, and five prisoners were taken. The rest, +believing themselves attacked by about twice their own strength, +scattered into the woods and got away. + +Ames, who had ridden unarmed, flung himself upon a Union cavalryman at +the first collision and disarmed him, then threw himself into the +fight with the captured saber. His conduct during the brief battle at +the schoolhouse was such as to remove from everybody's mind the +suspicion that his conversion to the Confederate cause was anything +but genuine. Thereafter, he was accepted as a Mosby man. + +He was accepted by Mosby himself as a veritable godsend, since he was +acquainted with the location of every Union force in Fairfax County, +and knew of a corridor by which it would be possible to penetrate +Wyndham's entire system of cavalry posts as far as Fairfax Courthouse +itself. Here, then, was the making of the spectacular coup which Mosby +needed to answer his critics and enemies, both at Middleburg and at +army headquarters. He decided to attempt nothing less than a raid upon +Fairfax Courthouse, with the capture of Wyndham as its purpose. + +This last would entail something of a sacrifice, for he had come to +esteem Sir Percy highly as an opponent whose mind was an open book and +whose every move could be predicted in advance. With Wyndham +eliminated, he would have to go to the trouble of learning the mental +processes of his successor. + +However, Wyndham would be the ideal captive to grace a Mosby triumph, +and a successful raid on Fairfax Courthouse, garrisoned as it was by +between five and ten thousand Union troops, would not only secure +Mosby's position in his own army but would start just the sort of a +panic which would result in demands that the Union rear be re-enforced +at the expense of the front. + +So, on Sunday, March 8, Mosby led thirty-nine men through the gap at +Aldie, the largest force that had followed him to date. It was the +sort of a foul night that he liked for raiding, with a drizzling rain +falling upon melting snow. It was pitch dark before they found the +road between Centreville and Fairfax, along which a telegraph line had +been strung to connect the main cavalry camp with General Stoughton's +headquarters. Mosby sent one of his men, Harry Hatcher, up a pole to +cut the wire. They cut another telegraph line at Fairfax Station and +left the road, moving through the woods toward Fairfax Courthouse. At +this time, only Mosby and Yank Ames knew the purpose of the +expedition. + +It was therefore with surprise and some consternation that the others +realized where they were as they rode into the courthouse square and +halted. A buzz of excited whispers rose from the men. + +"That's right," Mosby assured them calmly. "We're in Fairfax +Courthouse, right in the middle of ten thousand Yankees, but don't let +that worry you. All but about a dozen of them are asleep. Now, if you +all keep your heads and do what you're told, we'll be as safe as +though we were in Jeff Davis' front parlor." + +He then began giving instructions, detailing parties to round up +horses and capture any soldiers they found awake and moving about. He +went, himself, with several men, to the home of a citizen named +Murray, where he had been told that Wyndham had quartered himself, but +here he received the disappointing news that the Englishman had gone +to Washington that afternoon. + +A few minutes later, however, Joe Nelson came up with a prisoner, an +infantryman who had just been relieved from sentry duty at General +Stoughton's headquarters, who said that there had been a party there +earlier in the evening and that Stoughton and several other officers +were still there. Mosby, still disappointed at his failure to secure +Wyndham, decided to accept Stoughton in his place. Taking several men, +he went at once to the house where the prisoner said Stoughton had his +headquarters. + + * * * * * + +Arriving there, he hammered loudly on the door with a revolver butt. +An upstairs window opened, and a head, in a nightcap, was thrust out. + +"What the devil's all the noise about?" its owner demanded. "Don't you +know this is General Stoughton's headquarters?" + +"I'd hoped it was; I almost killed a horse getting here," Mosby +retorted. "Come down and open up; dispatches from Washington." + +In a few moments, a light appeared inside on the first floor, and the +door opened. A man in a nightshirt, holding a candle, stood in the +doorway. + +"I'm Lieutenant Prentiss, on General Stoughton's staff. The general's +asleep. If you'll give me the dispatches ..." + +Mosby caught the man by the throat with his left hand and shoved a +Colt into his face with his right. Dan Thomas, beside him, lifted the +candle out of the other man's hand. + +"And I'm Captain Mosby, General Stuart's staff. We've just taken +Fairfax Courthouse. Inside, now, and take me to the general at once." + +The general was in bed, lying on his face in a tangle of bedclothes. +Mosby pulled the sheets off of him, lifted the tail of his nightshirt +and slapped him across the bare rump. + +The effect was electric. Stoughton sat up in bed, gobbling in fury. In +the dim candlelight, he mistook the gray of Mosby's tunic for blue, +and began a string of bloodthirsty threats of court-martial and firing +squad, interspersed with oaths. + +"Easy, now, General," the perpetrator of the outrage soothed. "You've +heard of John Mosby, haven't you?" + +"Yes; have you captured him?" In the face of such tidings, Stoughton +would gladly forget the assault on his person. + +Mosby shook his head, smiling seraphically. "No, General. He's +captured you. I'm Mosby." + +"Oh my God!" Stoughton sank back on the pillow and closed his eyes, +overcome. + +Knowing the precarious nature of his present advantage, Mosby then +undertook to deprive Stoughton of any hope of rescue or will to +resist. + +"Stuart's cavalry is occupying Fairfax Courthouse," he invented, "and +Stonewall Jackson's at Chantilly with his whole force. We're all +moving to occupy Alexandria by morning. You'll have to hurry and +dress, General." + +"Is Fitzhugh Lee here?" Stoughton asked. "He's a friend of mine; we +were classmates at West Point." + +"Why, no; he's with Jackson at Chantilly. Do you want me to take you +to him? I can do so easily if you hurry." + +It does not appear that Stoughton doubted as much as one syllable of +this remarkable set of prevarications. The Union Army had learned by +bitter experience that Stonewall Jackson was capable of materializing +almost anywhere. So he climbed out of bed, putting on his clothes. + + * * * * * + +On the way back to the courthouse square, Prentiss got away from them +in the darkness, but Mosby kept a tight hold on Stoughton's bridle. By +this time, the suspicion that all was not well in the county seat had +begun to filter about. Men were beginning to turn out under arms all +over town, and there was a confusion of challenges and replies and +some occasional firing as hastily wakened soldiers mistook one another +for the enemy. Mosby got his prisoners and horses together and started +out of town as quickly as he could. + +The withdrawal was made over much the same route as the approach, +without serious incident. Thanks to the precaution of cutting the +telegraph wires, the camp at Centreville knew nothing of what had +happened at Fairfax Courthouse until long after the raiders were +safely away. They lost all but thirty of the prisoners--in the woods +outside Fairfax Courthouse, they escaped in droves--but they brought +Stoughton and the two captains out safely. + +The results were everything Mosby had hoped. He became a Confederate +hero over night, and there was no longer any danger of his being +recalled. There were several half-hearted attempts to kick him +upstairs--an offer of a commission in the now defunct Virginia +Provisional Army, which he rejected scornfully, and a similar offer in +the regular Confederate States Army, which he politely declined +because it would deprive his men of their right to booty under the +Scott Law. Finally he was given a majority in the Confederate States +Army, with authorization to organize a partisan battalion under the +Scott Law. This he accepted, becoming Major Mosby of the Forty-Third +Virginia Partisan Ranger Battalion. + +The effect upon the enemy was no less satisfactory. When full +particulars of the Fairfax raid reached Washington, Wyndham vanished +from the picture, being assigned to other duties where less depended +upon him. There was a whole epidemic of courts-martial and inquiries, +some of which were still smouldering when the war ended. And +Stoughton, the principal victim, found scant sympathy. President +Lincoln, when told that the rebels had raided Fairfax to the tune of +one general, two captains, thirty men and fifty-eight horses, remarked +that he could make all the generals he wanted, but that he was sorry +to lose the horses, as he couldn't make horses. As yet, there was no +visible re-enforcement of the cavalry in Fairfax County from the +front, but the line of picket posts was noticeably shortened. + +About two weeks later, with forty men, Mosby raided a post at Herndon +Station, bringing off a major, a captain, two lieutenants and +twenty-one men, with a horse apiece. A week later, with fifty-odd men, +he cut up about three times his strength of Union cavalry at +Chantilly. Having surprised a small party, he had driven them into a +much larger force, and the hunted had turned to hunt the hunters. +Fighting a delaying action with a few men while the bulk of his force +fell back on an old roadblock of felled trees dating from the second +Manassas campaign, he held off the enemy until he was sure his +ambuscade was set, then, by feigning headlong flight, led them into a +trap and chased the survivors for five or six miles. Wyndham and +Stoughton had found Mosby an annoying nuisance; their successors were +finding him a serious menace. + +This attitude was not confined to the local level, but extended all +the way to the top echelons. The word passed down, "Get Mosby!" and it +was understood that the officer responsible for his elimination would +find his military career made for him. One of the Union officers who +saw visions of rapid advancement over the wreckage of Mosby's Rangers +was a captain of the First Vermont, Josiah Flint by name. He was soon +to have a chance at it. + +On March 31, Mosby's Rangers met at Middleburg and moved across the +mountain to Chantilly, expecting to take a strong outpost which had +been located there. On arriving, they found the campsite deserted. The +post had been pulled back closer to Fairfax after the fight of four +days before. Mosby decided to move up to the Potomac and attack a +Union force on the other side of Dranesville--Captain Josiah Flint's +Vermonters. + +They passed the night at John Miskel's farm, near Chantilly. The +following morning, April 1, at about daybreak, Mosby was wakened by +one of his men who had been sleeping in the barn. This man, having +gone outside, had observed a small party of Union troops on the +Maryland side of the river who were making semaphore signals to +somebody on the Virginia side. Mosby ordered everybody to turn out as +quickly as possible and went out to watch the signalmen with his field +glasses. While he was watching, Dick Moran, a Mosby man who had +billeted with friends down the road, arrived at a breakneck gallop +from across the fields, shouting: "Mount your horses! The Yankees are +coming!" + +It appeared that he had been wakened, shortly before, by the noise of +a column of cavalry on the road in front of the house where he had +been sleeping, and had seen a strong force of Union cavalry on the +march in the direction of Broad Run and the Miskel farm. Waiting until +they had passed, he had gotten his horse and circled at a gallop +through the woods, reaching the farm just ahead of them. It later +developed that a woman of the neighborhood, whose head had been turned +by the attentions of Union officers, had betrayed Mosby to Flint. + +The Miskel farmhouse stood on the crest of a low hill, facing the +river. Behind it stood the big barn, with a large barnyard enclosed by +a high pole fence. As this was a horse farm, all the fences were eight +feet high and quite strongly built. A lane ran down the slope of the +hill between two such fences, and at the southern end of the slope +another fence separated the meadows from a belt of woods, beyond which +was the road from Dranesville, along which Flint's column was +advancing. + + * * * * * + +It was a nasty spot for Mosby. He had between fifty and sixty men, +newly roused from sleep, their horses unsaddled, and he was penned in +by strong fences which would have to be breached if he were to escape. +His only hope lay in a prompt counterattack. The men who had come out +of the house and barn were frantically saddling horses, without much +attention to whose saddle went on whose mount. Harry Hatcher, who had +gotten his horse saddled, gave it to Mosby and appropriated somebody +else's mount. + +As Flint, at the head of his cavalry, emerged from the woods, Mosby +had about twenty of his men mounted and was ready to receive him. The +Union cavalry paused, somebody pulled out the gate bars at the foot of +the lane, and the whole force started up toward the farm. Having +opened the barnyard end of the lane, Mosby waited until Flint had come +about halfway, then gave him a blast of revolver fire and followed +this with a headlong charge down the lane. Flint was killed at the +first salvo, as were several of the men behind him. By the time +Mosby's charge rammed into the head of the Union attack, the narrow +lane was blocked with riderless horses, preventing each force from +coming to grips with the other. Here Mosby's insistence upon at least +two revolvers for each man paid off, as did the target practice upon +which he was always willing to expend precious ammunition. The Union +column, constricted by the fences on either side of the lane and +shaken by the death of their leader and by the savage attack of men +whom they had believed hopelessly trapped, turned and tried to +retreat, but when they reached the foot of the lane it was discovered +that some fool, probably meaning to deny Mosby an avenue of escape, +had replaced the gatebars. By this time, the rest of Mosby's force had +mounted their horses, breaches had been torn in the fence at either +side of the lane, and there were Confederates in both meadows, firing +into the trapped men. Until the gate at the lower end gave way under +the weight of horses crowded against it, there was a bloody slaughter. +Within a few minutes Flint and nine of his men were killed, some +fifteen more were given disabling wounds, eighty-two prisoners were +taken, and over a hundred horses and large quantities of arms and +ammunition were captured. The remains of Flint's force was chased as +far as Dranesville. Mosby was still getting the prisoners sorted out, +rounding up loose horses, gathering weapons and ammunition from +casualties, and giving the wounded first aid, when a Union lieutenant +rode up under a flag of truce, followed by several enlisted men and +two civilians of the Sanitary Commission, the Civil War equivalent of +the Red Cross, to pick up the wounded and bury the dead. This officer +offered to care for Mosby's wounded with his own, an offer which was +declined with thanks. Mosby said he would carry his casualties with +him, and the Union officer could scarcely believe his eyes when he saw +only three wounded men on horse litters and one dead man tied to his +saddle. + +The sutlers at Dranesville had heard the firing and were about to move +away when Mosby's column appeared. Seeing the preponderance of blue +uniforms, they mistook the victors for prisoners and, anticipating a +lively and profitable business, unpacked their loads and set up their +counters. The business was lively, but anything but profitable. The +Mosby men looted them unmercifully, taking their money, their horses, +and everything else they had. + + * * * * * + +All through the spring of 1863, Mosby kept jabbing at Union lines of +communication in northern Virginia. In June, his majority came +through, and with it authority to organize a battalion under the Scott +Law. From that time on, he was on his own, and there was no longer any +danger of his being recalled to the regular Army. He was responsible +only to Jeb Stuart until the general's death at Yellow Tavern a year +later; thereafter, he took orders from no source below General Lee and +the Secretary of War. + +Even before this regularization of status, Mosby's force was beginning +to look like a regular outfit. From the fifteen men he had brought up +from Culpepper in mid-January, its effective and dependable strength +had grown to about sixty riders, augmented from raid to raid by the +"Conglomerate" fringe, who were now accepted as guerrillas-pro-tem +without too much enthusiasm. A new type of recruit had begun to +appear, the man who came to enlist on a permanent basis. Some were +Maryland secessionists, like James Williamson, who, after the war, +wrote an authoritative and well-documented history of the +organization, Mosby's Rangers. Some were boys like John Edmonds and +John Munson, who had come of something approaching military age since +the outbreak of the war. Some were men who had wangled transfers from +other Confederate units. Not infrequently these men had given up +commissions in the regular army to enlist as privates with Mosby. For +example, there was the former clergyman, Sam Chapman, who had been a +captain of artillery, or the Prussian uhlan lieutenant, Baron Robert +von Massow, who gave up a captaincy on Stuart's staff, or the +Englishman, Captain Hoskins, who was shortly to lose his life because +of his preference for the saber over the revolver, or Captain Bill +Kennon, late of Wheat's Louisiana Tigers, who had also served with +Walker in Nicaragua. As a general thing, the new Mosby recruit was a +man of high intelligence, reckless bravery and ultra-rugged +individualism. + +For his home territory, Mosby now chose a rough quadrangle between the +Blue Ridge and Bull Run Mountain, bounded at its four corners by +Snicker's Gap and Manassas Gap along the former and Thoroughfare Gap +and Aldie Gap along the latter. Here, when not in action, the Mosby +men billeted themselves, keeping widely dispersed, and an elaborate +system, involving most of the inhabitants, free or slave, was set up +to transmit messages, orders and warnings. In time this district came +to be known as "Mosby's Confederacy," and, in the absence of any +effective Confederate States civil authority, Mosby became the +lawgiver and chief magistrate as well as military commander. John +Munson, who also wrote a book of reminiscences after the war, said +that Mosby's Confederacy was an absolute monarchy, and that none was +ever better governed in history. + +Adhering to his belief in the paramount importance of firepower, Mosby +saw to it that none of his men carried fewer than two revolvers, and +the great majority carried four, one pair on the belt and another on +the saddle. Some extremists even carried a third pair down their +boot-tops, giving them thirty-six shots without reloading. Nor did he +underestimate the power of mobility. Each man had his string of +horses, kept where they could be picked up at need. Unlike the regular +cavalryman with his one mount, a Mosby man had only to drop an +exhausted animal at one of these private remount stations and change +his saddle to a fresh one. As a result of these two practices, Union +combat reports throughout the war consistently credited Mosby with +from three to five times his actual strength. + +In time, the entire economy of Mosby's Confederacy came to be geared +to Mosby's operations, just as the inhabitants of seventeenth century +Tortugas or Port Royal depended for their livelihood on the loot of +the buccaneers. The Mosby man who lived with some farmer's family paid +for his lodging with gifts of foodstuffs and blankets looted from the +enemy. There was always a brisk trade in captured U. S. Army horses +and mules. And there was a steady flow of United States currency into +the section, so that in time Confederate money was driven out of +circulation in a sort of reversal of Gresham's law. Every prisoner +taken reasonably close to Army pay day could be counted on for a few +dollars, and in each company there would be some lucky or skillful +gambler who would have a fairly sizeable roll of greenbacks. And, of +course, there was the sutler, the real prize catch; any Mosby man +would pass up a general in order to capture a sutler. + +And Northern-manufactured goods filtered south by the wagonload. Many +of the Mosby men wore Confederate uniforms that had been tailored for +them in Baltimore and even in Washington and run through the Union +lines. + +By mid-June, Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania had begun and the +countryside along Bull Run Mountain and the Blue Ridge exploded into a +series of cavalry actions as the Confederate Army moved north along +the Union right. Mosby kept his little force out of the main fighting, +hacking away at the Union troops from behind and confusing their +combat intelligence with reports of Rebel cavalry appearing where none +ought to be. In the midst of this work, he took time out to dash +across into Fairfax County with sixty men, shooting up a wagon train, +burning wagons, and carrying off prisoners and mules, the latter being +turned over to haul Lee's invasion transport. After the two armies had +passed over the Potomac, he gathered his force and launched an +invasion of Pennsylvania on his own, getting as far as Mercersburg and +bringing home a drove of over 200 beef cattle. + +He got back to Mosby's Confederacy in time to learn of Lee's defeat at +Gettysburg. Realizing that Lee's retreat would be followed by a +pursuing Union army, he began making preparations to withstand the +coming deluge. For one thing, he decided to do something he had not +done before--concentrate his force in a single camp on the top of Bull +Run Mountain. In the days while Lee's army was trudging southward, +Mosby gathered every horse and mule and cow he could find and drove +them into the mountains, putting boys and slaves to work herding them. +He commandeered wagons, and hauled grain and hay to his temporary +camp. His men erected huts, and built corrals for horses and a +stockade for prisoners. They even moved a blacksmith shop to the +hidden camp. Then Mosby sat down and waited. + +A few days later, Meade's army began coming through. The Forty-Third +Partisan Ranger Battalion went to work immediately. For two weeks, +they galloped in and out among the Union columns, returning to their +hidden camp only long enough to change horses and leave the prisoners +they had taken. They cut into wagon trains, scattering cavalry +escorts, burning wagons, destroying supplies, blowing up ammunition, +disabling cannon, running off mules. They ambushed marching infantry, +flitting away before their victims had recovered from the initial +surprise. Sometimes, fleeing from the scene of one attack, they would +burst through a column on another road, leaving confusion behind to +delay the pursuit. + +Finally, the invaders passed on, the camp on the mountain top was +abandoned, the Mosby men went back to their old billets, and the +Forty-Third Battalion could take it easy again. That is to say, they +only made a raid every couple of days and seldom fought a pitched +battle more than once a week. + +The summer passed; the Virginia hills turned from green to red and +from red to brown. Mosby was severely wounded in the side and thigh +during a fight at Gooding's Tavern on August 23, when two of his men +were killed, but the raiders brought off eighty-five horses and twelve +prisoners and left six enemy dead behind. The old days of bloodless +sneak raids on isolated picket posts were past, now that they had +enough men for two companies and Mosby rarely took the field with +fewer than a hundred riders behind him. + +Back in the saddle again after recovering from his wounds, Mosby +devoted more attention to attacking the Orange and Alexandria and the +Manassas Gap railroads and to harassing attacks for the rest of the +winter. + +In January, 1864, Major Cole, of the Union Maryland cavalry, began +going out of his way to collide with the Forty-Third Virginia, the +more so since he had secured the services of a deserter from Mosby, a +man named Binns who had been expelled from the Rangers for some piece +of rascality and was thirsting for revenge. Cole hoped to capitalize +on Binns' defection as Mosby had upon the desertion of Sergeant Ames, +and he made several raids into Mosby's Confederacy, taking a number of +prisoners before the Mosby men learned the facts of the situation and +everybody found a new lodging place. + +On the morning of February 20, Mosby was having breakfast at a +farmhouse near Piedmont Depot, on the Manassas Gap Railroad, along +with John Munson and John Edmonds, the 'teen-age terrors, and a +gunsmith named Jake Lavender, who was the battalion ordnance sergeant +and engaged to young Edmonds' sister. Edmonds had with him a couple of +Sharps carbines he had repaired for other members of the battalion and +was carrying to return to the owners. Suddenly John Edmonds' younger +brother, Jimmy, burst into the room with the news that several hundred +Union cavalrymen were approaching. Lavender grabbed the two carbines, +for which he had a quantity of ammunition, and they all ran outside. + +Sending the younger Edmonds boy to bring re-enforcements, Mosby, +accompanied by John Edmonds, Munson, and Jake Lavender, started to +follow the enemy. He and Munson each took one of Lavender's carbines +and opened fire on them, Munson killing a horse and Mosby a man. That +started things off properly. Cole's Marylanders turned and gave chase, +and Mosby led them toward the rendezvous with Jimmy Edmonds and the +re-enforcements. Everybody arrived together, Mosby's party, the +pursuers, and the re-enforcements, and a running fight ensued, with +Cole's men running ahead. This mounted chase, in the best horse-opera +manner, came thundering down a road past a schoolhouse just as the +pupils were being let out for recess. One of these, a 14-year-old boy +named Cabell Maddox, jumped onto the pony on which he had ridden to +school and joined in the pursuit, armed only with a McGuffy's Third +Reader. Overtaking a fleeing Yank, he aimed the book at him and +demanded his surrender; before the flustered soldier realized that his +captor was unarmed, the boy had snatched the Colt from his belt and +was covering him in earnest. This marked the suspension, for the +duration of hostilities, of young Maddox's formal education. From that +hour on he was a Mosby man, and he served with distinction to the end +of the war. + + * * * * * + +The chase broke off, finally, when the pursuers halted to get their +prisoners and captured horses together. Then they discovered that one +of their number, a man named Cobb, had been killed. Putting the dead +man across his saddle, they carried the body back to Piedmont, and the +next day assembled there for the funeral. The services had not yet +started, and Mosby was finishing writing a report to Stuart on the +previous day's action, when a scout came pelting in to report Union +cavalry in the vicinity of Middleburg. + +Leaving the funeral in the hands of the preacher and the civilian +mourners, Mosby and the 150 men who had assembled mounted and started +off. Sam Chapman, the ex-artillery captain, who had worked up from the +ranks to a lieutenancy with Mosby, was left in charge of the main +force, while Mosby and a small party galloped ahead to reconnoiter. +The enemy, they discovered, were not Cole's men but a California +battalion. They learned that this force had turned in the direction of +Leesburg, and that they were accompanied by the deserter, Binns. + +Mosby made up his mind to ambush the Californians on their way back to +their camp at Vienna. He had plans, involving a length of rope, for +his former trooper, Binns. The next morning, having crossed Bull Run +Mountain the night before, he took up a position near Dranesville, +with scouts out to the west. When the enemy were finally reported +approaching, he was ready for them. Twenty of his 150, with carbines +and rifles, were dismounted and placed in the center, under +Lieutenant Mountjoy. The rest of the force was divided into two equal +sections, under Chapman and Frank Williams, and kept mounted on the +flanks. Mosby himself took his place with Williams on the right. While +they waited, they could hear the faint boom of cannon from Washington, +firing salutes in honor of Washington's Birthday. + +A couple of men, posted in advance, acted as decoys, and the Union +cavalry, returning empty-handed from their raid, started after them in +hopes of bringing home at least something to show for their efforts. +Before they knew it, they were within range of Mountjoy's concealed +riflemen. While they were still in disorder from the surprise volley, +the two mounted sections swept in on them in a blaze of revolver fire, +and they broke and fled. There was a nasty jam in a section of fenced +road, with mounted Mosby men in the woods on either side and +Mountjoy's rifles behind them. Before they could get clear of this, +they lost fifteen killed, fifteen more wounded, and over seventy +prisoners, and the victorious Mosby men brought home over a hundred +captured horses and large quantities of arms and ammunition. To their +deep regret, however, Binns was not to be found either among the +casualties or the prisoners. As soon as he had seen how the fight was +going, the deserter had spurred off northward, never to appear in +Virginia again. Mosby's own loss had been one man killed and four +wounded. + + * * * * * + +For the rest of the spring, operations were routine--attacks on wagon +trains and train wrecking and bridge burning on the railroads. With +the cut-and-try shifting of command of the Union Army of the Potomac +over and Grant in command, there was activity all over northern +Virginia. About this time, Mosby got hold of a second twelve-pound +howitzer, and, later, a twelve-pound Napoleon and added the Shenandoah +Valley to his field of operations. + +From then on, Mosby was fighting a war on two fronts, dividing his +attention between the valley and the country to the east of Bull Run +Mountain, his men using their spare horses freely to keep the Union +rear on both sides in an uproar. The enemy, knowing the section from +whence Mosby was operating, resorted to frequent counter-raiding. +Often, returning from a raid, the Mosby men would find their home +territory invaded and would have to intercept or fight off the +invaders. At this time, Mosby was giving top priority to attacks on +Union transport whether on the roads or the railroads. Wagon trains +were in constant movement, both moving up the Shenandoah Valley and +bound for the Army of the Potomac, in front of Petersburg. To the east +was the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, to the south, across the end +of Mosby's Confederacy, was the Manassas Gap, and at the upper end of +the valley was the B. & O. The section of the Manassas Gap Railroad +along the southern boundary of Mosby's Confederacy came in for special +attention, and the Union Army finally gave it up for a bad job and +abandoned it. This writer's grandfather, Captain H. B. Piper, of the +Eleventh Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, did a stint of duty guarding +it, and until he died he spoke with respect of the abilities of John +S. Mosby and his raiders. Locomotives were knocked out with one or +another of Mosby's twelve-pounders. Track was torn up and bridges were +burned. Land-mines were planted. Trains were derailed and looted, +usually with sharp fighting. + +By mid-July, Mosby had been promoted to lieutenant colonel and had a +total strength of around 300 men, divided into five companies. His +younger brother, William Mosby, had joined him and was acting as his +adjutant. He now had four guns, all twelve-pounders--two howitzers, +the Napoleon and a new rifle, presented to him by Jubal Early. He had +a compact, well-disciplined and powerful army-in-miniature. After the +Union defeat at Kernstown, Early moved back to the lower end of the +Shenandoah Valley, and McCausland went off on his raid in to +Pennsylvania, burning Chambersburg in retaliation for Hunter's +burnings at Lexington and Buchanan in Virginia. Following his +customary practice, Mosby made a crossing at another point and raided +into Maryland as far as Adamstown, skirmishing and picking up a few +prisoners and horses. + +Early's invasion of Maryland, followed as it was by McCausland's sack +of Chambersburg, was simply too much for the Union command. The +Shenandoah situation had to be cleaned up immediately, and, after some +top-echelon dickering, Grant picked Phil Sheridan to do the cleaning. +On August 7, Sheridan assumed command of the heterogeneous Union +forces in the Shenandoah and began welding them into an army. On the +10th, he started south after Early, and Mosby, who generally had a +good idea of what was going on at Union headquarters, took a small +party into the valley, intending to kidnap the new commander as he had +Stoughton. Due mainly to the vigilance of a camp sentry, the plan +failed, but Mosby picked up the news that a large wagon train was +being sent up the valley, and he decided to have a try at this. + +On the evening of the 12th, he was back in the valley with 330 men and +his two howitzers. Spending the night at a plantation on the right +bank of the Shenandoah River, he was on the move before daybreak, +crossing the river and pushing toward Berryville, with scouts probing +ahead in the heavy fog. One of the howitzers broke a wheel and was +pushed into the brush and left behind. As both pieces were of the same +caliber, the caisson was taken along. A lieutenant and fifteen men, +scouting ahead, discovered a small empty wagon train, going down the +valley in the direction of Harper's Ferry, and they were about to +attack it when they heard, in the distance, the rumbling of many +heavily loaded wagons. This was the real thing. They forgot about the +empty wagons and hastened back to Mosby and the main force to report. + +Swinging to the left to avoid premature contact with the train, Mosby +hurried his column in the direction of Berryville. On the way, he +found a disabled wagon, part of the north-bound empty train, with the +teamster and several infantrymen sleeping in it. These were promptly +secured, and questioning elicited the information that the south-bound +train consisted of 150 wagons, escorted by 250 cavalry and a brigade +of infantry. Getting into position on a low hill overlooking the road +a little to the east of Berryville, the howitzer was unlimbered and +the force was divided on either side of it, Captain Adolphus Richards +taking the left wing and Sam Chapman the right. Mosby himself remained +with the gun. Action was to be commenced with the gun, and the third +shot was to be the signal for both Richards and Chapman to charge. + + * * * * * + +At just the right moment, the fog lifted. The gun was quickly laid on +the wagon train and fired, the first shot beheading a mule. The second +shell hit the best sort of target imaginable--a mobile farrier's +forge. There was a deadly shower of horseshoes, hand-tools and +assorted ironmongery, inflicting casualties and causing a local panic. +The third shell landed among some cavalry who were galloping up, +scattering them, and, on the signal, Richards and Chapman charged +simultaneously. + +Some infantry at the head of the train met Richards with a volley, +costing him one man killed and several wounded and driving his charge +off at an angle into the middle of the train. The howitzer, in turn, +broke up the infantry. Chapman, who had hit the rear of the train, was +having easier going: his men methodically dragged the teamsters from +their wagons, unhitched mules, overturned, looted and burned wagons. +The bulk of the escort, including the infantry, were at the front of +the train, with Richards' men between them and Chapman. Richards, +while he had his hands full with these, was not neglecting the wagons, +either, though he was making less of a ceremony of it. A teamster was +shot and dragged from his wagon-seat, a lighted bundle of inflammables +tossed into the wagon, and pistols were fired around the mules' heads +to start them running. The faster they ran, the more the flames behind +them were fanned, and as the wagon went careening down the road, other +wagons were ignited by it. + +By 8 a. m., the whole thing was over. The escort had been scattered, +the wagons were destroyed, and the victors moved off, in possession of +500-odd mules, thirty-six horses, about 200 head of beef cattle, 208 +prisoners, four Negro slaves who had been forcibly emancipated to +drive Army wagons, and large quantities of supplies. In one of the +wagons, a number of violins, probably equipment for some prototype of +the U.S.O., were found; the more musically inclined guerrillas +appropriated these and enlivened the homeward march with music. + + * * * * * + +Of course, there was jubilation all over Mosby's Confederacy on their +return. The mules were herded into the mountains, held for about a +week, and then started off for Early's army. The beef herd was divided +among the people, and there were barbecues and feasts. A shadow was +cast over the spirits of the raiders, however, when the prisoners +informed them, with considerable glee, that the train had been +carrying upwards of a million dollars, the pay for Sheridan's army. +Even allowing for exaggeration, the fact that they had overlooked this +treasure was a bitter pill for the Mosbyites. According to local +tradition, however, the fortune was not lost completely; there were +stories of a Berryville family who had been quite poor before the war +but who blossomed into unexplained affluence afterward. + +Less than a week later, on August 19, Mosby was in the valley again +with 250 men, dividing his force into several parties after crossing +the river at Castleman's Ford. Richards, with "B" Company, set off +toward Charlestown. Mosby himself took "A" toward Harper's Ferry on an +uneventful trip during which the only enemies he encountered were a +couple of stragglers caught pillaging a springhouse. It was Chapman, +with "C" and "D," who saw the action on this occasion. + +Going to the vicinity of Berryville, he came to a burning farmhouse, +and learned that it had been fired only a few minutes before by some +of Custer's cavalry. Leaving a couple of men to help the family +control the fire and salvage their possessions, he pressed on rapidly. +Here was the thing every Mosby man had been hoping for--a chance to +catch house burners at work. They passed a second blazing house and +barn, dropping off a couple more men to help fight fire, and caught up +with the incendiaries, a company of Custer's men, just as they were +setting fire to a third house. Some of these, knowing the quality of +mercy they might expect from Mosby men, made off immediately at a +gallop. About ninety of them, however, tried to form ranks and put up +a fight. The fight speedily became a massacre. Charging with shouts of +"No quarters!", Chapman's men drove them into a maze of stone fences +and killed about a third of them before the rest were able to +extricate themselves. + +This didn't stop the house burnings, by any means. The devastation of +the Shenandoah Valley had been decided upon as a matter of strategy, +and Sheridan was going through with it. The men who were ordered to do +the actual work did not have their morale improved any by the +knowledge that Mosby's Rangers were refusing quarter to incendiary +details, however, and, coming as it did on the heels of the wagon +train affair of the 13th, Sheridan was convinced that something +drastic would have to be done about Mosby. Accordingly, he set up a +special company, under a Captain William Blazer, each man armed with a +pair of revolvers and a Spencer repeater, to devote their entire +efforts to eliminating Mosby and his organized raiders. + +On September 3, this company caught up with Joe Nelson and about 100 +men in the valley and gave them a sound drubbing, the first that the +Mosby men had experienced for some time. It was a humiliating defeat +for them, and, on the other side, it was hailed as the beginning of +the end of the Mosby nuisance. A few days later, while raiding to the +east of Bull Run Mountain, Mosby was wounded again, and was taken to +Lynchburg. He was joined by his wife, who remained with him at +Lynchburg and at Mosby's Confederacy until the end of the war. + +During his absence, the outfit seems to have been run by a sort of +presidium of the senior officers. On September 22, Sam Chapman took +120 men into the valley to try to capture a cavalry post supposed to +be located near Front Royal, but, arriving there, he learned that his +information had been incorrect and that no such post existed. Camping +in the woods, he sent some men out as scouts, and the next morning +they reported a small wagon train escorted by about 150 cavalry, +moving toward Front Royal. Dividing his force and putting half of it +under Walter Frankland, he planned to attack the train from the rear +while Frankland hit it from in front. After getting into position, he +kept his men concealed, waiting for the wagons to pass, and as it did, +he realized that his scouts had seen only a small part of it. The +escort looked to him like about three regiments. Ordering his men to +slip away as quietly as possible, he hurried to reach Frankland. + +"Turn around, Walter!" he yelled. "Get your men out of here! You're +attacking a whole brigade!" + +"What of it?" Frankland replied. "Why, Sam, we have the bastards on +the run already!" + +Chapman, the erstwhile clergyman, turned loose a blast of theological +language in purely secular connotation. Frankland, amazed at this +blasphemous clamor from his usually pious comrade, realized that it +must have been inspired by something more than a little serious, and +began ordering his men to fall back. Before they had all gotten away, +two of the three Union regiments accompanying the wagons came +galloping up and swamped them. Most of the men got away but six of +them, Anderson, Carter, Overby, Love, Rhodes and Jones, were captured. + +Late that night some of the stragglers, making their way back to +Mosby's Confederacy on foot, reported the fate of these six men. They +had been taken into Front Royal, and there, at the personal order of +General George A. Custer, and under circumstances of extreme +brutality, they had all been hanged. Rhodes' mother, who lived in +Front Royal, had been forced to witness the hanging of her son. + +To put it conservatively, there was considerable excitement in Mosby's +Confederacy when the news of this atrocity was received. The senior +officers managed to restore a measure of calmness, however, and it was +decided to wait until Mosby returned before taking any action on the +matter. + +In addition to the hangings at Front Royal, Custer was acquiring a bad +reputation because of his general brutality to the people of the +Shenandoah Valley. After the battle of the Little Bighorn, Sitting +Bull would have probably won any popularity contest in northern +Virginia without serious competition. + +On September 29, Mosby was back with his command; his wound had not +been as serious as it might have been for the bullet had expended most +of its force against the butt of one of the revolvers in his belt. +Operations against the railroads had been allowed to slacken during +Mosby's absence; now they were stepped up again. Track was repeatedly +torn up along the Manassas Gap line, and there were attacks on camps +and strong points, and continual harassing of wood-cutting parties +obtaining fuel for the locomotives. The artillery was taken out, and +trains were shelled. All this, of course, occasioned a fresh wave of +Union raids into the home territory of the raiders, during one of +which Yank Ames, who had risen to a lieutenancy in the Forty-Third, +was killed. + +The most desperate efforts were being made, at this time, to keep the +Manassas Gap Railroad open, and General C. C. Augur, who had charge of +the railroad line at the time, was arresting citizens indiscriminately +and forcing them to ride on the trains as hostages. Mosby obtained +authorization from Lee's headquarters to use reprisal measures on +officers and train crews of trains on which citizens were being forced +to ride, and also authority to execute prisoners from Custer's command +in equal number to the men hanged at Front Royal and elsewhere. + +It was not until November that he was able to secure prisoners from +Custer's brigade, it being his intention to limit his retaliation to +men from units actually involved in the hangings. On November 6, he +paraded about twenty-five such prisoners and forced them to draw lots, +selecting, in this manner, seven of them--one for each of the men +hanged at Front Royal and another for a man named Willis who had been +hanged at Gaines' Cross Roads several weeks later. It was decided that +they should be taken into the Shenandoah Valley and hanged beside the +Valley Pike, where their bodies could serve as an object lesson. On +the way, one of them escaped. Four were hanged, and then, running out +of rope, they prepared to shoot the other two. One of these got away +during a delay caused by defective percussion caps on his +executioner's revolver. + +A sign was placed over the bodies, setting forth the reason for their +execution, and Mosby also sent one of his men under a flag of truce to +Sheridan's headquarters, with a statement of what had been done and +why, re-enforced with the intimation that he had more prisoners, +including a number of officers, in case his messenger failed to return +safely. Sheridan replied by disclaiming knowledge of the Front Royal +hangings, agreeing that Mosby was justified in taking reprisals, and +assuring the Confederate leader that hereafter his men would be given +proper treatment as prisoners of war. There was no repetition of the +hangings. + +By this time the Shenandoah Valley campaign as such was over. The last +Confederate effort to clear Sheridan out of the Valley had failed at +Cedar Creek on October 19, and the victor was going methodically about +his task of destroying the strategic and economic usefulness of the +valley. How well he succeeded in this was best expressed in Sheridan's +own claim that a crow flying over the region would have to carry his +own rations. The best Mosby could do was to launch small raiding +parties to harass the work of destruction. + +By the beginning of December, the northern or Loudoun County end of +Mosby's Confederacy was feeling the enemy scourge as keenly as the +valley, and the winter nights were lighted with the flames of burning +houses and barns. For about a week, while this was going on, Mosby +abandoned any attempt at organized action. His men, singly and in +small parties, darted in and out among the invaders, sniping and +bushwhacking, attacking when they could and fleeing when they had to, +and taking no prisoners. When it was over, the northern end of Mosby's +Confederacy was in ashes and most of the people had "refugeed out," +but Mosby's Rangers, as a fighting force, was still intact. On +December 17, for instance, while Mosby was in Richmond conferring with +General Lee, they went into the valley again in force, waylaying a +column of cavalry on the march, killing and wounding about thirty and +bringing off 168 prisoners and horses. + +When Mosby came back from Lee's headquarters, a full colonel now, his +brother William was made a lieutenant-colonel, and Richards became a +major. The southern, or Fauquier County, end of Mosby's Confederacy +was still more or less intact, though crowded with refugees. There was +even time, in spite of everything, for the wedding of the +Forty-Third's armorer, Jake Lavender, with John and Jimmy Edmonds' +sister. + +While the wedding party was in progress, a report was brought in to +the effect that Union cavalry were in the neighborhood of Salem, a few +miles away. Mosby took one of his men, Tom Love, a relative of one of +the Front Royal victims, and went to investigate, finding that the +enemy had moved in the direction of Rectortown, where they were +making camp for the night. Sending a resident of the neighborhood to +alert Chapman and Richards for an attack at daybreak, Mosby and Love +set out to collect others of his command. + +By this time, it was dark, with a freezing rain covering everything +with ice. Mosby and Love decided to stop at the farm of Ludwell Lake +for something to eat before going on; Love wanted to stay outside on +guard, but Mosby told him to get off his horse and come inside. As +they would have been in any house in the neighborhood, Mosby and his +companion were welcomed as honored guests and sat down with the family +to a hearty meal of spareribs. + + * * * * * + +While they were eating, the house was surrounded by Union cavalry. +Mosby rushed to the back door, to find the backyard full of soldiers. +He started for the front door, but as he did, it burst open and a +number of Yankees, officers and men, entered the house. At the same +time, the soldiers behind, having seen the back door open and shut, +began firing at the rear windows, and one bullet hit Mosby in the +abdomen. In the confusion, with the women of the Lake family +screaming, the soldiers cursing, and bullets coming through the +windows, the kitchen table was overturned and the lights extinguished. +Mosby in the dark, managed to crawl into a first-floor bedroom, where +he got off his tell-tale belt and coat, stuffing them under the bed. +Then he lay down on the floor. + +After a while, the shooting outside stopped, the officers returned, +and the candles were relighted. The Union officers found Mosby on the +floor, bleeding badly, and asked the family who he was. They said, of +course, that they did not know, and neither did Tom Love--he was only +a Confederate officer on his way to rejoin his command, who had +stopped for a night's lodging. There was a surgeon with the Union +detachment. After they got most of Mosby's clothes off and put him on +the bed, he examined the wounded Confederate and pronounced his wound +mortal. When asked his name and unit, Mosby, still conscious, hastily +improvised a false identity, at the same time congratulating himself +on having left all his documents behind when starting on this scouting +trip. Having been assured, by medical authority, that he was as good +as dead, the Union officers were no longer interested in him and soon +went away. + + * * * * * + +Fortunately, on his visit to Lee's headquarters, Mosby had met an old +schoolmate, a Dr. Montiero, who was now a surgeon with the Confederate +Army, and, persuading him to get a transfer, had brought him back with +him. Montiero's new C.O. was his first patient in his new outfit. +Early the next morning, he extracted the bullet. The next night Mosby +was taken to Lynchburg. + +Despite the Union doctor's pronouncement of his impending death, Mosby +was back in action again near the end of February, 1865. His return +was celebrated with another series of raids on both sides of the +mountains. It was, of course, obvious to everybody that the sands of +the Confederacy were running out, but the true extent of the debacle +was somewhat obscured to Mosby's followers by their own immediate +successes. Peace rumors began drifting about, the favorite item of +wish-thinking being that the Union government was going to recognize +the Confederacy and negotiate a peace in return for Confederate help +in throwing the French out of Mexico. Of course, Mosby himself never +believed any such nonsense, but he continued his attacks as though +victory were just around the corner. On April 5, two days after the +Union army entered Richmond, a party of fifty Mosby men caught their +old enemies, the Loudoun Rangers, in camp near Halltown and beat them +badly. On April 9, the day of Lee's surrender, "D" Company and the +newly organized "H" Company fired the last shots for the Forty-Third +Virginia in a skirmish in Fairfax County. Two days later, Mosby +received a message from General Hancock, calling for his surrender. + +He sent a group of his officers--William Mosby, Sam Chapman, Walter +Frankland and Dr. Montiero--with a flag of truce, and, after several +other meetings with Hancock, the command was disbanded and most of the +men went in to take the parole. + +When his armistice with Hancock expired, Mosby found himself with only +about forty irreconcilables left out of his whole command. As General +Joe Johnston had not yet surrendered, he did not feel justified in +getting out of the fight, himself. With his bloodied but unbowed +handful, he set out on the most ambitious project of his entire +military career--nothing less than a plan to penetrate into Richmond +and abduct General Grant. If this scheme succeeded, it was his +intention to dodge around the Union Army, carry his distinguished +prisoner to Johnston, and present him with a real bargaining point for +negotiating terms. + +They reached the outskirts of Richmond and made a concealed camp +across the river, waiting for darkness. In the meanwhile, two of the +party, both natives of the city, Munson and Cole Jordan, went in to +scout. Several hours passed, and neither returned. Mosby feared that +they had been picked up by Union patrols. He was about to send an +older man, Lieutenant Ben Palmer, when a canal-boat passed, and, +hailing it, they learned of Johnston's surrender. + +That was the end of the scheme to kidnap Grant. As long as a +Confederate force was still under arms, it would have been a +legitimate act of war. Now, it would be mere brigandage, and Mosby had +no intention of turning brigand. + +So Mosby returned to Fauquier County to take the parole. For him, the +fighting was over, but he was soon to discover that the war was not. +At that time, Edwin M. Stanton was making frantic efforts to +inculpate as many prominent Confederates as possible in the Booth +conspiracy, and Mosby's name was suggested as a worthy addition to +Stanton's long and fantastic list of alleged conspirators. A witness +was produced to testify that Mosby had been in Washington on the night +of the assassination, April 14. At that time, Stanton was able to +produce a witness to almost anything he wanted to establish. +Fortunately, Mosby had an alibi; at the time in question, he had been +at Hancock's headquarters, discussing armistice terms; even Stanton +couldn't get around that. + +However, he was subjected to considerable petty persecution, and once +he was flung into jail without charge and held incommunicado. His wife +went to Washington to plead his case before President Johnson, who +treated her with a great deal less than courtesy, and then before +General Grant, who promptly gave her a written order for her husband's +release. + +Then, in 1868, he did something which would have been social and +political suicide for any Southerner with a less imposing war record. +He supported Ulysses S. Grant for President. It was about as +unexpected as any act in an extremely unconventional career, and, as +usual, he had a well-reasoned purpose. Grant, he argued, was a +professional soldier, not a politician. His enmity toward the South +had been confined to the battlefield and had ended with the war. He +had proven his magnanimity to the defeated enemy, and as President, he +could be trusted to show fairness and clemency to the South. + +While Virginia had not voted in the election of 1868, there is no +question that Mosby's declaration of support helped Grant, and Grant +was grateful, inviting Mosby to the White House after his inauguration +and later appointing him to the United States consulate at Hong Kong. +After the expiration of his consular service, Mosby resumed his law +practice, eventually taking up residence in Washington. He found time +to write several books--war reminiscences and memoirs, and a volume in +vindication of his former commander, Jeb Stuart, on the Confederate +cavalry in the Gettysburg campaign. He died in Washington, at the age +of eighty-three, in 1916. + +The really important part of John Mosby's career, of course, was the +two years and three months, from January, 1863, to April, 1865, in +which he held independent command. With his tiny force--it never +exceeded 500 men--he had compelled the Union army to employ at least +one and often as high as three brigades to guard against his +depredations, and these men, held in the rear, were as much out of the +war proper as though they had been penned up in Andersonville or Libby +Prison. + +In addition to this, every northward movement of the Confederate Army +after January, 1863, was accompanied by a diversionary operation of +Mosby's command, sometimes tactically insignificant but always +contributing, during the critical time of the operation, to the +uncertainty of Union intelligence. Likewise, every movement to the +south of the Army of the Potomac was harassed from behind. + + * * * * * + +It may also be noted that Sheridan, quite capable of dealing with the +menace of Stuart, proved helpless against the Mosby nuisance, +although, until they were wiped out, Blazer's Scouts were the most +efficient anti-Mosby outfit ever employed. In spite of everything that +was done against them, however, Mosby's Rangers stayed in business +longer than Lee's army, and when they finally surrendered, it was not +because they, themselves, had been defeated, but because the war had +been literally jerked out from under them. + +Mosby made the cavalry a formidable amalgamation of fire power and +mobility and his influence on military history was felt directly, and +survived him by many years. In his last days, while living in +Washington, the old Confederate guerrilla had a youthful friend, a +young cavalry lieutenant fresh from West Point, to whom he enjoyed +telling the stories of his raids and battles and to whom he preached +his gospel of fire and mobility. This young disciple of Mosby's old +age was to make that gospel his own, and to practice it, later, with +great success. The name of this young officer was George S. Patton, +Jr.--H. Beam Piper + + * * * * * + + + Jeb Stuart left John Singleton Mosby behind Northern lines + "to look after loyal Confederate people." But before the war + was over, Mosby did a lot more than that.... + +A True Book-Length Feature + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Rebel Raider, by H. 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