Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/277

 The Monument to Mosby'a Men.

CHAFFIN'S BLUFF, August 16, 1864.

Colonel Mosby reports that he attacked the enemy's supply train near Berry ville on the I3th; captured and destroyed 75 loaded wag- ons and secured over 200 prisoners, including several officers, between 500 and 600 horses and mules, upward of 200 beef cattle, and many valuable stores. Considerable number of the enemy killed and wounded. His loss, two killed and three wounded.

R. E. LEE, General. HON. J. A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.

This telegram was published the next day and was seen by General Grant, as newspapers were regularly exchanged between the lines. It informed him of the status of my command. It was the first pub- lic official notice of me by General Lee since General Grant came to Virginia. The Berry ville raid was the first I ever reported to him by telegraph. The dispatch was sent by John Manson out to Gor- donsville, and from there wired to headquarters. The news was sent in haste because I knew General Lee's anxiety about the movement up the Valley, and that it would relieve him to hear that a blow had been struck. His dispatch to the War Department shows the im- portance he attached to it. He saw the effect it would have on Sheridan. It is a mystery Sheridan does not explain why he stopped talking about hanging my men. It was not because their manners had improved, or that they had ceased to annoy him. He gives no reason why there should be a difference between the treatment of my men and other Confederates. There was no regimental officer in the Confederate army that was in as close relations with the commander- in-chief as I was. The records showed that I reported directly to him and received instructions directly from him. He commanded his army through corps commanders; my battalion was the only ex- ception. Although operating in the Valley, my command was inde- pendent of Early's army. Early was in front of Sheridan I was behind him.

I have quoted Sheridan's dispatches (August ijth to September nth) about his hanging my men as guerrillas. After that he is silent on the subject. Ii he ever hung anybody he kept it a secret. I never heard of it until I read it in the war records. I am sure nobody else ever did; the war correspondents never mentioned it. When I retaliated for the massacre of my men at Front Royal, I wrote him a letter telling him what I had done, and published it in the news-