Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 28.djvu/149

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the Lieutenant mounted the first citizen's horse lit- cairn- to, and ordered Vest and myself to mount ourselves and follow him. This we did with dispatch, the rest of the men holding the ground wt- had gained. The horse I fell heir to proved to be Thomas'. He was as swift as the wind and nimble as a cat. Hence he was not long forging his way by the side of Vest, who had gotten a start of me, both gaining considerably on our leader, who had just turned a bend in the road, when two shots were fired, striking the Lieutenant in the face and head with buckshot and knocking him from his horse, mortally wounded. Henry Ent, a blacksmith in Sandy Spring, armed with a double-barrel gun, had concealed himself behind a cedar tree, close to the road, and as the Lieutenant passed, he fired the fatal shots, and then fled through the thick underbush and dense forest. Vest and I retraced our way to the rest of the men with the sad news of our great loss. The command now devolved upon Randolph, who, in his usual cool way, said: " Mount your horses boys, and follow me." As though by a funeral dirge, we marched slowly to the spot where the Lieutenant lay wounded. What a sad scene. Although we were in danger of being attacked by the com- bined forces of the soldiers and citizens, we secured from a farmer nearby a wagon and conveyed our wounded commander to the kind man's house, where all was done by his brother, who remained with him, and the ladies of the house, to make his last moments comfor- table, until death closed the scene. Brune now retired to his horse and endeavored to overtake us, but was intercepted by a body of Federal cavalay, and taken to the " Old Capitol," at Washington, a prisoner, where he remained until the close of the war.

The rest of our party, now reduced to eight, our original num- ber, made our way to Virginia, taking the peak of the " Sugar- Loaf Mountain" as our guide and inspiration, for this overlooked our place of safety Virginia. The dreary and lonely ride was made in silence and without incident, reaching the mountains about noon, where we rested until dark, when a lady who had two sons in White's Battalion, invited us to supper, and informed us that the pickets on the river had been ordered to Virginia on a raid. This seemed pro- verbial. After partaking of the hospitality of our benefactress, \\v crossed the " Rubicon " in safety the end of a most eventful raid.

John Randolph made a report to Colonel Mosby of our sad r. ualty, who was much distressed at the loss of such a promising young officer. JAS. G. WILTSHIRE,

Baltimore, Md., May, 1900. 2d Lieut. Mosby's Battalion.