Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906 edition. Excerpt:...to the regular army, Sam was one of the detail to take them. At Culpeper Court House he turned them into an enclosure belonging to John Minor Botts, a prominent politician who had remained a Union man. Mr. Botts objected to the use of his farm as a corral for rebel live-stock and, but for the timely arrival of General Stuart, they would not have gone into the enclosure. But Stuart ordered them in and told Mr. Botts he was the only man in Virginia who had a fence around his barn. So in they went. Stuart told Sam if it were not for Mosby all his wagons would have remained stuck in the mud. Sam was captured in August, 1864, after he came back from Culpeper Court House in a house near Upperville, where he and Frank Darden had hidden in a garret. Frank Darden fell through the ceiling of the family living-room and lit in the bed with the lady of the house. Sam was in the dark, and when the enemy began firing he offered to surrender, but none of them would take him. There being nothing else to do, he began firing at them, and when both his pistols were empty he walked out and they seized him. He went to Fort Warren in handcuffs, and remained there till June, 1865. John H. Alexander had a theory, or rather he had several, about our peculiar warfare. First, he believed the precarious life that we led made us vigilant, alert and self-reliant, so that in action each man was an independent, intelligent unit, and not a mere automaton to be manoeuvered by his officers. Second, he believed the enemy dreaded ambuscades, and that many of our escapes were due to their exceeding carefulness. And, third, he had an abiding faith in the advantage we had over the enemy in our experience with the pistol. He used to say, " There is a terrible difference...