Centreville, Aug. 12, '63.
I am very sorry that the conscription is being made such a
farce — somebody must be neglecting his duty shamefully.
I agree with you that we are likely to get more aid from
blacks than from conscripts, — States seem to me likely to fall short of their
quotas, even when the second class is reached. Might not an impulse be given to
recruiting contrabands in territory still recognized as rebel by enlisting State
enterprise? For example, let Massachusetts organize a skeleton Brigade (as
in case of Colonel Wilde), and for every two thousand men obtained
receive credit for one thousand on her quota and take the $300 per man
(or any less sum the Government would allow) to pay expenses of getting the two
men. I know there are grave objections to such a scheme, but I believe the work
of recruiting would go on with far more success.
I feel all that you say about “inglorious warfare,” but it
is “all in the day's work,” Mr. Forbes, — and has to be done. You must not
exaggerate the danger. Mosby is more keen to plunder than to murder, — he
always runs when he can.1 As to insignia of rank, I never encourage
my officers to wear any conspicuously, nor do I think most of them are
distinguishable at 100 yards. I have my private feeling about the matter, — and
if I am to be shot from behind a fence would still rather be in uniform than
out of it. I never express this feeling to my officers, however, Mr. Forbes.
_______________
1 A letter of General Lee to General Stuart shows
that, before the “Partisan Rangers” had been four months at work, the military
advantages to the Confederacy of their keeping a large force around Washington already
began to be outweighed by the obvious evils which must result where discipline
was lax, and the soldier kept what horses, clothing, arms, and valuables he
took. General Lee, writing on August 18, 1863, observes that Mosby seems to
have a large number of men, yet to strike with very few; and “his attention
seems more directed to the capture of sutlers' wagons, etc., than to the injury
of the enemy's communications and outposts. The capture and destruction of
wagon-trains is advantageous, but the supply of the Federal Army is carried on
by the railroad. . . . I do not know the
cause for undertaking his expeditions with so few men, whether it is from
policy, or the difficulty of collecting them. I have heard of his men, among
them officers, being in rear of this army, selling captured goods, sutlers'
stores, etc. This had better be attended to by others. It has also been
reported to me that many deserters from the army had joined him. . . . If this is true, I am sure it must be
without the knowledge of Major Mosby.” {Rebellion Record.)
The official correspondence of General King with
headquarters at Washington, and Colonel Lowell's reports, always brief,
business-like and conservative, show that August was an active month. Besides
Mosby's plundering incursions and picket attacks, he had a new guerrilla foe to
deal with in White, as appears in the following extracts from official sources:
—
Centreville, Aug. 1, 1863.
Col.
J. H. Taylor, Chief Of Staff, Washington, — Colonel Lowell goes to
Washington to-day to report, as ordered. He returned from an expedition last
night, bringing in about twenty horses captured from Mosby, and all the
prisoners taken by Mosby at Fairfax. The gang scattered in all directions, and
thus eluded pursuit.
Rufus King, Brigadier-General.
Mosby reports to General Stuart that, on August 11, he
captured nineteen wagons, with teams and many stores; also twenty-five
prisoners.
On August 12, Colonel Lowell reported to Washington the
recent capture of sutlers' trains by Mosby's and White's men, and that he had
sent out parties to look for them, and adds:
“I sent in 61 horses on Monday and 55
more to-day, most of them United States horses, some captured, some collected
to the northwest of here, and some near Maple Valley.”
August 15. Colonel Lowell advised from Washington to try to
find and attack White near Dranesville.
August 20. Colonel Lowell reports his search for guerrillas,
lasting two or three days, following up all traces — “could not get a fight out
of White” — picked up ten prisoners. Reports that White is seldom with his
battalion (about two hundred and fifty strong), but passes about the country
with a strong escort. “White is looking up recruits and deserters. He has now
six companies, with over 700 men on his rolls, and prisoners say that he
expects to take that number with him when he leaves the country.”
August 25. General King reports to Washington that one
hundred rebel cavalry attacked a party of the Thirteenth N. Y. Cavalry [this
was a part of Colonel Lowell's brigade] and ran off one hundred horses.
August 30. General King reports that a party of infantry and
cavalry, sent out to Dranesville, found few guerrillas, but learned that White
was at Broad Run enforcing the conscription, and that Mosby had been recently
wounded and carried beyond the mountains.
September 3. General Humphreys writes to Colonel Lowell,
commanding at Centreville, as to White's movements, and adds, “A Richmond paper of 1st Sept.
states that Mosby received two serious wounds in the fight near Fairfax Court
House, and has been taken to his father's residence near Amherst.”
SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of
Charles Russell Lowell, p. 295-6, 439-42
