Rebel Raider Page 6
theirdeep regret, however, Binns was not to be found either among thecasualties or the prisoners. As soon as he had seen how the fight wasgoing, the deserter had spurred off northward, never to appear inVirginia again. Mosby's own loss had been one man killed and fourwounded.
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For the rest of the spring, operations were routine--attacks on wagontrains and train wrecking and bridge burning on the railroads. Withthe cut-and-try shifting of command of the Union Army of the Potomacover and Grant in command, there was activity all over northernVirginia. About this time, Mosby got hold of a second twelve-poundhowitzer, and, later, a twelve-pound Napoleon and added the ShenandoahValley to his field of operations.
From then on, Mosby was fighting a war on two fronts, dividing hisattention between the valley and the country to the east of Bull RunMountain, his men using their spare horses freely to keep the Unionrear on both sides in an uproar. The enemy, knowing the section fromwhence Mosby was operating, resorted to frequent counter-raiding.Often, returning from a raid, the Mosby men would find their hometerritory invaded and would have to intercept or fight off theinvaders. At this time, Mosby was giving top priority to attacks onUnion transport whether on the roads or the railroads. Wagon trainswere in constant movement, both moving up the Shenandoah Valley andbound for the Army of the Potomac, in front of Petersburg. To the eastwas the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, to the south, across the endof Mosby's Confederacy, was the Manassas Gap, and at the upper end ofthe valley was the B. & O. The section of the Manassas Gap Railroadalong the southern boundary of Mosby's Confederacy came in for specialattention, and the Union Army finally gave it up for a bad job andabandoned it. This writer's grandfather, Captain H. B. Piper, of theEleventh Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, did a stint of duty guardingit, and until he died he spoke with respect of the abilities of JohnS. Mosby and his raiders. Locomotives were knocked out with one oranother of Mosby's twelve-pounders. Track was torn up and bridges wereburned. Land-mines were planted. Trains were derailed and looted,usually with sharp fighting.
By mid-July, Mosby had been promoted to lieutenant colonel and had atotal strength of around 300 men, divided into five companies. Hisyounger brother, William Mosby, had joined him and was acting as hisadjutant. He now had four guns, all twelve-pounders--two howitzers,the Napoleon and a new rifle, presented to him by Jubal Early. He hada compact, well-disciplined and powerful army-in-miniature. After theUnion defeat at Kernstown, Early moved back to the lower end of theShenandoah Valley, and McCausland went off on his raid in toPennsylvania, burning Chambersburg in retaliation for Hunter'sburnings at Lexington and Buchanan in Virginia. Following hiscustomary practice, Mosby made a crossing at another point and raidedinto Maryland as far as Adamstown, skirmishing and picking up a fewprisoners and horses.
Early's invasion of Maryland, followed as it was by McCausland's sackof Chambersburg, was simply too much for the Union command. TheShenandoah situation had to be cleaned up immediately, and, after sometop-echelon dickering, Grant picked Phil Sheridan to do the cleaning.On August 7, Sheridan assumed command of the heterogeneous Unionforces in the Shenandoah and began welding them into an army. On the10th, he started south after Early, and Mosby, who generally had agood idea of what was going on at Union headquarters, took a smallparty into the valley, intending to kidnap the new commander as he hadStoughton. Due mainly to the vigilance of a camp sentry, the planfailed, but Mosby picked up the news that a large wagon train wasbeing sent up the valley, and he decided to have a try at this.
On the evening of the 12th, he was back in the valley with 330 men andhis two howitzers. Spending the night at a plantation on the rightbank of the Shenandoah River, he was on the move before daybreak,crossing the river and pushing toward Berryville, with scouts probingahead in the heavy fog. One of the howitzers broke a wheel and waspushed into the brush and left behind. As both pieces were of the samecaliber, the caisson was taken along. A lieutenant and fifteen men,scouting ahead, discovered a small empty wagon train, going down thevalley in the direction of Harper's Ferry, and they were about toattack it when they heard, in the distance, the rumbling of manyheavily loaded wagons. This was the real thing. They forgot about theempty wagons and hastened back to Mosby and the main force to report.
Swinging to the left to avoid premature contact with the train, Mosbyhurried his column in the direction of Berryville. On the way, hefound a disabled wagon, part of the north-bound empty train, with theteamster and several infantrymen sleeping in it. These were promptlysecured, and questioning elicited the information that the south-boundtrain consisted of 150 wagons, escorted by 250 cavalry and a brigadeof infantry. Getting into position on a low hill overlooking the roada little to the east of Berryville, the howitzer was unlimbered andthe force was divided on either side of it, Captain Adolphus Richardstaking the left wing and Sam Chapman the right. Mosby himself remainedwith the gun. Action was to be commenced with the gun, and the thirdshot was to be the signal for both Richards and Chapman to charge.
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At just the right moment, the fog lifted. The gun was quickly laid onthe wagon train and fired, the first shot beheading a mule. The secondshell hit the best sort of target imaginable--a mobile farrier'sforge. There was a deadly shower of horseshoes, hand-tools andassorted ironmongery, inflicting casualties and causing a local panic.The third shell landed among some cavalry who were galloping up,scattering them, and, on the signal, Richards and Chapman chargedsimultaneously.
Some infantry at the head of the train met Richards with a volley,costing him one man killed and several wounded and driving his chargeoff at an angle into the middle of the train. The howitzer, in turn,broke up the infantry. Chapman, who had hit the rear of the train, washaving easier going: his men methodically dragged the teamsters fromtheir wagons, unhitched mules, overturned, looted and burned wagons.The bulk of the escort, including the infantry, were at the front ofthe train, with Richards' men between them and Chapman. Richards,while he had his hands full with these, was not neglecting the wagons,either, though he was making less of a ceremony of it. A teamster wasshot and dragged from his wagon-seat, a lighted bundle of inflammablestossed into the wagon, and pistols were fired around the mules' headsto start them running. The faster they ran, the more the flames behindthem were fanned, and as the wagon went careening down the road, otherwagons were ignited by it.
By 8 a. m., the whole thing was over. The escort had been scattered,the wagons were destroyed, and the victors moved off, in possession of500-odd mules, thirty-six horses, about 200 head of beef cattle, 208prisoners, four Negro slaves who had been forcibly emancipated todrive Army wagons, and large quantities of supplies. In one of thewagons, a number of violins, probably equipment for some prototype ofthe U.S.O., were found; the more musically inclined guerrillasappropriated these and enlivened the homeward march with music.
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Of course, there was jubilation all over Mosby's Confederacy on theirreturn. The mules were herded into the mountains, held for about aweek, and then started off for Early's army. The beef herd was dividedamong the people, and there were barbecues and feasts. A shadow wascast over the spirits of the raiders, however, when the prisonersinformed them, with considerable glee, that the train had beencarrying upwards of a million dollars, the pay for Sheridan's army.Even allowing for exaggeration, the fact that they had overlooked thistreasure was a bitter pill for the Mosbyites. According to localtradition, however, the fortune was not lost completely; there werestories of a Berryville family who had been quite poor before the warbut who blossomed into unexplained affluence afterward.
Less than a week later, on August 19, Mosby was in the valley againwith 250 men, dividing his force into several parties after crossingthe river at Castleman's Ford. Richards, with "B" Company, set offtoward Charlestown. Mosby himself took "A" toward Harper's Ferry on anuneventful trip during which the only enemies he encountered were acouple of straggl
ers caught pillaging a springhouse. It was Chapman,with "C" and "D," who saw the action on this occasion.
Going to the vicinity of Berryville, he came to a burning farmhouse,and learned that it had been fired only a few minutes before by someof Custer's cavalry. Leaving a couple of men to help the familycontrol the fire and salvage their possessions, he pressed on rapidly.Here was the thing every Mosby man had been hoping for--a chance tocatch house burners at work. They passed a second blazing house andbarn, dropping off a couple more men to help fight fire, and caught upwith the incendiaries, a company of Custer's men, just as they weresetting fire to a third house. Some of these, knowing the quality ofmercy they might expect from Mosby men, made off immediately at agallop. About ninety of them, however, tried to form ranks and put upa fight. The fight speedily became a massacre. Charging with shouts of"No