Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/265

 Mniitiinnii t<> Mosby's Men. 257

written by both friend and foe. We find the pages of that history, both immediately before this tragedy and immediately thereafter, filled with dispatches that recount the deeds of Mosby's men in con- nection with the movements of the armies. They are from Generals Stephenson and Augur and Averill and Torbert and Sheridan and < ".rant and Halleck, and even from Stanton, the Secretary of War.

We find General Stephenson telegraphing that he cannot send subsistence to the army in front without a guard of one thousand infantry and five hundred cavalry for every two hundred wagons, and that escorts with dispatches had to cut their way through and often lost half their men; we find the commandant at Martinsburg telegraphing that scouts with dispatches report they cannot get through to Sheridan because driven back by Mosby's men; we find Secretary Stanton complaining of a lack of information from Sheridan of his movements, who in reply excuses himself by saying: " I have been unable to communicate more fully on acconnt of the operations of guerrillas in my rear; " we find Secretary Stanton telegraphing to General Grant that in order to re-open this railroad to Manassas, which was to prove so important a factor in their campaign, it would be necessary "to clean out Mosby's gang of robbers, who have so long infested that district of country; and I respectfully suggest that Sheridan's cavalry should be required to accomplish this object be- fore it is sent elsewhere. The two small regiments (i 3th and i6th New York), under General Augur have been so often cut up by Mosby's band that they are cowed and useless for that purpose."

THE FATEFUL ORDER.

But what were the immediate events that led to the issuing of that order for the execution of Mosby's men? It seems that the move- ments of this little band of cavalry had become so important as to be the subject of almost daily bulletins from army headquarters. On August Qth, 1864, Sheridan telegraphed: "Have heard nothing from Mosby to-day; " but before the day closes Colonel Lazelle re- ports a detachment of his cavalry attacked and routed. On August nth, General Weber reports: " Mosby's command between Sheridan and Harper's Ferry;" and on the I2th, Sheridan sends the Illinois cavalry to Loudoun with instructions "to exterminate as many of Mosby's gang as they can." On the i3th occurred the memorable battle of Berryville, where Mosby with three hundred cavalry and three small howitzers attacked an equal number of the enemy's cav-