[10]Col. Milton Cogswell, 42nd N. Y. (Tammany) Regiment.
[11]Col. William Raymond Lee, 20th Mass. Inf.
[12]Captain Carter and all of the succeeding names listed in connection with the capture of prisoners that night were members of the 8th Virginia Infantry, Loudoun’s own regiment.
[13]Captain Timothy O’Meara, Company E, 42nd N. Y.
[14]Colonel William Barksdale—killed July 2, 1863, at Gettysburg, while commanding a brigade of these same Mississippi Regiments.
The Comanches
By John Divine
The aura built around Colonel John S. Mosby has caused the exploits of another “Border Partisan” to be almost entirely ignored. Lt. Col. E. V. White, dashing leader of the 35th Battalion, Virginia Cavalry, rendered service to the Confederacy on a scale greater than that of the more renowned Mosby. Too often White’s Battalion was called from its warfare to fight with other segments of the army, thus he was not afforded the opportunity to be identified solely as a partisan. The hard bloody fighting, while filling pages of the Official Records, does not appeal to the romantic writer.
Elijah Viers White was born near Poolesville, Maryland, but at the outbreak of war was farming in Loudoun County, Virginia. For distinguished service as a volunteer aide to Colonel Eppa Hunton at Ball’s Bluff, White was commissioned captain in the Provisional Army of the Confederacy with permission to organize an independent company for service along the border. The original company was organized at Leesburg in December, 1861. This company became the nucleus of the 35th Battalion, better known as White’s Battalion or “The Comanches.” This hardy band, under the daring leadership of White, possibly saw as much action as any unit in the Confederate Army. Excellent riders, well mounted, armed with two revolvers and a sabre, their attacks created terror in the unsuspecting enemy.
Their first service with the regular army was as scouts and couriers for General Ewell in the Valley. A strange attachment sprang up between “Old Bald Head” and this little band of “Comanches.” Ewell relied on their information and they in turn idolized this eccentric dyspeptic.