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supply and communication, and asked that he be givenabout twenty men and detailed to get into Pope's rear and see whatsort of disturbance he could create.

  Stuart doubted the propriety of sending men into what was thenStonewall Jackson's territory, but he gave Mosby a letter to Jackson,recommending the bearer highly and outlining what he proposed doing,with the request that he be given some men to try it. With thisletter, Mosby set out for Jackson's headquarters.

  He never reached his destination. On the way, he was taken prisoner bya raiding force of New York cavalry, and arrived, instead, at OldCapitol jail in Washington. Stuart requested his exchange at once, andMosby spent only about ten days in Old Capitol, and then was sent downthe Potomac on an exchange boat, along with a number of otherprisoners of war, for Hampton Roads.

  The boat-load of prisoners, about to be exchanged and returned totheir own army, were allowed to pass through a busy port of militaryembarkation and debarkation, with every opportunity to observeeverything that was going on, and, to make a bad matter worse, thesteamboat captain was himself a Confederate sympathizer. So whenMosby, from the exchange boat, observed a number of transports lyingat anchor, he had no trouble at all in learning that they carriedBurnside's men, newly brought north from the Carolinas. With the helpof the steamboat captain, Mosby was able to learn that the transportswere bound for Acquia Creek, on the Potomac; that meant that there-enforcements were for Pope.

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  As soon as he was exchanged, Mosby made all haste for Lee'sheadquarters to report what he had discovered. Lee, remembering Mosbyas the man who had scouted ahead of Stuart's Ride Around MacClellan,knew that he had a hot bit of information from a credible source. Adispatch rider was started off at once for Jackson, and Jackson struckPope at Cedar Mountain before he could be re-enforced. Mosby returnedto Stuart's headquarters, losing no time in promoting a pair of .44'sto replace the ones lost when captured, and found his stock withStuart at an all-time high as a result of his recent feat of espionagewhile in the hands of the enemy.

  So he was with Stuart when Stuart stopped at Laura Ratcliffe's home,and was on hand when Stuart wanted to make one of his characteristicgestures of gallantry. And so he finally got his independentcommand--all of six men--and orders to operate in the enemy's rear.

  Whatever Stuart might have had in mind in leaving him behind "to lookafter the loyal Confederate people," John Mosby had no intention ofposting himself in Laura Ratcliffe's front yard as a guard of honor.He had a theory of guerrilla warfare which he wanted to test. In part,it derived from his experiences in the Shenandoah Valley and inFairfax County, but in larger part, it was based upon his ownunderstanding of the fundamental nature of war.

  The majority of guerrilla leaders have always been severely tacticalin their thinking. That is to say, they have been concerned almostexclusively with immediate results. A troop column is ambushed, apicket post attacked, or a supply dump destroyed for the sake of theimmediate loss of personnel or materiel so inflicted upon the enemy.Mosby, however, had a well-conceived strategic theory. He knew, inview of the magnitude of the war, that the tactical effects of hisoperations would simply be lost in the over-all picture. But, if hecould create enough uproar in the Union rear, he believed that hecould force the withdrawal from the front of a regiment or even abrigade to guard against his attacks and, in some future battle, theabsence of that regiment or brigade might tip the scale of battle or,at least, make some future Confederate victory more complete or somedefeat less crushing.

  As soon as Stuart's column started southward, Mosby took his six menacross Bull Run Mountain to Middleburg, where he ordered them toscatter out, billet themselves at outlying farms, and meet him at theMiddleburg hotel on the night of January 10. Meanwhile he returnedalone to Fairfax County, spending the next week making contacts withthe people and gathering information.

  On the night of Saturday, January 10, he took his men through the gapat Aldie and into Fairfax County. His first stop was at a farmhousenear Herndon Station, where he had friends, and there he met awoodsman, trapper and market hunter named John Underwood, who, withhis two brothers, had been carrying on a private resistance movementagainst the Union occupation ever since the Confederate Army had movedout of the region. Overjoyed at the presence of regular Confederatetroops, even as few as a half-dozen, Underwood offered to guide Mosbyto a nearby Union picket post.

  Capturing this post was no particularly spectacular feat of arms.Mosby's party dismounted about 200 yards away from it and crept up onit, to find seven members of the Fifth New York squatting around afire, smoking, drinking coffee and trying to keep warm. Their firstintimation of the presence of any enemy nearer than the RappahannockRiver came when Mosby and his men sprang to their feet, leveledrevolvers and demanded their surrender. One cavalryman made a grab forhis carbine and Mosby shot him; the others put up their hands. Thewounded man was given first aid, wrapped in a blanket and placedbeside the fire to wait until the post would be relieved. The otherswere mounted on their own horses and taken to Middleburg, where theywere paroled i.e., released after they gave their word not to take uparms again against the Confederacy. This not entirely satisfactoryhandling of prisoners was the only means left open to Mosby with hissmall force, behind enemy lines.

  The next night, Mosby stayed out of Fairfax County to allow theexcitement to die down a little, but the night after, he and his men,accompanied by Underwood, raided a post where the Little RiverTurnpike crossed Cub Run. Then, after picking up a two-man road patrolen route, they raided another post near Fryingpan Church. This timethey brought back fourteen prisoners and horses.

  In all, he and his sextet had captured nineteen prisoners and twentyhorses. But Mosby still wasn't satisfied. What he wanted was a fewmore men and orders to operate behind the Union army on a permanentbasis. So, after paroling the catch of the night before, he told JohnUnderwood to get busy gathering information and establishing contacts,and he took his six men back to Culpepper, reporting his activities toStuart and claiming that under his existing orders he had not feltjustified in staying away from the army longer. At the same time, heasked for a larger detail and orders to continue operating in northernVirginia.

  In doing so, he knew he was taking a chance that Stuart would keep himat Culpepper, but as both armies had gone into winter quarters afterFredericksburg with only a minimum of outpost activity, he reasonedthat Stuart would be willing to send him back. As it happened, Stuartwas so delighted with the success of Mosby's brief activity that hegave him fifteen men, all from the First Virginia Cavalry, and ordersto operate until recalled. On January 18, Mosby was back atMiddleburg, ready to go to work in earnest.

  As before, he scattered his men over the countryside, quartering themon the people. This time, before scattering them, he told them to meethim at Zion Church, just beyond the gap at Aldie, on the night of the28th. During the intervening ten days, he was not only busy gatheringinformation but also in an intensive recruiting campaign among thepeople of upper Fauquier and lower Loudoun Counties.

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  In this last, his best selling-point was a recent act of theConfederate States Congress called the Scott Partisan Ranger Law. Thispiece of legislation was, in effect, an extension of the principles ofprize law and privateering to land warfare. It authorized theformation of independent cavalry companies, to be considered part ofthe armed forces of the Confederacy, their members to serve withoutpay and mount themselves, in return for which they were to be entitledto keep any spoil of war captured from the enemy. The terms "enemy"and "spoil of war" were defined so liberally as to cover almostanything not the property of the government or citizens of theConfederacy. There were provisions, also, entitling partisan companiesto draw on the Confederate government for arms and ammunition andpermitting them to turn in and receive payment for any spoil whichthey did not wish to keep for themselves.

  The law had met with considerable opposition from the Confederatemilitary autho
rities, who claimed that it would attract men and horsesaway from the regular service and into ineffective freebooting. Thereis no doubt that a number of independent companies organized under theScott Law accomplished nothing of military value. Some degeneratedinto mere bandit gangs, full of deserters from both sides, andterrible only to the unfortunate Confederate citizens living withintheir range of operations. On the other hand, as Mosby was todemonstrate, a properly employed partisan company could be ofconsiderable use.

  It was the provision about booty, however, which appealed to Mosby. Ashe intended operating in the Union rear, where the richest plundercould be found, he hoped that the prospect would attract numerousrecruits. The countryside contained many men capable of bearing armswho had remained at home to look after their farms but who would bemore than willing to ride with him now and then in hope of securing anew horse for farm work, or some needed harness, or