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

And all the while, his force was growing. The booty from his raids excited the cupidity of the more
venturesome farmers, and they were exchanging the hoe for the revolver and joining him. A number of
the convalescents and furloughed soldiers were arranging transfers to his command. Others, with no
permanent military attachment, were drifting to Middleburg, Upperville, or Rectortown, inquiring where
they might find Mosby, and making their way to join him.

There was a young Irishman, Dick Moran. There was a Fauquier County blacksmith, Billy Hibbs, who
reported armed with a huge broadsword which had been the last product of his forge. There were
Walter Frankland, Joe Nelson, Frank Williams and George Whitescarver, among the first to join on a
permanent basis. And, one day, there was the strangest recruit of all.

A meeting was held on the 25th of February at the Blackwell farm, near Upperville, and Mosby and
most of his men were in the kitchen of the farmhouse, going over a map of the section they intended
raiding, when a couple of men who had been on guard outside entered, pushing a Union cavalry sergeant
ahead of them.

"This Yankee says he wants to see you, Captain," one of the men announced. "He came on foot; says his
horse broke a leg and had to be shot."
"Well, I'm Mosby," the guerrilla leader said. "What do you want?"

The man in blue came to attention and saluted.

"I've come here to join your company, sir," he said calmly.

There was an excited outburst from the men in the kitchen, but Mosby took the announcement in stride.

"And what's your name and unit, sergeant?"

"James F. Ames: late Fifth New York Cavalry, sir."

After further conversation, Mosby decided that the big Yankee was sincere in his avowed decision to
join the forces of the Confederacy. He had some doubts about his alleged motives: the man was
animated with a most vindictive hatred of the Union government, all his former officers and most of his
former comrades. No one ever learned what injury, real or fancied, had driven Sergeant Ames to
desertion and treason, but in a few minutes Mosby was sure that the man was through with the Union
Army.

Everybody else was equally sure that he was a spy, probably sent over by Wyndham to assassinate
Mosby. Eventually Mosby proposed a test of Ames' sincerity. The deserter should guide the company to
a Union picket post, and should accompany the raiders unarmed: Mosby would ride behind him, ready
to shoot him at the first sign of treachery. The others agreed to judge the new recruit by his conduct on
the raid. A fairly strong post, at a schoolhouse at Thompson's Corners, was selected as the objective,
and they set out, sixteen men beside Ames and Mosby, through a storm of rain and sleet. Stopping at a
nearby farm, Mosby learned that the post had been heavily re-enforced since he had last raided it. There
were now about a hundred men at the schoolhouse.

Pleased at this evidence that his campaign to force the enemy to increase his guard was bearing fruit,