Rebel Raider Read online

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  Transcriber's Note:

  This etext was produced from "True: The Man's Magazine," December 1950. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.

  Rebel Raider

  by H. Beam Piper

  * * * * *

  It was almost midnight, on January 2, 1863, and the impromptu party atthe Ratcliffe home was breaking up. The guest of honor, General J. E.B. Stuart, felt that he was overstaying his welcome--not at theRatcliffe home, where everybody was soundly Confederate, but inFairfax County, then occupied by the Union Army.

  About a week before, he had come raiding up from Culpepper with astrong force of cavalry, to spend a merry Christmas in northernVirginia and give the enemy a busy if somewhat less than happy NewYear's. He had shot up outposts, run off horses from remount stations,plundered supply depots, burned stores of forage; now, beforereturning to the main Confederate Army, he had paused to visit hisfriend Laura Ratcliffe. And, of course, there had been a party. Therewas always a party when Jeb Stuart was in any one place long enough toorganize one.

  They were all crowding into the hallway--the officers of Stuart'sstaff, receiving their hats and cloaks from the servants and bucklingon their weapons; the young ladies, their gay dresses showing only thefirst traces of wartime shabbiness; the matrons who chaperoned them;Stuart himself, the center of attention, with his hostess on his arm.

  "It's a shame you can't stay longer, General," Laura Ratcliffe wassaying. "It's hard on us, living in conquered territory, under enemyrule."

  "Well, I won't desert you entirely, Miss Ratcliffe," Stuart told her."I'm returning to Culpepper in the morning, as you know, but I mean toleave Captain Mosby behind with a few men, to look after the loyalConfederate people here until we can return in force and in victory."

  Hearing his name, one of the men in gray turned, his hands raised tohook the fastening at the throat of his cloak. Just four days short ofhis thirtieth birthday, he looked even more youthful; he wasconsiderably below average height, and so slender as to give theimpression of frailness. His hair and the beard he was wearing at thetime were very light brown. He wore an officer's uniform withoutinsignia of rank, and instead of a saber he carried a pair of1860-model Colt .44's on his belt, with the butts to the front so thateither revolver could be drawn with either hand, backhand orcrossbody.

  There was more than a touch of the dandy about him. The cloak he wasfastening was lined with scarlet silk and the gray cock-brimmed hatthe slave was holding for him was plumed with a squirrel tail. Atfirst glance he seemed no more than one of the many young gentlemen ofthe planter class serving in the Confederate cavalry. But then onelooked into his eyes and got the illusion of being covered by a pairof blued pistol muzzles. He had an aura of combined ruthlessness, selfconfidence, good humor and impudent audacity.

  For an instant he stood looking inquiringly at the general. Then herealized what Stuart had said, and the blue eyes sparkled. This wasthe thing he had almost given up hoping for--an independent commandand a chance to operate in the enemy's rear.

  * * * * *

  In 1855, John Singleton Mosby, newly graduated from the University ofVirginia, had opened a law office at Bristol, Washington County,Virginia, and a year later he had married.

  The son of a well-to-do farmer and slave-owner, his boyhood had beendevoted to outdoor sports, especially hunting, and he was accounted anexpert horseman and a dead shot, even in a society in which skill withguns and horses was taken for granted. Otherwise, the outbreak of thewar had found him without military qualifications and completelyuninterested in military matters. Moreover, he had been a rabidanti-secessionist.

  It must be remembered, however, that, like most Southerners, heregarded secession as an entirely local issue, to be settled by thepeople of each state for themselves. He took no exception to theposition that a state had the constitutional right to sever itsconnection with the Union if its people so desired. His objection tosecession was based upon what he considered to be political logic. Herealized that, once begun, secession was a process which could onlyend in reducing America to a cluster of impotent petty sovereignties,torn by hostilities, incapable of any concerted action, a fair prey toany outside aggressor.

  However, he was also a believer in the paramount sovereignty of thestates. He was first of all a Virginian. So, when Virginia voted infavor of secession, Mosby, while he deplored the choice, felt that hehad no alternative but to accept it. He promptly enlisted in a locallyorganized cavalry company, the Washington Mounted Rifles, under aformer U. S. officer and West Point graduate, William E. Jones.

  His letters to his wife told of his early military experiences--hispleasure at receiving one of the fine new Sharps carbines whichCaptain Jones had wangled for his company, and, later, a Colt .44revolver: his first taste of fire in the Shenandoah Valley, where thecompany, now incorporated into Colonel Stuart's First VirginiaCavalry, were covering Johnston's march to re-enforce Beauregard: hisrather passive participation in the big battle at Manassas. He waskeenly disappointed at being held in reserve throughout the fighting.Long afterward, it was to be his expressed opinion that theConfederacy had lost the war by failing to follow the initial victoryand exploit the rout of McDowell's army.

  The remainder of 1861 saw him doing picket duty in Fairfax County.When Stuart was promoted to brigadier general, and Captain Jones tookhis place as colonel of the First Virginia, Mosby became the latter'sadjutant. There should have been a commission along with this post,but this seems to have been snarled in red tape at Richmond and nevercame through. It was about this time that Mosby first came to Stuart'spersonal attention. Mosby spent a night at headquarters afterescorting a couple of young ladies who had been living outside theConfederate lines and were anxious to reach relatives living farthersouth.

  Stuart had been quite favorably impressed with Mosby, and when, sometime later, the latter lost his place as adjutant of the First byreason of Jones' promotion to brigadier general and Fitzhugh Lee'staking over the regiment, Mosby became one of Stuart's headquartersscouts.

  Scouting for Jeb Stuart was not the easiest work in the world, nor thesafest, but Mosby appears to have enjoyed it, and certainly made goodat it. It was he who scouted the route for Stuart's celebrated "RideAround MacClellan" in June, 1862, an exploit which brought his name tothe favorable attention of General Lee. By this time, still withoutcommission, he was accepted at Stuart's headquarters as a sort ofcourtesy officer, and generally addressed as "Captain" Mosby. Stuartmade several efforts to get him commissioned, but War Department redtape seems to have blocked all of them. By this time, too, Mosby hadbecome convinced of the utter worthlessness of the saber as acavalryman's weapon, and for his own armament adopted a pair of Colts.

  The revolver of the Civil War was, of course, a percussion-cap weapon.Even with the powder and bullet contained in a combustible papercartridge, loading such an arm was a slow process: each bullet had tobe forced in the front of the chamber on top of its propellant chargeby means of a hinged rammer under the barrel, and a tiny copper caphad to be placed on each nipple. It was nothing to attempt on aprancing horse. The Union cavalryman was armed with a single-shotcarbine--the seven-shot Spencer repeater was not to make itsbattlefield appearance until late in 1863--and one revolver, givinghim a total of seven shots without reloading. With a pair ofsix-shooters, Mosby had a five-shot advantage over any opponent he waslikely to encounter. As he saw it, tactical strength lay in the numberof shots which could be delivered without reloading, rather
than inthe number of men firing them. Once he reached a position ofindependent command, he was to adhere consistently to this principle.

  On July 14, 1862, General John Pope, who had taken over a newlycreated Union Army made up of the commands of McDowell, Banks andFremont, issued a bombastic and tactless order to his new command,making invidious comparisons between the armies in the west and thosein the east. He said, "I hear constantly of 'taking strong positionsand holding them,' of 'lines of retreat,' and of 'bases of supplies.'Let us discard all such ideas. Let us study the probable lines ofretreat of our opponents, and leave our own to take care ofthemselves."

  That intrigued Mosby. If General Pope wasn't going to take care of hisown rear, somebody ought to do it for him, and who better than JohnMosby? He went promptly to Stuart, pointing out Pope's disinterest inhis own lines of