In truth the Federal soldiers had paid dearly for their victory. Dr. James Moore, who was acting as surgeon with Kilpatrick and afterward wrote a life of that General, calls this engagement "by far the most bloody cavalry battle of the war."[175]
While all this desperate fighting was going on around Aldie, Colonel A. N. Duffie, with the 1st Rhode Island Cavalry, was on a scouting expedition, having crossed the Bull Run Mountain at Thoroughfare Gap and being headed for Noland's Ferry. His orders were to camp on the night of the 17th at Middleburg. Approaching that town about 4:00 o'clock in the afternoon, he drove in Stuart's pickets "so quickly that Stuart and his staff were compelled to make a retreat more rapid than was consistent with dignity and comfort."[176] The Confederate forces at Aldie were notified of the situation and ordered to Middleburg but Duffie apparently was not aware of the heavy fighting that had taken place at Aldie. When he at length succeeded in getting a message through to Aldie, asking reinforcements, Kilpatrick replied that his brigade was too exhausted to respond, though he would report the situation at once to General Pleasanton, in command of the Federals. "Thus" writes H. B. McClellan, "Col. Duffie was left to meet his fate.... His men fought bravely and repelled more than one charge before they were driven from the town, retiring by the same road upon which they had advanced." But during the night Duffie was surrounded by Chambliss's Brigade and although Duffie himself, with four of his officers and twenty-seven men, eluded their foes and reached Centreville the next afternoon, he was obliged to report a loss of twenty officers and 248 men. Some of these, at first thought killed or captured, also succeeded in getting back to the Federal lines but the defeat had been crushing.
After Gettysburg, General Lee's Army passed through Loudoun, followed by General Meade. Again, on the 14th July, 1864, General Early, after the battle of Monocacy, crossed with his Army from Maryland to Virginia at White's Ford. After resting his men in and around Leesburg he proceeded by way of Purcellville and Snickers Gap to the Valley.
All this time Mosby had been active in his "Confederacy" and attacks on the Federal communications also had been made by White's Battalion when in and around Loudoun. These attacks, frequently successful and always without warning, had caused great losses to the Federals and forced them to keep a large number of men engaged in their rear who badly were needed elsewhere. On the 16th August, 1864, General Grant, determining to end the menace, sent the following order to Major General Sheridan:
"If you can possibly spare a division of Cavalry, send them through Loudoun County to destroy and carry off the crops, animals, negroes and all men under fifty years of age capable of bearing arms. In this way you will get many of Mosby's men. All male citizens under fifty can fairly be held as prisoners of war, and not as citizen prisoners. If not already soldiers, they will be made so the moment the rebel army gets hold of them."
But Sheridan at that time was far too busy with his campaign in the Valley immediately to comply. It was not until after his decisive victory over Early at Cedar Creek on the 19th October, that he felt he could act. On the 27th November he issued the following orders to Major General Merritt in command of the 1st Cavalry Division:
"You are hereby directed to proceed, tomorrow morning at 7 o'clock, with two brigades of your division now in camp, to the east side of the Blue Ridge, via Ashby's Gap, and operate against the guerillas in the district of country bounded on the south by the line of the Manassas Gap Railroad, as far east as White Plains; on the east by the Bull Run Range; on the west by the Shenandoah River; and on the north by the Potomac.
"This section has been the hot-bed of lawless bands who have from time to time depredated upon small parties on the line of the army communications, on safeguards left at houses, and on small parties of our troops. Their real object is plunder and highway robbery.
"To clear the country of these parties that are bringing destruction upon the innocent as well as their guilty supporters by their cowardly acts, you will consume and destroy all forage and subsistence, burn all barns and mills and their contents and drive off all stock in the region, the boundaries of which are above described. This order must be literally executed, bearing in mind, however that no dwellings are to be burned and that no personal violence be offered the citizens.
"The ultimate results of the guerilla system of warfare is the total destruction of all private rights in the country occupied by such parties. The destruction may as well commence at once and the responsibility of it must rest upon the authorities at Richmond, who have acknowledged the legitimacy of guerilla bands.