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. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ... MOSBY'S MEN CHAPTER I A GENERAL VIEW OF MOSBY'S MEN My friend and comrade, Joseph Bryan, of Company D, now of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, used to say that he never indulged in war reminiscences except to auditors who had themselves had experiences, because he feared that his reputation for veracity would not stand the strain. If he, who is recognized as the very soul of truth, albeit he is vested with the liberty which is accorded to newspaper men, should feel such sensitiveness, I may well hesitate to commit myself to posterity in the following pages. The grounds of my apprehensions are, that actions which were natural and mere matters of course under conditions which then prevailed, would be impossible now; and, viewed from the standpoint of these "piping times of peace," they seem fantastic and incredible. It is hard to get the right perspective on them, and make due allowance for difference in times and circumstances. The great poet advised-- "If you would view fair Melrose right, Go view it by the pale moon's light." And so, there is a certain light--sentimental, artificial, if you choose--with which either narrator or hearer must invest these scenes of long ago if one would see the deeds and the actors just as they were. To those of us whose experiences cover that period memory brings back "the tender grace of the days that are dead." We must trust those of the rising generation to imagine that atmosphere of romance and chivalry which then pervaded the land, and in which only were possible the deeds which I shall attempt to recount. The part which Mosby and his men played in the great war between the States was interesting, striking, and in many respects picturesque. Of the brilliancy and value of their achievements I leave the...