"H. Beam Piper - Rebel Raider" - читать интересную книгу автора (Piper H Beam)

sovereignties, torn by hostilities, incapable of any concerted action, a fair prey to any outside aggressor.

However, he was also a believer in the paramount sovereignty of the states. He was first of all a
Virginian. So, when Virginia voted in favor of secession, Mosby, while he deplored the choice, felt that
he had no alternative but to accept it. He promptly enlisted in a locally organized cavalry company, the
Washington Mounted Rifles, under a former U. S. officer and West Point graduate, William E. Jones.

His letters to his wife told of his early military experiencesтАФhis pleasure at receiving one of the fine new
Sharps carbines which Captain Jones had wangled for his company, and, later, a Colt .44 revolver: his
first taste of fire in the Shenandoah Valley, where the company, now incorporated into Colonel Stuart's
First Virginia Cavalry, were covering Johnston's march to re-enforce Beauregard: his rather passive
participation in the big battle at Manassas. He was keenly disappointed at being held in reserve
throughout the fighting. Long afterward, it was to be his expressed opinion that the Confederacy had lost
the war by failing to follow the initial victory and exploit the rout of McDowell's army.

The remainder of 1861 saw him doing picket duty in Fairfax County. When Stuart was promoted to
brigadier general, and Captain Jones took his place as colonel of the First Virginia, Mosby became the
latter's adjutant. There should have been a commission along with this post, but this seems to have been
snarled in red tape at Richmond and never came through. It was about this time that Mosby first came to
Stuart's personal attention. Mosby spent a night at headquarters after escorting a couple of young ladies
who had been living outside the Confederate lines and were anxious to reach relatives living farther south.

Stuart had been quite favorably impressed with Mosby, and when, some time later, the latter lost his
place as adjutant of the First by reason of Jones' promotion to brigadier general and Fitzhugh Lee's
taking over the regiment, Mosby became one of Stuart's headquarters scouts.

Scouting for Jeb Stuart was not the easiest work in the world, nor the safest, but Mosby appears to have
enjoyed it, and certainly made good at it. It was he who scouted the route for Stuart's celebrated "Ride
Around MacClellan" in June, 1862, an exploit which brought his name to the favorable attention of
General Lee. By this time, still without commission, he was accepted at Stuart's headquarters as a sort of
courtesy officer, and generally addressed as "Captain" Mosby. Stuart made several efforts to get him
commissioned, but War Department red tape seems to have blocked all of them. By this time, too,
Mosby had become convinced of the utter worthlessness of the saber as a cavalryman's weapon, and for
his own armament adopted a pair of Colts.

The revolver of the Civil War was, of course, a percussion-cap weapon. Even with the powder and
bullet contained in a combustible paper cartridge, loading such an arm was a slow process: each bullet
had to be forced in the front of the chamber on top of its propellant charge by means of a hinged rammer
under the barrel, and a tiny copper cap had to be placed on each nipple. It was nothing to attempt on a
prancing horse. The Union cavalryman was armed with a single-shot carbineтАФthe seven-shot Spencer
repeater was not to make its battlefield appearance until late in 1863тАФand one revolver, giving him a
total of seven shots without reloading. With a pair of six-shooters, Mosby had a five-shot advantage over
any opponent he was likely to encounter. As he saw it, tactical strength lay in the number of shots which
could be delivered without reloading, rather than in the number of men firing them. Once he reached a
position of independent command, he was to adhere consistently to this principle.

On July 14, 1862, General John Pope, who had taken over a newly created Union Army made up of the
commands of McDowell, Banks and Fremont, issued a bombastic and tactless order to his new
command, making invidious comparisons between the armies in the west and those in the east. He said,
"I hear constantly of 'taking strong positions and holding them,' of 'lines of retreat,' and of 'bases of