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CHAPTER VIII. GUERILLAS ON THE WAR-PATH. CUNNING AND DUPLICITY PROMPTING
THE ACTORS.—DESTRUCTION IN THE BACKGROUND.
THE remark is attributed to General Grant that he had "less dread of the whole of General Lee's army than of Colonel Moseby's cavalry." To one unacquainted with the irregular, predatory mode of warfare of these bands, such a remark, from such a source, would seem impossible; but when it is known that cunning, deception, downright lying, and any amount of cruelty needed to their ends, were principles and practices which they regarded as fair; that they did not hold themselves amenable to army regulations, nor to the law of nations, but were in all cases a "law unto themselves," then the wonder ceases, and we can understand that even so fearless and so wise a general as Grant might have made just such a remark.
During the war the newspapers of the whole country had considerable to say about Moseby and his marauding band; and, since the war, all who have written histories have had more or less to say about him; and yet not the one-hundredth part of his depredations have ever been recorded, nor is there one in a thousand, either North or South, who know how his band was organized, how they operated, or what were the results, except in a few cases, of their operations. With our army experience of nearly three years, and with all our reading of newspapers and histories, we admit to have known nothing, or next to nothing, of the plan on which his band was organized, of the principles on which they operated, and of the terrible results of those operations until quite recently. It chanced, not long since, that we met a gentleman who was an officer in the Confederate army during nearly the whole of the war, who was personally acquainted with Colonel Moseby and many of his men, and who had from their own lips carefully detailed accounts of many of their daring exploits, at a time when they gloried in them and delighted to tell them to their friends; and whose personal relations with President Davis, Adjutant-General Cooper, and others gave him the opportunity of knowing what was going on behind the scenes, as well as upon the stage. From him we gathered most of the following facts, and as many of them have never been published before, we are sure they will be of great interest, as showing another phase of the acts going on behind the scenes while the armies of the Union and of the Confederacy were fighting their battles on the public stage, with all the world as spectators.
It will be recollected that in the beginning of the Confederate government troops were called out by proclamation of the President, the same as at the North. But that, after a time, as the war progressed and volunteering became less and less, conscription had to be resorted to, and, finally, that every man at all able to bear arms was called into the service.
Early in the war Colonel Moseby proposed to the Confederate War Department to raise a company for "special and independent service," meaning guerilla service, though of course he did not use a word so objectionable in making the application. He was then a practising lawyer in a small town in Western Virginia, and wanted to keep up his own dignity as well as that of his profession. The War Department granted his request, and in a little while his company was full. Finding others eager to join him, as the young men of his own and of adjoining counties much preferred to join an "independent" command than go into the Confederate army (and they soon found they must do one or the other), he next proposed to the War Department to raise a regiment on the same basis. This, too, was granted him, and in due time he had about fifteen hundred men on his muster-rolls, divided up into companies, each with its captain, lieutenants, sergeants, etc., many of whom were not known to the general public, nor scarcely beyond their immediate friends and relatives. All his officers and all his men lived at their homes, on their farms, in their offices, in their stores, in their workshops, pursuing their usual vocations; but each was careful to carry, concealed about his person, a certificate showing that he belonged to Colonel Moseby's regiment of "independent" cavalry, so that if called upon by a conscripting officer he could at once show that he was already in the service. The regiment was called "independent," and was really so, for the reason that it was attached to no brigade, division, or corps, but operated and cooperated with other commands only as chance happened to throw them together. His orders came from the President, or the War Department, through Adjutant-General Cooper, who directed him whom to obey as his superior officer for the time being, and to whom to report at any time for special duty. Many, a great many, of his acts, however, were done purely on his own volition, on his own responsibility, and without orders from any superior officer, nor were these acts always approved by those at the seat of government. Two or three times he was summoned to Richmond to answer complaints lodged against him; but such was the influence he exerted with members of the Confederate Congress, through members of his regiment, many of whom were the sons or near relatives of some of the most wealthy and most influential families of Virginia, that each time he came off scot-free, and was worse after than before.
His ordinary manner of operating was as follows: His officers and men, as before stated, lived at home, and were only known as citizens, pursuing their ordinary vocations; and, for the last two years of the war, a considerable number, probably more than half, lived within the Union lines, and called themselves "Union" men. From and after the time when the Rapidan River became the line of the two armies this was especially so; and after that time nearly all his operations lay between the Rapidan and the Potomac, mostly in the counties of Loudon, Fauquier, Shenandoah, and Rockingham. Occasionally he would cross the Potomac into Maryland, and operate at points between Cumberland City and the Great Falls.