Rebel Raider Page 3
food and blanketsfor their families. The regular Mosby Men called them the"Conglomerates," and Mosby himself once said that they resembled theDemocrat party, being "held together only by the cohesive power ofpublic plunder."
Mosby's first operation with his new force was in the pattern of theother two--the stealthy dismounted approach and sudden surprise of anisolated picket post. He brought back eleven prisoners and twelvehorses and sets of small arms, and, as on the night of the 10th, leftone wounded enemy behind. As on the previous occasions, the prisonerswere taken as far as Middleburg before being released on parole.
For this reason, Mosby was sure that Colonel Sir Percy Wyndham,commander of the brigade which included the Fifth New York, EighteenthPennsylvania and the First Vermont, would assume that this village wasthe raiders' headquarters. Colonel Wyndham, a European-trainedsoldier, would scarcely conceive of any military force, however small,without a regular headquarters and a fixed camp. Therefore, Wyndhamwould come looking for him at Middleburg. So, with a companion namedFountain Beattie, Mosby put up for what remained of the night at thehome of a Mr. Lorman Chancellor, on the road from Aldie a few mileseast of Middleburg. The rest of the company were ordered to stayoutside Middleburg.
Mosby's estimate of his opponent was uncannily accurate. The nextmorning, about daybreak, he and Beattie were wakened by one of theChancellor servants and warned that a large body of Union cavalry wasapproaching up the road from Aldie. Peering through the windowshutters, they watched about 200 men of the Fifth New York ride by,with Colonel Wyndham himself in the lead. As soon as they were out ofsight up the road, Mosby and Beattie, who had hastily dressed, dasheddownstairs for their horses.
"I'm going to keep an eye on these people," Mosby told Beattie."Gather up as many men as you can, and meet me in about half an houron the hill above Middleburg. But hurry! I'd rather have five men nowthan a hundred by noon."
When Beattie with six men rejoined Mosby, he found the latter sittingon a stump, munching an apple and watching the enemy through his fieldglasses. Wyndham, who had been searching Middleburg for "Mosby'sheadquarters," was just forming his men for a push on to Upperville,where he had been assured by the canny Middleburgers that Mosby hadhis camp.
Mosby and his men cantered down the hillside to the road as Wyndham'sforce moved out of the village and then broke into a mad gallop toovertake them.
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It was always hard to be sure whether jackets were dirty gray or fadedblue. As the Union soldier had a not unfounded belief that theVirginia woods were swarming with bushwhackers (Confederateguerillas), the haste of a few men left behind to rejoin the columnwas quite understandable. The rearguard pulled up and waited for them.Then, at about twenty yards' range, one of the New Yorkers, asergeant, realized what was happening and shouted a warning:
"They're Rebs!"
Instantly one of Mosby's men, Ned Hurst, shot him dead. Otherrevolvers, ready drawn, banged, and several Union cavalrymen werewounded. Mosby and his followers hastily snatched the bridles of threeothers, disarmed them and turned, galloping away with them.
By this time, the main column, which had not halted with therearguard, was four or five hundred yards away. There was a briefuproar, a shouting of contradictory orders, and then the whole columnturned and came back at a gallop. Mosby, four of his men, and thethree prisoners, got away, but Beattie and two others were capturedwhen their horses fell on a sheet of ice treacherously hidden underthe snow. There was no possibility of rescuing them. After the captureof Beattie and his companions, the pursuit stopped. Halting at adistance, Mosby saw Wyndham form his force into a compact body andmove off toward Aldie at a brisk trot. He sent off the prisoners underguard of two of his men and followed Wyndham's retreat almost to Aldiewithout opportunity to inflict any more damage.
During his stop at Middleburg, Wyndham had heaped coals on a growingopposition to Mosby, fostered by pro-Unionists in the neighborhood.Wyndham informed the townspeople that he would burn the town andimprison the citizens if Mosby continued the attacks on his outposts.A group of citizens, taking the threat to heart, petitioned Stuart torecall Mosby, but the general sent a stinging rebuke, telling theMiddleburgers that Mosby and his men were risking their lives whichwere worth considerably more than a few houses and barns.
Mosby was also worried about the antipathy to the Scott Law and thepartisan ranger system which was growing among some of the generalofficers of the Confederacy. To counteract such opposition, he neededto achieve some spectacular feat of arms which would capture thepopular imagination, make a public hero of himself, and place himabove criticism.
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And all the while, his force was growing. The booty from his raidsexcited the cupidity of the more venturesome farmers, and they wereexchanging the hoe for the revolver and joining him. A number of theconvalescents and furloughed soldiers were arranging transfers to hiscommand. Others, with no permanent military attachment, were driftingto Middleburg, Upperville, or Rectortown, inquiring where they mightfind Mosby, and making their way to join him.
There was a young Irishman, Dick Moran. There was a Fauquier Countyblacksmith, Billy Hibbs, who reported armed with a huge broadswordwhich had been the last product of his forge. There were WalterFrankland, Joe Nelson, Frank Williams and George Whitescarver, amongthe first to join on a permanent basis. And, one day, there was thestrangest recruit of all.
A meeting was held on the 25th of February at the Blackwell farm, nearUpperville, and Mosby and most of his men were in the kitchen of thefarmhouse, going over a map of the section they intended raiding, whena couple of men who had been on guard outside entered, pushing a Unioncavalry sergeant ahead of them.
"This Yankee says he wants to see you, Captain," one of the menannounced. "He came on foot; says his horse broke a leg and had to beshot."
"Well, I'm Mosby," the guerrilla leader said. "What do you want?"
The man in blue came to attention and saluted.
"I've come here to join your company, sir," he said calmly.
There was an excited outburst from the men in the kitchen, but Mosbytook the announcement in stride.
"And what's your name and unit, sergeant?"
"James F. Ames: late Fifth New York Cavalry, sir."
After further conversation, Mosby decided that the big Yankee wassincere in his avowed decision to join the forces of the Confederacy.He had some doubts about his alleged motives: the man was animatedwith a most vindictive hatred of the Union government, all his formerofficers and most of his former comrades. No one ever learned whatinjury, real or fancied, had driven Sergeant Ames to desertion andtreason, but in a few minutes Mosby was sure that the man was throughwith the Union Army.
Everybody else was equally sure that he was a spy, probably sent overby Wyndham to assassinate Mosby. Eventually Mosby proposed a test ofAmes' sincerity. The deserter should guide the company to a Unionpicket post, and should accompany the raiders unarmed: Mosby wouldride behind him, ready to shoot him at the first sign of treachery.The others agreed to judge the new recruit by his conduct on the raid.A fairly strong post, at a schoolhouse at Thompson's Corners, wasselected as the objective, and they set out, sixteen men beside Amesand Mosby, through a storm of rain and sleet. Stopping at a nearbyfarm, Mosby learned that the post had been heavily re-enforced sincehe had last raided it. There were now about a hundred men at theschoolhouse.
Pleased at this evidence that his campaign to force the enemy toincrease his guard was bearing fruit, Mosby decided to abandon hiscustomary tactics of dismounting at a distance and approaching onfoot. On a night like this, the enemy would not be expecting him, sothe raiders advanced boldly along the road, Mosby telling Ames to makewhatever answer he thought would be believed in case they werechallenged. However, a couple of trigger-happy vedettes let off theircarbines at them, yelled, "The Rebs are coming!" and galloped for theschoolhouse.
There was nothing to do but gallop after them, and Mosby
and his bandcame pelting in on the heels of the vedettes. Hitherto, his raids hadbeen more or less bloodless, but this time he had a fight on hishands, and if the men in the schoolhouse had stayed inside anddefended themselves with carbine fire, they would have driven off theattack. Instead, however, they rushed outside, each man trying tomount his horse. A lieutenant and seven men were killed, about twicethat number wounded, and five prisoners were taken. The rest,believing themselves attacked by about twice their own strength,scattered into the woods and got away.
Ames, who had ridden unarmed, flung himself upon a Union cavalryman atthe first collision and disarmed him, then threw himself into thefight with the captured saber. His conduct during the brief battle atthe schoolhouse was such as to remove from everybody's mind thesuspicion that his conversion to the Confederate cause was anythingbut genuine.