In green retreats of hills that peer
By Aldie (famed for the swordless charge[[22]]).
Much store they’d heaped of captured arms
And, peradventure, pilfered cheer;
For Mosby’s lads oft hearts enlarge
In revelry by some gorge’s marge.
[22] In one of Kilpatrick’s earlier cavalry fights near Aldie, a Colonel who, being under arrest, had been temporarily deprived of his sword, nevertheless, unarmed, insisted upon charging at the head of his men, which he did, and the onset proved victorious.
“Don’t let your sabres rattle and ring;
To his oat-bag let each man give heed—
There now, that fellow’s bag’s untied,