A BIT OF PARTISAN SERVICE.

149

tegton be sent to the front to rehnforce Pleason-ton -when he crossed the Rappahannock to engageStuart in the great cavalry combat of June 9th. J ItWas refused on the ground that it was necessary to. e P it where it was, in order to protect the commu-tation between the army and Washington. Afew^ a ys before that fight we struck the railroad within“Wo miles of this cavalry camp, and captured andburned a train of supplies going up to Pleasonton.,; be 3000 men who came after me could not run anytester than the twenty with me. We vanished liketee children of the mist, and the major-general whoPursued reported that we had been annihilated,■out within less than a week I pulled myself to-Sether again, crossed the Potomac about twelvetedes above Washington, and captured the cavalrytemp near Seneca.

the

recur now to the time when I first arrived in

country which became the theater of thePartisan war which I carried on until the surrendera * Appomattox. As I have said, the line of out-P°sts belon ging to the defenses of Washingtontermed the arc of a circle extending from thea PPer to the lower Potomac. The troops had beenaving an easy, lazy life, which was described inus stereotyped message sent every night to ther'urthern press, “All quiet along the Potomac.”

saw that here was a bountiful harvest to begathered, and that the reapers were few. I gave°°nstant employment to the Union troops, and they®° longer led a life of drowsy indolence. I procureds °Bie guides who knew every path of the country,a ud with the aid of friendly citizens found outv bere every picket was posted. A certain major-general came after me with a division of cavalryail d a battery of artillery. After shelling the woodste every direction so as to be sure of my extermi-nate 11 , and destroying many bats and owls, he tookas prisoners all the old men he could find. Hea d the idea that I was a myth and that these oldurmers were the raiders. One old man appealedu his crutch to show the physical impossibility ofIs being a guerrilla. But the major-general was' 16x; orable. He returned with his prizes to camp,te-1 Was there almost as soon as he was.te tbe month of February, 18G3, Brigadier-Gen-in f H. Stoughton was in command of the troops

j, 1 f r ont of Washington, with his headquarters ata wfa x Court House. There was a considerable°dy also at Centreville, and a cavalry brigade was®temped on the pike leading from that place top, air tex Court House, under command of Colonelercy Wyndham. Stoughton was a West PointJr °®r, and had served with distinction underEn v ln 011 the Peninsula. Wyndham was anj ® Ashman serving as Colonel of the 1st NewCavalry. The year before he had startedp k® Shenandoah Valley to bag Ashby, but thetee'° TInailfie 110 1 come up to the manifesto ; inhow" enC(nm t er Ashby bagged him. He wasa tt ? 1Veri a chance to redeem his reputation. Myan 4 • on bis lines had been incessant and veryHe struck blindly around like the Cyclopsls cave, but nobody was hurt. The methodical

tactics he had learned in European wars were of nomore use to him than a suit of armor of the MiddleAges. My men would dart down on his outpostslike a hawk on its prey; but when Wyndham cameup in solid column the partisans had gone. In hisvexation he sent me word that I was a horse-thief;to which I replied that all the horses I had stolenhad had riders, and the riders had had sabersand pistols.

While operating against the outposts it had beenmy custom to examine my prisoners separately,and in this way I learned all the interior arrange-ments of their camps. I was then meditating abolder enterprise than I had ever undertaken, buthad communicated it to no one. This was to pene-trate the outer lines, and go right up to their head-quarters and carry off the general commandingand Colonel Wyndham. It looked extremelyhazardous to attempt it; but as nothing of thesort ever had been done, I calculated there wouldbe no precaution to prevent it. I was right. WhileI was maturing my plan I received aid from anunexpected source. One day a deserter, namedAmes, tvearing the stripes of a sergeant, came to mefrom a New York cavalry regiment of Wyndham’sbrigade. The Emancipation Proclamation whichhad been put in operation was the reason hegave for deserting the cause of the Union, but Ialways suspected that it was some personal wronghe had suffered. He seemed to be animated by themost vindictive hatred for his former comrades. Ifelt an instinctive confidence in his sincerity whichhe never betrayed. After I had thoroughly testedhis fidelity I made him a lieutenant. He servedwith me until he was killed in October, 1864.

I questioned Ames closely about the location ofthe camps and outposts, aud he confirmed theknowledge I had previously obtained. I deter-mined first to take him on a trial-trip down intoFairfax County . There was a cavalry post at acertain school-house, and I started with Ames oneafternoon to attack it. A deep snow was on theground, and it was raining and sleeting. Abouttwo weeks before, I had captured the same post,but I thought they would not expect me back sosoon. To satisfy my men I did not let Ames carryany arms, for they all were certain that he had beensent to decoy me into a trap. The soldiers in theUnion camps slept soundly that night, for theyfelt sure that nothing but a wild animal would beabroad in such weather. I stopped when I gotnear the place I intended to attack, to make aninquiry of a farmer -who lived near there as to thenumber of men on the post. I called him out ofbed. He came to the door in his night-dress, andthe first thing he asked was, “How many men haveyou?” I said, “Seventeen.” “How many,” Iasked, “ are at the picket-post ? ” “ One hundred,”he answered. “ I have been down there this even-ing. You are certainly not going to attack themwith so few men?” “ Yes,” I replied; “it is sodark they can’t see us, and will think I have got ahundred too.” Contrary to my usual practice, Iwent straight along the road. We got close on the

j At Brandy Station.— Editors.