" ... while I conducted war on the theory that the end of it is to secure peace by the destruction of the resources of the enemy, with as small a loss as possible to my own side, there is no authenticated act of mine which is not perfectly in accordance with approved military usage.  Grant, Sherman, and Stonewall Jackson had about the same ideas that I had on the subject of war.”

Though all his engagements were reported to Stuart till the death of that great cavalry leader, in May, 1864, and afterward to General Robert E. Lee, Mosby was allowed the freedom of untrammeled action in the sense that the operations of his command were left to his individual discretion.

The following militant verses were published in a Southern magazine, soon after the war, and won immediate popularity: 

    Mosby at Hamilton.

    BY MADISON CAWEIN.

    Down Loudoun lanes, with swinging reins
      And clash of spur and sabre,
    And bugling of battle horn,
    Six score and eight we rode at morn
    Six score and eight of Southern born,
      All tried in love and labor.

    Full in the sun at Hamilton,
      We met the South’s invaders;
    Who, over fifteen hundred strong,
    ’Mid blazing homes had marched along
    All night, with Northern shout and song,
      To crush the rebel raiders.

    Down Loudoun lanes with streaming manes
      We spurred in wild March weather;
    And all along our war-scarred way
    The graves of Southern heroes lay,
    Our guide posts to revenge that day,
      As we rode grim together.

    Old tales still tell some miracle
      Of saints in holy writing—­
    But who shall say why hundreds fled
    Before the few that Mosby led,
    Unless the noblest of our dead
      Charged with us then when fighting.

    While Yankee cheers still stunned our ears,
      Of troops at Harper’s Ferry,
    While Sheridan led on his Huns,
    And Richmond rocked to roaring guns,
    We felt the South still had some sons,
      She would not scorn to bury.

Battle of Leesburg[32] ("Ball’s Bluff"[33]).

“After the first battle of Manassas, Col.  Eppa Hunton had been ordered to reoccupy Leesburg with his regiment, the Eighth Virginia.  A little later Col.  William Barksdale’s Thirteenth Mississippi, Col.  W.S.  Featherstone’s Seventeenth Mississippi, a battery, and four companies of cavalry under Col.  W.H.  Jenifer were sent to the same place, and these were organized into the Seventh Brigade of the Confederate Army of the Potomac, which, early in August, was put under command of Brig.-Gen. Nathan G. Evans, who had been promoted for his brave conduct July 21st.  General Beauregard’s object in locating this strong force at Leesburg was to guard his left flank from a Federal attack by way