 CHAPTER XIV The Campaign Against Sheridan According to Grant's design, Sheridan left his base at Harpers Ferry on August 10, 1864, and started up the Shenandoah Valley. Grant's main object was to cut Lee's line of communication with the southwest, for if this were accomplished, the inevitable result would be the fall of Richmond and the end of the war. It was immaterial whether Sheridan secured this result by defeating Earley, who was defending the valley, in battle, or by pushing himself by flank movements. During this campaign of 1864, my battalion of six companies was the only force operating in the rear of Sheridan's army in the Shenandoah Valley. Our rendezvous was along the eastern base of the Blue Ridge, in what is known as the Piedmont region of Virginia. Fire and sword could not drive the people of that neighborhood from their allegiance to what they thought was right, and in the gloom of disaster and defeat they never wavered in their support of the Confederate cause. The main object of my campaign was to vex and embarrass Sheridan, and if possible to prevent his advance into the interior of the state. But my exclusive attention was not given to Sheridan, for alarm was kept up continuously by threatening Washington and occasionally crossing the Potomac. We lived on the country where we operated, and drew nothing from Richmond except the grey jackets my men wore. We were mounted, armed, and equipped entirely off the enemy, but, as we captured a great deal more than we could use, the surplus was sent to supply Lee's army. The mules we sent him furnished a large part of his transportation, and the captured sabers and carbines were turned over to his cavalry. We had no use for them. I believe I was the first cavalry commander who discarded the sabre as useless and consigned it to museums for the preservation of antiquities. My men were as little impressed by a body of cavalry charging them with sabers as though they had been armed with corn stalks. In the Napoleonic wars, cavalry might sometimes ride down infantry armed with muzzle-loaders and flint-locks, because the infantry would be broken by the momentum of the charge before more than one effect of fire could be delivered. At Islau the French cavalry rode over the Russians in a snowstorm because the powder of the infantry was wet and they were defenceless. Fixed ammunition had not been invented. I think that my command reached the highest point of efficiency, as cavalry, because they were well armed with two six-shooters and their charges combined the effect of fire and shock. We were called bushwhackers, as a term of reproach, simply because our attacks were generally surprises and we had to make up by celerity for lack of numbers. Now I never resented the epithet of bushwhacker, although there was no soldier to whom it applied less, because bushwhacking is a legitimate form of war and it is just as fair and equally heroic to fire at an enemy from behind a bush as a breastwork or from the case made of a fort. The Union cavalry, who met us in combat, knew that we always fought on the offensive in a mounted charge and were the pair of Colt's revolvers. I think we did more than any other body of men to give the Colt pistol its great reputation. A writer on the history of cavalry cites as an example of the superiority of the revolver a fight that a squadron of my command under Captain Dolly Richards, real name Adolphus E. Richards, had in the Shenandoah Valley in which more of the enemy were killed than the entire total by Sabre in the Franco-Prussian War. But to be effective the pistol must, of course, be used at close quarters. As I have said, during this campaign our operations were not confined to this valley. The troops belonging to the defenses of Washington and guarding the line of the Potomac were a portion of Sheridan's command. To prevent his being reinforced from this source I made frequent attacks on the outposts in Fairfax and demonstrations along the Potomac. The 8th Illinois Cavalry, the largest and regarded as the finest regiment in the Army of the Potomac, had been brought back to Washington largely recruited and stationed at Seneca, or Muddy Branch, on the river above Washington. There were a number of other detachments of cavalry on the Maryland side and two regiments of cavalry in Fairfax. General Auger commanded at Washington. Stevenson at Harpers Ferry had 9,000 men who were expected to keep employed in watching the canal and railroad. Sheridan wanted to take the 8th Illinois to the valley, but Auger objected on the ground that they could not be spared from Washington. Sheridan to Auger. Harpers Ferry, August 8, 1864. The day after Sheridan took formal command of the Army of the Shenandoah. What force have you at Edwards and Nolan's ferries on the Potomac? Where is Colonel LaZell posted? Mosby has about 200 cavalry at or near point of rocks. Auger to Sheridan. Washington, D.C., August 3. Colonel LaZell is posted at Falls Church, Fairfax County, and pickets from the Potomac near Difficult Creek to Orange and Alexandria Railroad. Major Waite, 8th Illinois, has near 600 cavalry along the Potomac from Great Falls to the mouth of the Monocacy, watching the different forwards. Sheridan to Auger, August 8. Can the 8th Illinois cavalry be spared? I find that the cavalry has been so scattered up here that it is no wonder that it is not done so well. Auger to Sheridan, August 8. The 8th Illinois is scattered worse than anything you have. The headquarters of six companies are in General Wallace's department. Major Waite, with four companies, is guarding the Potomac between Great Falls and the Monocacy. Another company is near Port Tobacco, and another is with the Army of the Potomac. I do not see how Major Waite's command can be spared, as I have no cavalry to replace it. Sheridan to Auger, August 8. Your dispatch in reference to the 8th Illinois received. Colonel Lowell left about 600 men of Greg's cavalry division in support of Major Waite. They move this morning towards the mouth of the Monocacy, and will remain in that vicinity. I will not change the 8th Illinois cavalry for the present. Auger to Waite, Upper Potomac, August 8. General Sheridan reports that Mosby, with about 300 men, is at or near the point of rocks. Look out well for him. Taylor to Auger, August 10. General Sheridan has ordered concentration of the 8th Illinois cavalry at Muddy Branch to pick at the river from Monocacy to Washington. River is well guarded from mouth of Monocacy to Harpers Ferry. Sheridan to Auger, Charlestown, August 18. Keep scouts out in Loudoun County. I have ordered the 8th Illinois cavalry to Rendezvous at Muddy Branch Station. The line of the Potomac should be watched carefully, and information be sent to me should any raiding parties attempt to cross. Auger to Waite, August 18. She is reported to have within reach and control from 400 to 500 men and two pieces of artillery. It will be necessary for you to move with the utmost caution. General Lee apprehended the raid by the cavalry from Washington on the Central Railroad, and instructed me, if possible, to prevent it. The only way that I could do so was to excite continual alarm in their camps. Their outposts were often attacked all along their lines on the same night. This was the only way we could keep them at home. On the same day three or four different detachments would go out, some to operate on Sheridan west of the ridge, some to keep Auger in remembrance of his duty to guard the capital. Sheridan was obviously greatly solicitous about preserving his communications, for he knew that they were weak and a vital necessity for his army. He evidently had some information which increased his anxiety about his rear. One night, when his headquarters were at Berryville, I sent my best scout, John Russell, with two or three men, to reconnoiter, intending to deliver a blow at Sheridan's rear and thus cripple him by cutting off his supplies. John reported long trains passing down along the Phthali Pike. I started for the vicinity with some 250 men and two Howitzers, one of which became an encumbrance by breaking down. Through Snickers' gap we crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains after sundown and passed over the Shenandoah River not far from Berryville. I halted at a barn for a good rest and sent Russell to see what was going on upon the Pike. I was asleep when he returned with the news that a very large train was just passing along. The men sprang to their saddles. With Russell and some others I went on in advance to choose the best place for attack, directing Captain William Chapman to bring on the command. About sunrise we were on a knoll from which we could get a good view of a great train of wagons moving along the road and a large drove of cattle with the train. The train was within a hundred yards of us, strongly guarded, but with flankers out. We were obscured by the mist, and, if noticed at all, were doubtless thought to be friends. I sent Russell to hurry up Chapman, who soon arrived. The Howitzer was made ready. Friends with his squadron was sent to attack the front. William Chapman and Glasscock were to attack them in the rear, while Sam Chapman was kept near me and the Howitzer. My scheme was nearly ruined by a ludicrous incident, the fun of which is more apparent now than it was then. The Howitzer was unlimbered over at Yellowjacket's Nest. When one of the men had rescued the Howitzer, a shell was sent screaming among the wagons, beheading a mule. The shot was like thunder from a clear sky, and the mist added to the enemy's perplexity. This shot was our signal to charge, and we met little resistance. Panic rained along their line, and I only lost two men killed and three wounded. Before the fighting ended, as I knew that the guard would soon recover from the panic, I had men unhitching mules, burning wagons, and hurrying prisoners and spoils to the rear. There were three hundred and twenty-five wagons guarded by Kenley's brigade and a large force of cavalry. They had not stopped to find out our numbers. We set a Paymasters' Wagon on fire, which contained, this we did not know at the time, one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. I deployed skirmishers as a mask, until my command, the prisoners and booty, were well across the Shenandoah River. We took between five hundred and six hundred horses, two hundred beavers, and many useful stores, destroyed seventy-five loaded wagons, and carried off two hundred prisoners, including seven officers. The following dispatches illustrate the character and effect of my partisan operations in Sheridan's Rear. Stevenson to Sheridan. Harper's Ferry, August 17th. Finding all trains threatened by guerrillas, and that they are in force, largely increased by a concentration of several organizations under Mosby, there had been no such concentration. Making the vicinity of Charlestown their theatre of operations, I am of opinion that the only safety of our trains and couriers is the posting of a force at Charlestown, with General Duffy at Berryville, and one thousand of Averol's force at Charlestown, with orders by constant scouting to keep the country clear. I think we can send forward everything without loss. As matters now stand, no small party of trains with small guard is safe. Stevenson to Averol, August 17th. Rebels occupy Charlestown in Sheridan's Rear, with small force this evening. Attacked party of couriers coming in about five o'clock, capturing two of them, heard nothing of your command. A large supply train will start from here in the morning, so as to reach Charlestown by six a.m. Have but a small guard. If you could have a force at that point before the train to join Escort, and move with it to Berryville, it would secure the safety of the train. Mosby, with his command, is waiting to attack train, and will capture it, if possible. The supplies are needed at the front, and will be put through by all means. LaZelle to Auger, Fairfax County, August 9th. I have the honour to report that two parties sent out from this command, consisting of thirty men each, met yesterday afternoon at Fairfax Station, and that while united and acting together were attacked by a force of rebels, variously estimated at from forty to fifty men, and were completely dispersed and routed. Citizens report that Mosby himself was in command of the rebels. So far as known, our loss is as follows. Captain J. H. Fleming, 16th New York Cavalry, missing. Thirty-three men missing. Thirty-nine horses missing. The number of the killed and wounded is not yet known. Captain Fleming, who at the time of the attack had command of the party, is reported killed. Captain Harrison to Kelly. Martinsburg, August 14th. Several of our scouts here say they cannot get through to Sheridan, Mosby having driven them back. Gazelle to DeRussey. Fairfax County, August 24th. The attack at Anondale has ceased, and the rebels withdrew, perhaps with the intention of attacking some other part of my picket line. The attacking party is said to have consisted of from less than two hundred to three hundred, even to five hundred men, with two pieces of artillery, all under Mosby. Auger to Sheridan. Washington, September 1st. Your weight has returned from Upperville in the vicinity of Snickers Gap, reports no rebel forces in that vicinity except Mosby's. LaZelle to Auger. September 1st. Last night at about ten-thirty o'clock one of our pickets was attacked near this camp. The attacking party was driven off with a loss to the rebels of one horse, and it is believed one man wounded. About the same hour the picket posts on the Braddock Road and on the road to Falls Church in Anondale were attacked simultaneously and driven in. This morning at about six a.m. one of our pickets, about half a mile west of the village of Falls Church, was attacked and one vedette captured. Late to-day two of our picket posts between here and Anondale were attacked at about the same time, by a force of between twenty and thirty men. Five men were captured in seven horses, while four men escaped. At about the same hour the picket post on the Little River Pike towards Fairfax Courthouse from Anondale was attacked and one sergeant and a horse were wounded, two men and three horses captured. Auger to LaZelle. September 1st. I have reliable information that Mosby is still lying in the woods in front of your lines and expects to make an attack tonight somewhere upon it. Please have all your men on duty notified of this, that they may be on their guard and take proper precautions. If not successful tonight, he proposes to remain until he strikes some important blow. Gansevurt to Auger. Fairfax September 19th. Information considered very reliable has reached here to-day that in the skirmish with the 13th New York Cavalry, on the last scout of that regiment, Colonel Mosby was seriously wounded, a pistol bullet striking the handle of the pistol in his belt and glancing off in his groin. He was able, however, to ride off but soon fainted and was carried in a wagon to a place of safety. LaZelle to Auger September 29th. Private Henry Smith of Company H. 13th New York Cavalry is the man who wounded him, Mosby. It was a bold deed and Smith deserves credit for it. Sheridan to Auger. September 21st. I wish you to send to Winchester all the available troops possible to the number of between 4,000 to 5,000 without delay, to relieve the troops left there to guard my communication. If necessity should require, they can be returned at short notice. Stevenson to Stanton, Harpers Ferry September 26th. Both of my last courier parties were attacked by Rebel Cavalry, this first part of them capturing the first party at Strasburg, the second at a point between Charlestown and Bunker Hill. Message No. 31 was sent by both parties and both have failed. I shall try another duplicate tonight. The country between this and Sheridan yesterday and today seemed to be alive with parties of Rebel guerrillas and Cavalry. Last night they attacked ambulances with scouts of seventeen men between this and Charlestown. A badly wounded sergeant of 16th Pennsylvania Cavalry. I doubt if we should be able to get any dispatches through without sending much larger body of Cavalry than I can get hold of. I have but small force for such duty, and it is badly worn down. Edwards to Neal, Martinsburg, Winchester, October 2. The train that left Martinsburg arrived here last night. I have no forces here to escort it to the front, except 400 Cavalry, and one hundred of these cannot be relied on. Also some straggling infantry, without organization, numbering 300 men. I have detained the train here on account of insufficiency in men to properly guard it. A train of its size to go through the country where it has to should have an escort of at least two thousand men with it. Captain Blazer of the Independent Scouts comes in this morning and reports Mosby's command hovering in the neighborhood of Newtown. No escort with dispatches can get through with less than 500 Cavalry. Stevenson to Stanton, Harper's Ferry, October 1. There are no organized troops of enemy in Valley this side of Stanton, except Mosby's guerrillas. Neal to Stanton, Martinsburg, September 30. About 300 or 400 guerrillas are operating between Winchester and Bunker Hill. I do not consider my post safe unless I have stronger force to protect the large amount of government property rapidly collecting here. As the Federal dispatches said, I was wounded on September 14, four days before the Battle of Winchester. But it was hardly the bold deed LaZell described. Two of my men, Tom Love and Guy Broadwater, and myself, met five of the enemy's Cavalry and Fairfax. As we were within a few yards of each other we all fired at the same time. Two of the enemy's horses fell dead and I was seriously wounded. The other three Cavalry then fled full speed with Love and Broadwater after them until I called them back to my assistance. We then left the other men under the dead horses and I was carried for safety to my father's home near Lynchburg. Captain William Chapman commanded my battalion during my absence. On the day after I was wounded, four hundred of Sheridan's Cavalry came over the Blue Ridge at night, expecting, by aid of a spy, to capture a good many of my men. The expedition was commanded by General George H. Chapman of Indianapolis. He caught several of my men and started back, with Captain Chapman in pursuit of the general. Captain Chapman did not go on his trail, but took a road running along the top of the Blue Ridge in order to intercept the Union troops before they got to the Shenandoah River. It was an excessively hot day and the Union troops had ridden all night. The general had heard of my being wounded and may have calculated that my command was disorganized or would be less active. So when the troops reached Snickers Gap, all lay down in the shade and went to sleep. Captain Chapman soon came plunging down the mountainside like an avalanche and was firing among the men before they were awake. They had not expected an attack to come like a bolt from the sky, and the attack caused a general stampede. All the prisoners were recaptured, and many of the enemy were killed, wounded, and captured. General Chapman returned to camp and wrote in his report, About an hour had elapsed, and the men had mostly fallen asleep, when there were suddenly charged upon, by a force of from fifty to eighty of the enemy, and, being stampeded by the surprise, a number were killed, wounded, and captured before I reached the scene of the encounter with the main body. They had approached the gap across the mountains and charged down an easy slope, and they retired the same way, pursued for two miles by my men. It was near sundown, and in the exhausted state of men and horses I did not deem further pursuit expedient. Captain Thompson had captured twelve of the enemy, but they were recaptured. Some citizens I ascertained that Mosby was wounded some time ago, and had gone to Richmond. Judging from indications I should estimate the force under Mosby and his colleague at from two hundred to two hundred fifty. If they have any encampment it must be in the neighborhood and beyond Upperville. It will be observed that General Chapman did not say that he was bush-whacked. But these constant raids aroused the Federal officers to such an extent that on September twenty-two they attempted to take revenge by hanging some of my men. An eyewitness described the scene in a Confederate newspaper as follows. The Yankee cavalry under General Torbert entered the town, front royal, and drove out the four Confederates on Pickett, who fell back to Milford. At this latter point General Wickham met the Yankee force and repulsed it. A part of Mosby's men, under Captain Chapman, annoyed the enemy very much on their return to front royal, which with the mortification of their defeat by Wickham excited them to such savage do-ings as to prompt them to murder six of our men who fell into their hands. Anderson, Overby, Love, and Rhodes were shot, and Carter and one other, whose name or informant did not recollect, were hung to the limb of a tree at the entrance of the village. Henry Rhodes was quite a youth, living with his widowed mother and supporting her by his labour. He did not belong to Mosby's command. His mother entreated them to spare the life of her son, and treat him as a prisoner of war, but the demons answered by wetting their sabers on some stones and declaring they would cut his head off and hers too if she came near. They ended by shooting him in her presence. Their murders were committed on the twenty-second day of September. Both Torbert, Merritt, and Custer being present. It is said that Torbert and Merritt turned the prisoners over to Custer for the purpose of their execution. An account in the Richmond Examiner was as follows. On Friday last Mosby's men attacked a wagon-train which was protected by a whole brigade so that their charge was repelled with the loss of six prisoners. Two of their prisoners the Yankees immediately hung to a neighboring tree, placing around their necks placards bearing the inscription, hung in retaliation for the Union officer killed after he had surrendered, the fate of Mosby's men. The other four of our prisoners were tied to stakes and mercilessly shot through the skull, each one individually. One of those hung was a famous soldier named Overby from Georgia. When the rope was placed round his neck by his inhuman captors, he told them that he was one of Mosby's men and that he was proud to die as a Confederate soldier and that his death was sweetened with the assurance that Colonel Mosby would swing in the wind ten Yankees for every man they murdered. This action on the part of the enemy led to my writing the following letter. November 11, 1864. Major General P. H. Sheridan, commanding U.S. forces in the Valley. Some time in the month of September, during my absence for my command, six of my men who had been captured by your forces were hung and shot in the streets of Front Royal, by order and in the immediate presence of Brigadier General Custer. Since then another, captured by a Colonel Powell on a plundering expedition into Rappahannock, shared a similar fate. A label affixed to the coat of one of the murdered men declared that this would be the fate of Mosby and all his men. Since the murder of my men not less than seven hundred prisoners, including many officers of high rank, captured from your army by this command had been forwarded to Richmond, but the execution of my purpose of retaliation was deferred in order as far as possible to confine its operation to the men of Custer and Powell. Accordingly on the sixth instant seven of your men were by my order executed on the Valley Pike, your highway of travel. Hereafter any prisoners falling into my hands will be treated with the kindness due to their condition, unless some new act of barbarity shall compel me, reluctantly, to adopt a line of policy repugnant to humanity. Very respectfully your obedient servant, John S. Mosby, Lieutenant Colonel. No further acts of barbarity were committed on my men. Although Sheridan defeated early in the battle at Winchester on September 19, 1864, and was urged by Grant to move on south, press early, and end the war, he really made no further progress and spent the winter with an overwhelming force where he had won a victory in September. On September 23rd, after Fisher's Hill, Grant had telegraphed him, Keep on and you will cause the fall of Richmond. On the 29th Sheridan wrote to Grant from Harrisonburg. My impression is that most of the troops which early had left passed through these mountains to Charlottesville. Kershaw's division came to his assistance and, I think, passed along the west base of the mountain to Waynesboro. The advance of my infantry is at Mount Crawford, eight miles south of Harrisonburg. From the most reliable accounts, Early's army was completely broken up and dispirited. It will be exceedingly difficult for me to carry the infantry over the mountains and strike at the central road. I cannot accumulate stores to do so and think it best to take some position near Front Royal and operate with cavalry and infantry. In reply to Grant's dispatch a few days before he had said, I am now about eighty miles from Martinsburg and find it exceedingly difficult to supply this army. Grant rejoined, Your victories have caused the greatest consternation. If you can possibly subsist your army to the front for a few days, more, do it, and make a great effort to destroy the roads about Charlottesville and the canal wherever your cavalry can reach. If this advice had been acted on, Sheridan's army would have been thrown into the rear of General Lee. Grant did not, of course, mean that Sheridan should stop at Charlottesville. He wanted him first to gain a foothold there, accumulate supplies by the Orange Railroad, and make it a new starting point for further operations. The Orange and Alexandria Railroad runs south by Gordonsville and Charlottesville to Lynchburg. From Manassas Junction, twenty-five miles from Washington, a branch road runs west through the Blue Ridge to Front Royal and Strasburg. It was assumed that if the northern army held the Manassas Gap line, my command would retire south of the Rappahannock. In this way a double purpose would be effected, a more convenient line of supplies would be secured, as well as the annexation of more territory to the United States. The sequel shows that I had not been consulted. Without securing the fruits of his victory, on October 6 Sheridan began his retrograde movement. No doubt much to Grant's chagrin. On October 3 Grant telegraphed Sheridan. You may take up such position in the valley as you think can and ought to be held, and send all the force not required for this immediately here. I will direct the railroad to be pushed towards Front Royal, so that you may send our troops back that way. Halleck to Sheridan, October 3. The Orange and Alexandria Road was repaired to the Rappahannock in the expectation that you would pursue the enemy through the mountains and receive your supplies from Culpeper. By General Grant's order the workmen had been changed to the Manassas Gap Road, which will be opened to Front Royal. On October 4 Halleck said to Grant, with reference to the opening and holding the railroad from Alexandria to Front Royal. In order to keep up my communication on this line to Manassas Gap and Shenandoah Valley, it will be necessary to send south all rebel inhabitants between that line and the Potomac, and also to clean out Mosby's gang of robbers who have so long infested that district of country. And I respectfully suggest that Sheridan's cavalry should be required to accomplish this object before it is sent elsewhere. The two small regiments, 13th and 16th New York station in Fairfax, under General Auger, have been so often cut up by Mosby's ban that they are cowed and useless for that purpose. If these dispositions are approved and carried out it will not be necessary to keep so large a force at Harper's Ferry and guarding the canal and Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. By sending some of Sheridan's troops to Grant it was calculated that through the sudden augmentation of Grant's strength he could make a successful assault on Lee at Petersburg before early's troops could reach him, or to extend his line so as to seize the south side railroad. This combination was defeated. The following dispatch, October 4th, from Stevenson at Harper's Ferry to Edwards at Winchester, is significant as showing the dangers that beset Sheridan's line of supply. Escorts with dispatches have to cut their way and generally lose half their men. I think a train of two hundred wagons should have an escort of one thousand infantry and five hundred cavalry going to the front. The train going out this morning will have nearly fifteen hundred escort. I do not think I overestimate the danger between here and there. Although I was still on crutches I had now resumed command of my men. On October 4th a body of infantry with construction force came up on the Manassas Road. They could not have anticipated any resistance as they had only a single company of cavalry for couriers and General Auger did not accompany them. The next day I attacked this force and General Lee reported the results to the Secretary of War. Jaffens Bluff, October 9th, 1864. Honourable James A. Seddon, Secretary of War. Colonel Mosby reports that a body of about a thousand of the enemy advanced up the Manassas Road on the 4th with trains of cars loaded with railroad material and occupied Salem and Rectortown. He attacked them at Salem, defeating them, capturing fifty prisoners, all their baggage, camp equipage, stores, etc., and killed and wounded a considerable number. His loss, too wounded. The enemy is now entrenched at Rectortown with two long trains of cars. The railroad is torn up and bridges burned in their rear and all communications cut. All work repairing the railroad was stopped and both the soldiers and workmen went to building stockades for their own safety. A courier was sent immediately to Gordensville with a telegram to General Lee informing him of the movement on the railroad. In reply General Lee said, Your success at Salem gives great satisfaction. Do all in your power to prevent reconstruction of the road. The following undated fragment of letter to Mrs. Mosby probably refers to this action. At Salem and completely routed them, captured fifty prisoners and all their baggage, tents, rations, etc. Yesterday in a fight near the plains my horse, or rather yours, ran entirely through the Yankees in a charge. The enemy was badly shot and tumbled over me, but we whipped them. They are camped all along the railroad. Buoy, Ames, have both been killed. I don't think the Yankees will be here long. I will bring you all over as soon as they leave the Manassas railroad. The intentions of the enemy were now plainly developed, and it was my duty to do all I could to defeat them. To do so with my slender means looked a good deal like going to sea in a saucer. The troops at Salem fled Director Town, where the railroad runs through a gorge. Here they took shelter. On the sixth and seventh we shelled them to keep them on the defensive. My guns could not be depressed sufficiently to do them much damage, but the enemy kept under cover. On the seventh of October, from Woodstock, Sheridan sent the following dispatch to General Grant. I commenced moving back yesterday morning. I would have preferred sending troops to you by the Baltimore and Ohio road. It would have been the quickest and most concealed way of sending them. The keeping open of the road to Front Royal will require large guards to protect it against a very small number of partisan troops. At the same time Sheridan requested Halleck not to send railroad transportation to Front Royal as he might be delayed. It will be remembered that in his dispatch to General Grant on September 29 he had suggested falling back to Front Royal and operating from there as a base. Unless he used the railroad, his supplies would have to be brought by wagons from Harper's Ferry. On the same day he said to Halleck, I have been unable to communicate more frequently on account of the operations of guerrillas in my rear. They have attacked every party, and I have sent my dispatches with a view of economizing as much as possible. Sheridan went to Front Royal to see to the embarkation of ten thousand troops for Grant, but he found nothing but a road-bed without iron. The troops remained there for three days waiting for Auger to build the road, but he could not do it. His troops had all they could do to take care of themselves, for my men were rather active those days. In the following dispatch to Halleck Sheridan admitted that he did not use the railroad because Auger could not repair it. October 12. I have ordered the Sixth Corps, except one brigade now at Winchester, to march to Alexandria tomorrow morning. I have ordered General Auger to concentrate all his forces at Manassas Junction or Bull Run until he hears from me. He could not complete the railroad to Front Royal without additional forces from me, and to give him that force to do the work and transport the troops by rail to Alexandria would require more time. CHAPTER XV. The Greenback Raid Throughout the fall and winter of 1864 I kept up an incessant warfare on Sheridan and his communications. On October 12 I wrote to my wife, near Middleburg, my dearest Pauline. I have been engaged in a perpetual strife with the Yankees ever since my arrival. They are now engaged in repairing the railroad at Manassas. I attacked a camp of eight hundred. As we operated in Sheridan's rear, the railroad that brought his supplies was his weak point and consequently our favorite object of attack. For security it had to be closely guarded by detachments of troops, which materially reduced his offensive strength. We kept watch for unguarded points, and the opportunity they offered was never lost. Early in October one of my best men, Jim Wiltshire, afterwards a prominent physician in Baltimore, discovered and reported to me a gap through which we might penetrate between the guards and reach that rara without exciting an alarm. It was a hazardous enterprise, as there were camps along the line and frequent communication between them, but I knew it would injure Sheridan to destroy a train and compel him to place stronger guards on the road. So I resolved to take the risk. Jim Wiltshire had a timetable, and we knew the minute when the train was due and so timed our arrival that we would not have to wait long. There was great danger of our being discovered by the patrols on the road, and our presence reported to the camps that were near. The situation was critical, but we were so buoyant with hope that we did not realize it. The western-bound passenger train was selected from the schedule, as I knew it would create a greater sensation to burn it than any other. It was due about two o'clock in the morning. Wiltshire conducted us to a long, deep cut on the railroad. No patrol or picket was in sight. I preferred derailing the train in a cut to running it off an embankment because there would be less danger of the passengers being hurt. People who travel on a railroad in a country where military operations are going on take the risk of all these accidents of war. I was not conducting an insurance business on life or property. It was a lovely night, bright and clear, with a big jack-frost on the ground. I believed that I was the only member of my command who went through the war without a watch, but all of my men had watches, and we knew it would not be long before the train would be due. The debts were sent out, and the men were ordered to lie down on the bank of the railroad and keep quiet. We had ridden all day and were tired and sleepy, so we were soon peacefully dreaming. I laid my head in the lap of one of my men, Kurg Hutchinson, and fell asleep. For some reason, I suppose it was because we were sleeping so soundly, we did not hear the train coming until it got up in the cut, and I was aroused and astounded by an explosion and a crash. As we had displaced a rail, the engine had run off the track, the boiler burst, and the air was filled with red-hot cinders and escaping steam. A good description of the scene can be found in Dante's Inferno. Of all could be heard the screams of the passengers, especially women. The catastrophe came so suddenly that my men at first seemed to be stunned and bewildered. Knowing that the railroad guards would soon hear of it, and that no time was to be lost, I ran along the line and pushed my men down the bank, ordering them to go to work pulling out the passengers and setting fire to the cars. By this time Kurg Hutchinson had recovered from the shock and had jumped on the train. When the train came up he was snoring and dreaming that he was in hell. And when he was awakened by the crash he found himself breathing steam and in a sparkling shower. He had no doubt then that his dream was not all a dream. But he recovered his senses when I gave him a push, and he slid down a bank. It did not take long to pull out the passengers. While all of this was going on, I stood on the bank giving directions to the men. One of them reported to me that a car was filled with Germans and that they would not get out. I told him, set fire to the car and burn the Dutch if they won't come out. They were immigrants going west to locate homesteads and did not understand a word of English. Or what all this meant? They had through tickets and thought they had a right to keep their seats. There was a lot of New York heralds on the train for Sheridan's army, so my men circulated the papers through the train and applied matches. Suddenly there was a grand illumination. The Germans now took in the situation and came tumbling all in a pile out of the flames. I hoped they all lived to be naturalized and get homes. They ought not to blame me, but Sheridan. It was his business, not mine, to protect them. While we were helping the passengers to climb the steep bank, one of my men, Cab Maddox, who had been sent off as a debt to watch the road, came dashing up and cried out that the Yankees were coming. I immediately gave orders to mount quickly in form and one was sent to find out if the report was true. He soon came back and said it was not. The men then dismounted and went to work again. I was very mad with Cab for almost creating a stampede and told him that I had a good mind to have him shot. Cab was quick-witted, but seeing how angry I was said nothing then. Cab often related the circumstance after the war. His well-varnished account of it was that I ordered him to be shot at sunrise, that he said he hoped it would be a foggy morning, and that I was so much amused by his reply that I relented and pardoned him. Years afterward Cab confessed why he gave the false alarm. He said he heard the noise the train made when it ran off the track and knew the men were gathering the spoils and did not think it was fair for him to be away picketing for their benefit. He also said that after he got to the burning cars he made up for lost time. A great many ludicrous incidents occurred. One lady ran up to me and exclaimed, Oh, my father is a mason! I had no time to say anything, but I can't help it. One passenger claimed immunity for himself on the ground that he was a member of an aristocratic church in Baltimore. Just as Cab dashed up, two of my men, Charlie Deere and West Aldridge, came to me and reported that they had two U.S. paymasters with their satchels of greenbacks. Knowing it would be safer to send them out by a small party, which could easily elude the enemy, one of my lieutenants, Charlie Grogan, was detailed with two or three men to take them over the ridge to our rendezvous. Whether my men got anything in the shape of pocket-books, watches, or other valuable articles I'd never inquired, and I was too busy attending to the destroying of the train to see whether they did. We left all the civilians, including the ladies, to keep warm by the burning cars, and the soldiers were taken with us as prisoners. Among the latter was a young German lieutenant who had just received a commission and was on his way to join his regiment in Sheridan's army. I was attracted by his personal appearance, struck up a conversation with him, and rode by him for several miles. He was dressed in a fine beaver-cloth overcoat, high boots, and a new hat with gilt cord and tassel. After we were pretty well acquainted, I said to him, We have done you no harm. Why did you come over here to fight us? Oh! he said. I only come to learn the art of war. I then left him and rode to the head of the column, as the enemy were about, and there was a prospect of a fight. It was not long before the German came trotting up to join me. There had been such a metamorphosis that I scarcely recognized him. One of my men had exchanged his old clothes with him for his new ones, and he complained about it. I asked him if he had not told me that he came to Virginia to learn the art of war. Yes, he replied. Very well, I said. This is your first lesson. Now, it must not be thought that the habit of appropriating the enemy's goods was peculiar to my men. Through all ages it has been the custom of war. Not long after this incident I had to suffer from the same operation. Was shot at night and stripped of my clothes. Forty years afterwards a lady returned to me the hat which I was wearing. She said that her uncle, Lieutenant Colonel Coles, of the regiment that captured it, had given it to her as a relic of the war. That is war. I am willing to admit, however, that in a statement of mutual accounts at that time my men were largely in debt to Sheridan's men. Before we reached the Shenandoah River a citizen told us that the Captain Blazer was roving around the neighborhood looking for us. He commanded a pick-core, armed with Spencer carbines, seven shooters that had been assigned by Sheridan to the special duty of looking for me. My men had had an easy time capturing the train and, although they were not indifferent to greenbacks, their metal was up when they heard that old Blaze, as they called him, was about. They were eager for a fight in which they could win more laurels. It was not long before we struck Blazer's trail and saw his camp fires where he had spent the night. I could no longer restrain the men. They rushed into the camp as reapers descend to the harvests of death. But Blazer was gone. He was a bold but cautious commander and had left before daybreak. But this only postponed his fate for a few weeks when Captain Dolly Richards met him near the same spot and wiped him out for ever. We crossed the Shenandoah and Blue Ridge before noon and found Grogan's party with the greenbacks waiting for us at the appointed place in Loudoun County. The men were ordered to dismount and fall in line, and three were appointed—Charlie Hall, Mount Joy, and Fount Beatty—to open the satchels and count the money in their presence. I ordered it to be divided equally among them and no distinction to be made between officers and men. My command was organized under an act of the Confederate Congress to raise partisan core. It applied the principle of maritime prize law to land war. Of course the motive of the act was to stimulate enterprise. The burning of this train in the midst of Sheridan's troops and the capture of his paymasters created a great sensation. Of course the rarer people thought that Sheridan had not given adequate protection to their road. The following dispatch shows what General Lee thought of the importance of the blow I struck. Chaffens Bluff, October 16, 1864 On the fourteenth instant, Colonel Mosby struck the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at Duffields, destroyed U.S. military train consisting of locomotive and ten cars, securing twenty prisoners and fifteen horses. Amongst the prisoners are two paymasters with $168,000 in government funds, signed R. E. Lee, General. General James A. Seddon, Secretary of War The paymasters and other prisoners were sent south to prison, and one of them, Major Ruggles, died there. They were unjustly charged with being in collusion with me, but their capture was simply an ordinary incident of war. As the government held them responsible for the loss of the funds, they had to apply to Congress for relief. After the war Major Moore came to see me to get a certificate of the fact that I had captured the money. The certificate stated that my report to General Lee of $168,000 captured was based upon erroneous information and was sent off before I had received the report of the commissioners appointed to count and distribute the money. The sum captured was $173,000. The attack was made on the train on the night of October 13 between Martinsburg and Harper's Ferry. During the day, as the following dispatch shows, we had operated on the Valley Pike and moved at night to the railroad. Sewered at Martinsburg to Stevenson at Harper's Ferry. Four scouts have just arrived and reported that they were attacked about eight miles this side of Winchester by a party of fifty gorillas this afternoon. They all seemed to be positive that they were attacked by Mosby's men and that Mosby with one foot bound up was with them. It is true that I was there and with one foot bound up. In fact I had on only one boot. I suppose the scouts heard this from some citizen who saw me. A few days before my horse had been shot in a fight and a Yankee cavalryman rode over me. His horse trod on my foot and bruised it so that for some time I could wear only a sock and had to use a cane when I walked. I was in this condition when we captured the train. Stanton, Secretary of War, to Stevenson, Harper's Ferry. Washington, October 14, 1864. It is reported from Martinsburg that the railroad has been torn up and a paymaster and his funds captured. When and where did this occur and have any measures been taken for recapture? Immediate answer. Stevenson to Stanton. Sturred from captured train the attacking party was part of Mosby's command. They removed a rail, crossing train to be thrown off track, then robbed the passengers and burned train. The point of attack was about two miles east of Curniesville, about two-thirty a.m. Paymasters Moore and Ruggles, with their funds, were captured and carried off. General Seward telegraphs that his courier parties were attacked last night twice by Mosby's command between Bunker Hill and Winchester and dispersed. Stevenson to Stanton. The cavalry sent out in pursuit of Mosby's guerrillas who burned the train have returned. Report they failed to overtake them. They learned that they moved off in the direction of the Shenandoah and having several hours start succeeded in getting away with their prisoners and plunder. At that time there were a number of paymasters at Martinsburg on their way to pay off Sheridan soldiers and they were now in a state of blockade. One of them who was shut up there sat in a dispatch. I had my funds in the parlor of the United States Hotel here, guarded by a regiment. The express train was burned eight miles west of Harper's Ferry between two and three o'clock this a.m. Major Ruggles' clerk escaped and is now with me. General Seward, who is in command here, says he will use all his efforts to protect us and our money. I shall make no move till I can do so with safety. The following telegram from Stevenson to Sheridan shows his anxiety about the safety of the trains and that Sheridan had as much cause to give his attention to his rear as to his front. Mosby has now concentrated his guerrillas in your rear and commenced operations, burning railroad trains, robbing passengers, which without cavalry I am powerless to prevent. Maybe at the same time threatens all your supply trains. Stevenson to Halleck. At least one thousand good cavalry should be attached to this command to protect us against the sudden dashes of the guerrilla organizations infesting this part of the country. My battalion was the only Confederate force in that region. If I had this cavalry I could safely say Mosby could not reach the railroad. But our operations that day were not confined to the Shenandoah Valley but extended east of the Blue Ridge to the vicinity of Washington where preparations were made to keep us south of the Potomac. Later in the same day we captured the train ten miles west of Harper's Ferry. Captain William Chapman, with two companies of my battalion, crossed the Potomac a few miles east of it and struck the canal and railroad in Maryland. The alarm caused by the burning of the train in the morning had not subsided before news came of a fresh attack on the road at another point and troops were hurried from Baltimore and other places to meet it. But, of course, when the troops got there the damage had been done and my men had gone. Stevenson to French. Move with all your available cavalry at once to Point of Rocks, Maryland. Unite your force with the forces in that vicinity and attack a body of rebel cavalry near Adamstown. Lawrence, A.A.G., to Halleck. Baltimore, October 14, 1864. The enemy was at Buckeye's Town, four miles from the Monocacy, at 4 p.m. this evening. Another dispatch said, All lost. Even citizens were passing through here from Poolsville with horses to get away from the rebels. They report two thousand rebels between there and Monocacy. Scott Smith to President Garrett of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. October 15. We have no fresh alarms, but the two affairs badly damaged the working of the road and will involve an immense loss to the company in every way. This meant that the railroad must be more strongly guarded if communication was to be kept up between the Shenandoah Valley, Washington, and Baltimore. Troops were rushed from many points to guard the railroad and the canal. My object had then been accomplished. End of Chapter. Chapter 16 of Mosby's Memoirs. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. This recording has been Mark Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina. Mosby's Memoirs. By Colonel John Singleton Mosby. Chapter 16. Last Days in the Valley. After returning from the so-called Greenback Raid, two of my companies under Richardson Mountjoy made a demonstration on Washington to keep reinforcements from Sheridan. Taylor, A.A.G., to Derusey. Washington, October 17, 1864. I have telegraphed General Slough to send at once five-hundred infantry to Anondale, a small infantry force at either place, Anondale or Buffalo, will be sufficient to drive off Mosby who cannot have one-hundred men. Taylor to Slough. October 17, 1864, 5 p.m. Notify LaZelle at Falls Church that he may not be surprised. Your infantry certainly is strong enough to hold any force of Mosby's in check. Slough to Taylor. October 17, 1864, 8 p.m. Mosby has driven in LaZelle's pickets, send Welles's cavalry, if any is in Alexandria, to LaZelle, and let the Fifth Wisconsin move rapidly to Anondale. Wind Ship to Taylor. Alexandria, October 17, 1864. It is reported that Mosby with about three-hundred men is in the vicinity of Burke Station this afternoon. Auger to Taylor. Rectortown, October 18, 1864. I have sent the Eighth Illinois down through Centerville to find Mosby's force. The panic in Washington was very great, as is shown by many similar dispatches in the war records. When the Eighth Illinois got to Fairfax, they found that we had gone back towards the Blue Ridge. They did what I was maneuvering to make them do, spend their time, and waste their strength in pursuit of a jack-o'-lantern. About this time I heard that a force was moving to repair the Manassas Railroad, to make a new base for Sheridan, and I determined to move against it and, if possible, defeat it. My success in accomplishing this was of greater military value than anything I did in the war, for it saved Richmond for several months. I sent Tom Aug, one of my scouts, to reconnoiter and report to me at Haymarket, a little village on the road, which the enemy had not occupied. When we got near Haymarket about eleven o'clock that night, we saw a large number of campfires. The Yankees were ahead of us. After Tom got the information he was sent for, he came to meet me according to our appointment. He saw the campfires and naturally thought they were mine. When he got near them, a picket hauled at him and called out, Who comes there? Aug had no suspicion that the demand came from an enemy, so he replied, Aug! Tom Aug! Don't you know Aug? The picket had never heard of Aug. He did not know whether he was friend or foe, so, according to military rule, he ordered Tom to dismount and advance. Tom protested and again told the picket that he was Tom Aug, that he had been sent by the Colonel on a scout, and asked the picket to what company he belonged. The picket replied, Company E! and swore he'd never heard of Aug. Tom then said indignantly, I thought you were one of that damned green Company E. E. was a new company I had just organized. At last Aug was compelled to dismount and advance on foot, leading his horse. It was pitch dark, and Tom did not discover, until he got right up against the sentinel, that the latter had a musket and a bayonet was pointed at his breast. But Tom never lost his presence of mind, so he said, I'm lame, and you must let me ride to see the Colonel. The poor picket did not suspect Tom's stratagem, and consented. He really thought that he was only doing his duty and was talking to a brethren-arms. Tom mounted, and as soon as he was in the saddle, drove his spurs into his horse, and darted off in the darkness, shouting to his men, Break, boys! A volley was fired on his track, but it never overtook Aug. It was a coincidence that this occurred just after we approached the camp from the opposite direction. When I heard the firing, I laughed and told the men that I would bet it was Tom Aug, and that he had ridden into the Yankees by mistake. But all is well that ends well. Tom lived many years after the war, and we often laughed about his surprise that the Yankees had never heard of Aug, Tom Aug. Near Upperville, October 22, 1864 My dearest Pauline I have just returned from a successful trip to the valley, here to Brigadier General, Duffy, capturing ambulance sources, etc. Sent them out, then returning by another route, captured seven wagons, fifty-five prisoners, and forty-one horses. As soon as the Yankees leave the Manassas Road I will send for you all. Fragment of a letter to Mrs. Mosby, probably November, 1864 We killed and captured about six hundred from the time of their occupying to their abandonment of the railroad, the Manassas Road. Since my return to my command I have been in the saddle the whole time. From a Confederate newspaper, 1864 The following is a clear admission of the injuries Mosby has been inflicting on the enemy of late. When they begin war on unoffending persons in this way it is evidence of the desperation to which they are driven. Training parties are now engaged in felling timber on each side of the Manassas Gap Railroad, to prevent its use by guerrillas as a place of concealment. Orders have been issued that if another attack should be made on a government train, similar to the last one, in which so many lives were lost, every house of a rebel within five miles of the road, on either side, shall be immediately destroyed. Meanwhile every train bears a party of rebel sympathizers, selected from the abundant number in Alexandria, to receive such bullets as their friends the guerrillas may choose to fire at them. Three physicians and one clergyman were among the first party thus sent. Another Confederate paper quoted the Yankee newspaper published at Alexandria as follows. General Sluff, acting under special orders from the War Department, yesterday arrested a number of well-known rebel sympathizers in this city for the purpose of sending them out on trains of the Orange and Alexandria and Manassas Gap Railroad, in order to secure their property against guerrilla attacks. When once the guerrillas hear that the trains are run for the special accommodation of their friends, they will not disturb the road. P.S., since the above was in type, we learn that all those arrested in this city yesterday were sent out on the railroad train to-day. Word was sent to Mosby that a number of women and children would be sent on certain trains. His answer was that he did not understand that it hurts women and children to be killed any more than it hurts men. By December, 1864, the war had practically ceased between the contending armies in the Shenandoah Valley. The greater portion of early's forces had been transferred to the lines about Petersburg, while Sheridan had taken up his winter quarters at Winchester. My own command, which had been operating against his communications, never went into winter quarters, but kept up a desultery warfare on outposts, supply trains, and attachments. And although the southern army had disappeared from his front, these few hundred Rangers kept Sheridan's soldiers as busily employed to guard against surprises as when that army confronted them. Unable to exterminate the hostile bands by arms, Sheridan had applied the torch and attempted to drive us from the district in which we operated by destroying everything that could support man or horse. But so far from quelling, his efforts only stimulated the fury of my men. In snow, sleet, and howling storms, through the long watches of the winter nights, his men had to wait for a sleepless enemy to capture or kill them. I will soon commence work on Mosby. Here to fore I have made no attempt to break him up, as I would have employed ten men to his one, and for the reason that I have made a scapegoat of him for the destruction of private rights. Now there is going to be an intense hatred of him in that portion of the valley which is nearly a desert. I will soon commence on Loudon County and let them know there is a God in Israel. Mosby has annoyed me considerably, but the people are beginning to see that he does not injure me a great deal, but causes a loss to them of all that they have spent their lives in accumulating. Those people who live in the vicinity of Harpers Ferry are the most villainous in this valley, and have not yet been hurt much. If the railroad is interfered with, I will make some of them poor. Those who live at home in peace and plenty want the duelo part of this war to go on, but when they have to bear the burden by loss of property and comforts, they will cry for peace. As I wanted to have a conference with General Robert E. Lee about my plans for future operations, I turned my command over to the next in rank, William Chapman, and, taking one of my men, Boyd Smith, went on a visit to the Army headquarters near Petersburg. When I got off the train there I recognized in the crowd the face of Dr. Montero, an old college mate whom I had not seen for thirteen years. I had changed so much that he did not recognize me until I told him my name. He was then a surgeon with wisest brigade, and I told him he was the very man I wanted, for the surgeon I had, Dr. Will Dunn, was too fond of fighting. I wanted a surgeon that took more pride in curing than killing. I had Montero transferred to my command before I returned. After spending a few hours with General Lee and getting his recommendation for the promotion of two of my officers, Chapman and Richards, I returned to Richmond, and in a few days was back with my men. On the day after my return, December 21st, I had gone to the house of Joe Blackwell, a farmer in Upper Falkere, to attend the wedding of my ordnance sergeant, Jake Lavender. A report came that a body of the enemy's cavalry was advancing on the road to Salem a few miles away. Not caring to interrupt the wedding festivities, with one man, Tom Love, I rode off to Reconoiter. We were riding across the field of the Glen Welby Farm, as it was safer than going by the main road, where there was danger of running against the enemy's column when we saw two cavalrymen approaching. When a number of others appeared and began firing at us, I knew then that these were the flankers of the main body of the enemy out of sight over the hill. So Love and I galloped away a few hundred yards, and then halted on an eminence. They did not pursue, and we soon saw the whole column in blue moving on the road to Rectortown. After reaching there, they kindled fires and seemed to be preparing to bivouac for the night. It was about dusk, a cold, drizzling rain was falling and freezing. The road was covered with sleet, and icicles hung in clusters from the trees. After Reconoitering the encampment and satisfying myself that they had prepared to spend the night there, I dispatched a man to inform Chapman and Richards that I wanted them to attack the northern camp about daybreak the next morning, and to get their men ready. Love and I then started off in another direction for the purpose of notifying some of the other officers and collecting the men. When we stayed inside the enemy's lines we were obliged to disperse for safety. As we were passing the house of a citizen, Ludwell Lake, who was famous for always setting a good table, the lights shining through the windows tempted me, as I was cold and hungry, to stop where I knew we would be welcome. So when we got to the front gate I proposed to dismount and to go in to get warm and something to eat. Love said that he would stay out at the gate and keep watch while I was eating my supper. No, Tom, I said. It wouldn't do me any good if you were out here in the cold. There is no danger. Get down. We tied our horses and went in. The family was at supper, and we were soon seated at the table enjoying some good coffee, hot rolls, and spare ribs. Among those there was a Mrs. Skinner whose husband was then a prisoner at Point Lookout. She had managed to get a pass through the lines to visit him and had seen a number of my men who were also prisoners there. We were enjoying our supper and her account of the trip and the various devices to which the prisoners resorted for amusement, when suddenly we heard the trap of horses around the house. One door of the dining room opened toward the backyard, and on opening it I discovered several cavalrymen. Slowly shutting the door I turned to the other one, but just then a number of northern officers and soldiers walked into the room. I was better dressed that evening than I ever was during the war. Just before starting to Richmond I got through the blockade across the Potomac, a complete suit from head to foot. I had a drab hat with an ostrich plume, with gold cord and star, a heavy black beaver cloth overcoat and cape lined with English scarlet cloth, and as it was a stormy evening over this I wore a grey cloak also lined with scarlet. My hat, overcoat, and cape were lying in the corner. I wore a grey sackcoat with two stars on the collar to indicate my rank as lieutenant colonel, grey trousers with a yellow cord down the seam, and long cavalry boots. As the northerners entered the room I placed my hands on my coat collar to conceal my stars, and a few words passed between us. The situation seemed desperate, but I had made up my mind to take all the chances for getting away. I knew that if they discovered my rank, to say nothing of my name, they would guard me more carefully than if I were simply a private or a lieutenant. But a few seconds elapsed before firing began in the backyard. One of the bullets passed through the window, making a round hole in the glass, and striking me in the stomach. Old man Lake, who weighed about three hundred pounds and was as broad as he was long, and his daughter, Mrs. Skinner, were standing between me and the window. It was a miracle how the shot could have missed them and hit me, but it did. I have always thought that Yankee had a circular gun. My self-possession in concealing the stars on my collar saved me from being carried off a prisoner, dead or alive. The officers had not detected the stratagem when I exclaimed, I am shot! The fact was that the bullet created only a stinging sensation, and I was not, in the least, shocked. My exclamation was not because I felt hurt, but to get up a panic in order that I might escape. It had the desired effect. Old man Lake and his daughter waltzed around the room. The cavalrymen on the outside kept up their fire, and this created a stampede of the officers in the room with me. In the confusion to get out of the way there was a sort of hurdle race in which the supper table was knocked over and the tallow lights put out. In a few seconds I was left in the room with no one but Love, Lake and his daughter. I saw that this was my opportunity. There were nine hundred and ninety-nine chances out of a thousand against me. I took the single chance. And one. There were at least three hundred cavalry surrounding the house, and if I had not been wounded I should have tried to get off in the dark. But by this time the terrible wound was having its effect I was bleeding profusely and getting faint. There was a door which opened from the dining room into an adjoining bedroom, and I determined to play the part of a dying man. I walked into the room, pulled off my coat, on which were the insignia of my rank, tucked it away under the bureau so no one could see it, and then lay down with my head towards the bureau. After several minutes the panic subsided and the Northerners returned to the scene from which the shots of their own men had frightened them. They found my old friend Lake dancing a hornpipe. He missed a button from his waistcoat and swore that the bullet which it killed me had carried it off. Having heard me fall on the floor he thought I was dead. The truth was that he was almost as near dead as I was. The daughter was screaming, the room in which I lay was dark, and it was some minutes before the soldiers collected their senses, sufficiently to strike a light. During all this time I lay on the floor with a blood gushing from my wound. In those few minutes it seemed to me that I lived my whole life over again. My mind traveled away from the scenes of death and carnage in which I had been an actor for four years, to the peaceful home and the wife and children I had left behind. I overheard the soldiers ask Mrs. Skinner who I was. I was well acquainted with her, and her brother was in my command, and I listened with fear and trembling for her answer. She declared that I was a stranger, that she had never seen me before, that I was not one of Mosby's men, and she did not know my name. I am sure that in the eternal records there is nothing registered against that good woman who denied my name and saved my life. At last, after a candle had been lighted, my enemies came into the room, and the first thing they asked me was my name. I gave a fictitious one. They wanted to know to what command I belonged. I did not tell them the right one. My reason for doing so was that I wanted to conceal my identity. As I knew the feeling at the north against me and the great anxiety to either kill or capture me, I was sure I would be dragged away as a trophy if they knew who their prisoner was. I had on a flannel shirt which was now soaked with my blood. The soldiers opened my clothes and looked at my wound, while I apparently gasped for breath. A doctor examined the wound and said that it was mortal, that I was shot through the heart. He located the heart rather low down, and even in that supreme moment I felt tempted to laugh at his ignorance of human anatomy. I only gasped a few words and effected to be dying. They left the room hurriedly after stripping me of my boots and trousers, evidently supposing that a dead man would have no use for them. The only sensible man among them was an Irishman, who said, as he took a last look at me, He is worth several dead men yet. There was a good deal of whiskey in the crowd, but they had sense enough left to take away my clothes. Fortunately they never saw my coat. I listened to hear them getting away. They passed out and left my fat friend and his daughter under the impression that I was ready for the grave. I lay perfectly still for some five or ten minutes. It seemed to me that many hours, but at last, as I felt assured that the enemy had gone, I rose from the pool of blood in which I was lying, and walked into the room where Lake and his daughter were sitting by the fire. They were as much astonished to see me as if I had risen from the tomb. They had thought me dead, and were now sure the general resurrection had come. There was a big log fire blazing, and the room was warm. We examined the wound, but we could not tell whether the bullet had passed straight into the body, or, after penetrating, had passed around it. Fortunately I became sick and faint. My own belief was that the wound was mortal, that the bullet was in me, that the intestines had been cut. Mrs. Skinner gave me some coffee, but I was too sick to drink it. My fear was that I had some documents in my pockets which would disclose my name. Although Providence had not protected me from the bullet, it had saved me from getting caught. That day I had been at Glen Welby, the home of the Carters, and for some unaccountable reason, just as I was leaving to go to the wedding, I took from my pocket several official documents and gave them to one of the young ladies to keep for me. If I had not done this, I would never have lived to write an account of this adventure. For if I had been taken off as a prisoner that night, I could not have survived it. The force of cavalry that I had seen go into camp at Rectortown was the 13th and 16th New York, under command of Major Fraser. They had only built fires to warm themselves, and after staying there a short time they started on to Middelburg to join Colonel Clint Denon with the 8th Illinois Cavalry from which they had separated a few hours before. That night they encamped at Middelburg. Several of my men, including love, were prisoners, and they were shown my hat and overcoat and asked if they knew the person who had worn them. All denied any knowledge of him. The next day the Unionists returned to camp, little dreaming who it was that had been a prisoner in their hands. My own belief is that I was indebted to Whiskey for my escape, and I have always thought since then that there is a deal of good in Whiskey. As soon as Lake recovered from the shock at seeing me alive, he went out and got a couple of Negro boys to yoke up a pair of young, half-broken oxen to haul me away to a place of safety, for we feared that the enemy would find out who I was and return. After a while the ox cart was announced, and I was rolled up in quilts and blankets and put into it. It was an awful night, a howling storm of snow, rain and sleet. I was lying on my back in the cart, we had to go two miles to the house of a neighbor, over a frozen road cut into deep ruts. When we reached there I was almost perfectly stiff with cold and my hair was a clotted mass of ice. The family had not gone to bed, and one of my men, George Slater, was at the house. A courier was sent to the wedding-party to carry the news to my brother and my other men, and before daybreak a great many of the men and two surgeons were with me. Slater had been present when Stuart had been shot a few months before. After I had been laid by the fire I called him to me and said, George, look at my wound. I think I'm shot just like General Stuart was. Slater pulled up my shirt. I was bleeding profusely, and told me that he thought the bullet had run around my body. This turned out to be the case for it had lodged in my right side. Early in the morning chloroform was administered, and the ball extracted. Another of the good effects of the whisky on my captors was that they went off leaving my horse standing at the front gate, with the pistols in the holsters. If I had had them with me in the house, I'm very confident I could have cleared the way through the backyard and escaped in the dark. Neither love nor I had a chance to fire a shot, and there is no truth in the reports that shots were fired from the house. I had nothing to shoot with. As I said, a northern officer was standing near, talking to me when I was shot. Although I was a prisoner at the time, I have never complained of it, for it proved to be a lucky shot for me. It was the means of my escape from imprisonment. A few days afterwards tidings came to the camp down in Fairfax that I was the man who was wounded at Lakes. A force of cavalry was sent to search for me, but although I was still in the neighborhood they did not find me. At the same time General Torbert, returning from an unsuccessful expedition to Gordonsville, passed within a few miles of where I was lying, but also failed to discover me. About a week after all this occurred I was taken to my father's house near Lynchburg. Richmond papers had already announced my death. Dr. Montero had not reached my command before I was brought away, so he came to my father's house to see me. Montero was a great wit and had been with me only a few minutes when he had got me to laughing. This produced a haemorrhage from my wound, and it took all his surgical skill to repair the damage his talk had done. Major Fraser reported my capture and escape as follows. Fairfax Courthouse December 31, 1864 Colonel William Gamble commanding Cavalry Brigade Colonel, in obedience to your command I have the honor to report concerning the wounding of Colonel Mosby. He was shot by a man of my advance guard, under Captain Brown, in Mr. Lake's house, near the rector's crossroads, on the evening of the twenty-first instant, about nine p.m., at which time I was in command of the thirteenth and sixteenth New York regiments. Several shots were fired, and I was informed that a rebel lieutenant was wounded. I immediately dismounted and entered the house and found a man lying on the floor, apparently in great agony. I asked him his name. He answered, Lieutenant Johnson, 16th Virginia Cavalry. He was in his shirt sleeves, a light blue cotton shirt, no hat, no boots, no insignia of rank, nothing to denote in the slightest degree that he was not what he pretended to be. I told him I must see his wounds to see whether to bring him or not. I opened myself his pants, and found that a pistol bullet had entered the optimum about two inches below and to the left of the naval. A wound that I felt assured was mortal. I therefore ordered all from the room, remarking, he will die in twenty-four hours. Being behind time on account of skirmishing all the afternoon with the enemy, I hurried on to meet Lieutenant Colonel Clendenin at Middelburg, according to orders received. Only every officer in my command, if not all, saw this wounded man, and no one had the slightest idea that it was Mosby. Captain Brown and Major Birdsthal were both in the room with me when this occurred. After arrival at Middelburg I reported the fact of having wounded a rebel lieutenant to Lieutenant Colonel Clendenin. As soon as the campfires were lit so that things could be seen, an orderly brought me Mosby's hat dressed with gold cord and star. I took the hat and went immediately among the prisoners, eight in number, of Mosby's men that I had captured, and told on the man who wore that cap was shot dead, and asked them if it was Mosby or not. It was no use to conceal it if it was as he was shot dead. They all said, no, that it was not Mosby, that he had never had such a hat, et cetera, et cetera. Some of them said that it was Major Johnson's sixth Virginia cavalry home on leave. In the morning I reported the facts and showed the cap to Colonel Clendenin and Mr. Davis the guide. All this while I considered, as did all my other officers, that the wound was mortal. From Middelburg I came to camp. On this scout, from which I have just returned today, I have the honor to state that the man shot in Lake's house was Colonel Mosby. He was moved half an hour after he was shot to Quilly Glasscox, about a mile and a half distant, where he remained three days and had the ball extracted, it having passed a round or through the bowels, coming out behind the right side. I conversed with several persons who saw him. He was very low the first two days, the third, much better. I tracked him to Piedmont, thence to Salem, and out of Salem towards the Warrington Pike. I met pickets in various parts of the country, and understood that until within the last night or two they had extended as far down as Aldi. Various signalling was carried on by means of white flags above Piedmont. Several persons who saw him in the ambulance report him spitting blood, and it seems to be the general impression that he cannot live. There is no doubt in my mind but what he is yet in the country concealed, seriously if not mortally wounded. In both expeditions I lost neither men nor horses, and captured nine prisoners. Signed Douglas Fraser, Major Commanding. Endorsement Headquarters First Separate Brigade, Fairfax Courthouse, Virginia, January 1, 1865. Respectfully forwarded to Department Headquarters. I exceedingly regret that such a blunder was made. I have given direction that all wounded officers and men of the enemy be hereafter brought in, although any officer ought to have brains and common sense enough to do so without an order. Signed W. Gamble, Colonel Commanding Brigade. Gamble to Augur. I am informed that Major Fraser was too much under the influence of Licker to perform his duty at the time in a proper manner. Under the circumstances I have deemed it best to send Major Fraser with three hundred men to scour the neighborhood and ascertain, if possible, something definite about it, he being the officer present at the time the rebel officer was shot in the house where it was supposed Mosby was wounded. Sheridan seemed as much delighted to hear of my death as the troops in Fairfax. No doubt he expected no more annoyances that winter. A short time afterward he sent a body of cavalry under a Major Gibson to that neighborhood one night, but Dolly Richards got after him and sent most of his men prisoners to Richmond. The last herd of Major Gibson was that he had been unhorsed and was getting back to his camp full speed over the snow in a sleigh. Stevenson to Sheridan. December 29, 1864. Mosby was shot by a party from General Augur's command at Rector's Crossroads. There were two or three men in the party. They fired at Mosby and some of his men through the windows, wounding Mosby in the abdomen. He was then moved to the house of Widow Glasscock. Mosby tried to catch him there, but he had been taken away in an ambulance. Torbott searched the house of Rogers at Middelburg, but he was not there. Mosby's wound is mortal. He and his party were eating supper when the attack was made on the house by General Augur's men. Augur to Sheridan. December 30, 1864. Richmond Papers of the 27th report Mosby's death as having occurred at Charlottesville. According to Emory, December 31, 1864. How are you getting along? The storm is unfortunate. I have no news today except the death of Mosby. He died from his wounded Charlottesville. The following account of the wounding of Mosby was written by a Yankee Major General for the New York Herald of December 31, 1864, and was copied by the Confederate newspapers. On Tuesday, December 17, an expedition comprising the 13th and 16th New York and 8th Illinois Cavalry, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Clint Denon, started to scout the country this side of the Blue Ridge in search of Mosby. On arriving at White Plains on Wednesday the command separated. The first named, 13th New York, proceeded towards Salem, and when a short distance from Middelburg came upon the house at which Mosby was then dining. Captain Taylor's company of the 13th New York were in the advance and maneuvered to surround the house, near which two horses with cavalry equipment were fastened. Corporal Cain, or Cain, with K, of Company F, rode near the house and was about to secure the horses when Mosby opened the door and fired at the corporal. Cain raised his carbine to fire in return. Mosby closed the door and ran into another part of the house. The corporal, seeing him pass a window, instantly fired, shooting Mosby through the bowels. Captain Taylor and others hastily entered the house. Some of the men proposed finishing the rebel, but Captain Taylor, having examined his wound, pronounced it mortal. Major Fraser, 13th New York Cavalry, also examined the wound and declared that the man would die. The rank and name of the wounded man were not known at this time. He had on a magnificent cloak of gray, trimmed with English scarlet and gold clasps. This cloak had often been talked about by inhabitants of the valley as belonging to Mosby, and was described by citizens as the richest article of the kind in either army. The boots of the wounded man were carried off and found to agree exactly in Macke and Maker's name, with a pair taken from Mosby's house when Byrne last summer. The rebel accounts show that their conclusions were correct. But if we are to believe the rebel's stories, Mosby is not yet dead. He may possibly recover. The devil takes care of his own. CHAPTER 17 of Mosby's Memoirs This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. This recording is by Mark Smith of Simpsonville, SC. Mosby's Memoirs By Colonel John Singleton Mosby CHAPTER 17 FINAL SCENES FOOT NOTE This chapter was prepared from material collected by Colonel Mosby. End of FOOT NOTE The war drama was now drawing to a close. According to General John B. Gordon, Lee's troops were subsisting on parched corn, and one day a private accosted him with the request, I say, General, can't you give us a little fodder? Gordon also said that Lee's surgeons reported to him that the men were in such bad condition that, if wounded, they would become gang-greened. Grant's remorseless policy had caused the Confederates to rob the cradle and the grave. And the blockade had all the time been aiding the Federal armies, silently but effectively. Colonel Mosby was wounded on December 21st, 1864, and naturally it was some time before he could get to work again. Extracts from the Diary of Mosby's Mother Sunday, January 1st, 1865 Here by the papers today that dear John is recovering, we feel intense anxiety about John. No tidings from John. Tuesday the 3rd. This evening John arrives safely and doing well. February 24th. John sent Mrs. J.S. Mosby his photograph and a piece dedicated to Mosby and his men, called, They Will Never Win Us Back. We feel so sad at the thought of our dear John leaving us tomorrow. February 25th. The day has come and the hour has passed that saw our dearest one leave once more, the household group, to go back to battle for his country, and all that is dear to man and woman. It is one of the saddest events of my life when I have to part from my dear boys to go to the army. Yet I know God is there as well as around the peaceful and secure fireside. A crisis is upon us. We are beset on all sides by a powerful enemy. But while Colonel Mosby was recovering, his men were by no means idle. Extract from a Confederate newspaper. The part attributed to Captain Taylor's company, in a notice copied into yesterday's paper, was in reality an exploit of Major Richards of Mosby's command, as accurate accounts have since established. On Thursday last Major Richards, with a force of sixty men, struck the Baltimore and Ohio railroad between Duffield and Martinsburg, and captured a train of fifteen cars, propelled by two engines, and loaded with supplies for Sheridan's army. The engines were blown up and the cars consumed by fire. Our adventurous soldiers loaded their horses with such articles as they could carry, many of them possessing themselves in this manner of sacks of coffee besides other desirable supplies. Major Richards has already established his fame as one of the most active and successful of Mosby's Indefatigables. When Mosby went to Richmond early in December, 1864, he presented the following letter to the Confederate War Department. December 6, 1864 Hon. James A. Seddon, Secretary of War. Sir, I beg leave to recommend, in order to secure greater efficiency in my command, let it be divided into two battalions, each to be commanded by a Major. The scope of duties devolving upon me being of a much wider extent than on officers of the same rank in the regular service, but small time has allowed me to attend to the duties of organization, discipline, etc. I am confident that the arrangement I propose would give me much more time both for planning and executing enterprises against the enemy. I would recommend Captain William H. Chapman, commanding Company C. 43 Virginia, P. R. Battalion, and Captain Adolphus E. Richards, commanding Company B, same battalion, for the command of the two. Letter mutilated here. Have both, on many occasions, valor and skill to which my reports, so in engagements with the Aldi, Charlestown, and, very respectfully, your obedient servant, signed John S. Mosby, Lieutenant Colonel. On January 9, 1865, Mosby's commission as a Colonel was issued. William Chapman, whose brother Sam, a Baptist preacher, whom Colonel Mosby described as the only man he ever saw who really enjoyed fighting, and who generally went into the fray with his hat in one hand, and banging away with his revolver with the other, became a Lieutenant Colonel. On March 27, 1865, Colonel Mosby was put in command of all Northern Virginia, and then on April 9 came the surrender of Lee at Appomattox. The Colonel often said that if his small mother had been in command of the Southern Army's, the war would have been going on yet. Extracts from the diary of Mosby's mother. Saturday, March 6. Today will be a day never to be forgotten. We heard the Yankees occupied Charlottesville last evening, and are advancing up here. All is consternation and confusion. We are trying to get our things out of the way. Rumor after rumor arrives, and we know not how to proceed. We expect to be driven from our homes. Oh, may we be spared, and our house and the vow Yankees driven back. Saturday, April 3. Captain Kennan left and Mr. Moore to go to Colonel Mosby's command. There is a craven spirit abroad with our people. If overpowered we will have to submit to the powers that be, but I would feel that the Yankees themselves would despise us if we recanted our Southern principles. They would have no confidence in us, and look with contempt on us, as they should do. I think a deserter on either side the most degraded human being that breathes. Yes, we hate them, and the Yankees do too, and they will hiss them. Sunday, April 9. I went out and heard the deep-toned cannon carrying hundreds and perhaps thousands to that long sleep that knows no waking. Oh, how my heart went up for our great, our noble Lee, that God would give him strength and weakness to bring us out of battle of victorious people. If God does see fit to crush us and bow us down, because of our sins and the sins of this nation, I feel it will be injustice and mercy, and will even believe he'd do with all things well, but there are hearts too noble to be conquered. Our Lee will stand out a man in all the nations of the earth, nobler and greater in adversity than any other man with a crown on his head. I hear a fearful desertions, poor craven spirits. I hope the Yankee bullets will yet pierce their hateful hides. General Lee surrendered to superior numbers today, at Appamax Courthouse. Officers Middle Military Division, Winchester, Virginia, April 10, 1865. The Major General Commanding announces to the citizens in the vicinity of his lines that General Robert E. Lee surrendered with the Army of Northern Virginia yesterday to Lieutenant General Grant, near Appamax Courthouse. Officers and men were all paroled, signed W. S. Hancock, Major General U.S. Volunteers. General E. B. Parsons, Assistant Adjutant General, A. P. M. G. P. S. All detachments and stragglers from the Army of Northern Virginia will, upon complying with the above conditions, be paroled and allowed to go to their homes. Those who do not so surrender will be brought in as prisoners of war. The guerrilla chief Mosby is not included in the parol, signed W. S. H. Quarters, Middle Military Division, Winchester, April 11, 1865. Colonel John S. Mosby, Commanding Partisans Colonel, I am directed by Major General Hancock to enclose you copies of letters which pass between Generals Grant and Lee on the occasion of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia. Major General Hancock is authorized to receive the surrender of the Force under your command on the same conditions offered to General Lee, and will send an officer of equal rank with yourself to meet you at any point in time you may designate, convenient to the lines, for the purpose of arranging the details, should you conclude to be governed by the example of General Lee. Very respectfully, your servant, C. H. Morgan, Brigadier General Chief of Staff. Chapter 15, 1865. Major General W. S. Hancock, Commanding. General, I am in receipt of a letter from your Chief of Staff, General Morgan, enclosing copies of correspondence between Generals Grant and Lee, and informing me that you would appoint an officer of equal rank with myself to arrange the details for the surrender of the forces under my command. As yet I have no notice through any other source of the facts concerning the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, nor, in my opinion, has the emergency yet arisen which would justify the surrender of my command. With no disposition, however, to cause the useless effusion of blood or to inflict upon a war-worn population any unnecessary distress, I am ready to agree to a suspension of hostilities for a short time, in order to enable me to communicate with my own authorities, or until I can obtain sufficient intelligence to determine my future action. Should you exceed to this proposition, I am ready to meet any person you may designate to arrange the terms of the armistice. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, John S. Mosby, Colonel, C. S. A. This letter to Hancock, who was at Winchester, was written at Warranton, Falkier County, Virginia, the home of the Washington family. It was sent by a flag of truce that was carried by Colonel William H. Chapman, Dr. Montero, and my brother, William H. Mosby, who was my adjutant, J. S. M., Mosby's farewell address to his command, Falkier County, April 21, 1865. Soldiers, I have summoned you together for the last time. The visions we have cherished of a free and independent country have vanished, and that country is now the spoil of the conqueror. I disband your organization in preference to surrendering it to our enemies. I am no longer your commander. After an association of more than two eventful years, I part from you with a just pride in the fame of your achievements, and a grateful recollection of your generous kindness to myself. And at this moment of bidding you a final adieu, accept the assurance of my unchanging confidence and regard. Farewell. Signed, J. S. Mosby, Colonel, Valley Farm, August 27, 1865. My dearest Pauline. I stayed almost a week at pause, and then returned to Uncle John's, as the infernal Yankees were in Lynchburg, which made it dangerous to remain there longer. Uncle John made John Hipkins go to Richmond, as we were anxious to learn what were the designs of the Yankees towards me. Mr. Palmer went to see General Lee. General Lee sent me word by Willie Cable that he was waiting to see General Cratt. He also said that he entirely approved of everything I had done. He is going to move up to Haymarket. When I passed through Charlottesville there were fourteen Yankee cavalry in the place. I met a lieutenant and one man in the street. He said nothing to me. I went up to the university to call on Dr. McGuffey. A short while after I left it was surrounded by two companies of Yankee cavalry. If you see Willie tell him Pa is anxious for him to return home. I want to find out what will be the course of the Yankees towards me before I return to Falkere. Extract from a Lynchburg, Virginia paper of 1865. Some little stir was created in the city yesterday by the report that Colonel Mosby, the celebrated partisan chieftain, was in Lynchburg. Various reasons were expressed as to the cause of his appearance, but the following are, we believe, the facts of the case. Some days since Colonel Mosby's brother came to Captain Swank, provost-martial of the city, to inquire if Mosby would be paroled on coming in and surrendering to the authorities. Captain Swank replied that he would make inquiries upon the subject and give him an answer in a few days. Day before yesterday he again called to see the Marshal upon the subject and was told that Colonel Mosby would be paroled if he would come in and give himself up. In accordance with this information Mosby came into Lynchburg yesterday and applied to the provost-martial's office for a parole. Captain Garnet happened to be attending to the duties of the office at the time and, not being aware of the arrangement, sent to Colonel Duncan for instructions. He was immediately ordered not to parol Colonel Mosby until further orders from Colonel Duncan. In the meantime a dispatch was received from Richmond, and Mosby was ordered to leave town immediately, while the provost-guard were instructed to see that he did so without molestation or hindrance. The dispatch is generally supposed to have been in order for his arrest, probably under a misapprehension of the facts, and as he had come here under an implied safeguard from the military authorities they felt bound in honor not to take advantage of the act. Extract from the Alexandria State Journal, 1865. We last night noticed the fact that Major—sick—Mosby was in the city and his presence was much courted by his friends and admirers. An hour after his arrival there was hardly a sympathizer with the late Confederacy here who did not know of his presence. Wherever he went he was followed by a large crowd of friends. He seemed to make Harper's store his headquarters, and whenever stationed there large crowds, composed of a plentiful sprinkling of colored men and boys, gathered on the corner and blockaded the sidewalk, sometimes almost subtracting the street. This became so annoying that about four o'clock p.m. last evening the military authorities ordered his arrest. He was arrested by Captain McGraw at the residence of Mrs. Boyd Smith on St. Asif Street, and was taken before General Wells, who held him until he communicated with headquarters at Washington, and received orders for his release. Leesburg, January 8, 1866. Dearest Pauline. I was just in the act of starting home this morning when an order came for my arrest. I am now under arrest here, awaiting orders from General Ayers. Don't be uneasy. Yours affectionately, John S. Mosby. From the Baltimore Sun, February 6, 1866. John Mosby has been released upon parole by General Grant, he being included in the terms of General Lees' surrender.