Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1879-01-05
CAPITAL CORRESPONDENCE.
Five Hours with Mosby, the Guer'
rilla Chief.
WHY He is A REPUBLICAN. AND WHY He
LOVES GRANT.
The Money In Our state Treasury
Minor Carson Notes.

CARSON CRY, January 8, 1879.
EDITOR SENTINEL: That's the first time
since the beginning Of the new year that l
have written &c." The force of habit is
strong in everybody, and I came very nearly
totting it down u.s." as usual. Life's
approaching sunset, I take it, is never SO
forcibly recalled We never SO fully realize
how old we are as by the going out Of an
old year with its disappointments and the
coming in Of a new one with its hopes that
are destined never to be fulfilled.
On my way down 1 fell in with Colonel
Mcsby, the guerrilla chief who made things
so lively in the rear Of the Union forces,
between Washington and Richmond dur
ing the war. The Colonel has been ap-
pointed Consul at Hongkong by Presi-
dent Hayes, and confirmed by q Republic
can Senate, and is now en- route to his post
OF duty. Your correspondent mustered
courage to approach the celebrated bush
whacker at the Humboldt House, and
from thence to Rem (about five hours) a
running conversation between the two was
kept up. Colonel Mosby was found to be
m agreeable gentleman and fond of rclat-
ing reminiscences Of the war and his con-
nection Herewith. He told me how on
one occasion he surprised and routed 5000
Federal cavalry in the rear of Sheridan's
army with 226 men, capturing 100 wagons,
hden with choice supplies, 1000 good
mules and 500 beef cattle, all of which,
except the wagons, he hurried off to Lees
---~- = k~-k L. .xxn ~ lo.-o I'll 7 -.
army for more that two years by his sue
cessful raids ON Federal supply trains.
His men, he says, were never armed with
anything but reyolvers, and his tactics
were to surprise and charge. He claims to
have either killed or captured every
mothers son Of the California Hun
dred,'' those picked men that went from
this Coast. He says he saw Major Reid,
the commander of the Hundred, shot by
ono Of his Mosby's officers. Tit Major
had been captured, but not disarmed, and
he was indiscreet enough to commence
shooting at his captors, when one of them
turned and killed him. He also related
with apparent relish, incidents connected
with the capture and sacking of numerous
railway trains, and said that on a particu-
lar occasion he nabbed two United States
Paymasters, from whom he got Sl72, 900
in ~greenbacks. This was the biggest haul
in money that he ever made. He got pos
session of the wires at one end of the line,
and telegraphed in the name Of General
Grant for these Paymasters to come on
with the currency for the boys. That's
how he knew they were coming, and how
he came to lay for them and go through
them in the most approved style Of the
guerrilla's art. All and all, his stories are
interesting and entertaining.
Colonel Mosby has the appearance Of
being about Al years Of age; is s~ix-foot,
clean-shaven has iron-8ray hair; is
stooped6houldered; has a restless, blue
eye, q deep-set chin, with determination
depicted about the mouth ; and during the
i've hours that your correspondent en-
gagged him he nervoasly chewed the butt
end of a goose-quill toothpick. He wore a
slouehed hat, and q red fiaunel undershirt,
that cropped out on the wrists below a linen
garment Of ordinary pattern. He has a
shufiing gait his pants seem about four
inches too short for him, and he keeps his
hands perpetually In his pockets. Such in
appearance is one Of the most striking
characters developed by the great war. He
is slow Of speech, not amounting to a
drawl, and seems to be a good deal above
the average in point Of intelligence. He
is o native Of Virginia and o lawyer by
profession. After he had detailed, with
something of enthusiasm, all about how
he had made it particularly lively and in
teresting for the s'Yanks," as he once or
twice called them, during the war, we ven
tured TO ask him how he came to be a Re-
publican, and this is the way he explained:
lie said that he was never . strong believ-
er In the right Of secession, but his
people and State went that way and he got
drawn into it. The doctrine Of secession,
ha continued, was exploded by the war.
The Republicans believed in o strong ceE-
trail government, and their idea Of things
had triumphed in the conflict Of arms.
When, at the conclusion Of the war, he re-
sumed his allegiance to the Government Of
the United States, he did SO with a full
knowledge that States Right heresies were
Of the pas, and that the government Of
the future must be administered in accord
ance with the doctrines and ideas that had
been established by the arbitrament Of the
sword. This, he said, was why he is a Re-
publican, and he urged that he could not
be anything else and be true to his oath OF
allegiance.
We next inquired how it was that he and
Grant became such friends.
"'Well," says the Colonel, "In tell you