The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-10-26
CONFEDERATE CAVALRY LIFE.
Col. Mosby Gives a Bit OF His Experience
The Old Gray Horse.


The Old Gray Horse.
While the cavalry did not have an op-
portunity to do much fighting during the
first year of the war, they learned to per-
form the duties and endure the priva-
tions of soldiers life. My experience
in this school was of great advantage to
me in the after years when / became a
commander. There was q thirst for adj
venture among the men in the cavalry,
and positive pleasure to get an oc-
casional shot from a rifieman in
thicket." There were often false alarms,
and sometimes real ones, from scouting
parties of infantry who would come up at
night to surprise our pickets. y vivid inn
agination united with a nervous temper
ament can see in the dark shapes of many
things that have no real existence. A
rabbit making its nocturnal rounds,
COW grazing, hog roofing for acrons, an
owl hooting or the screech of night
hawk could often arouse and sometimes
stampede an outpost, or draw the fire of
whole line of pickets. At the first shot
the reserve would mount and soon the
videttes would come running in at full
speed.
There was an old gray horse roaming
about the fields at Fairfax Court House
during the first winter of the war that
must have been fired at 100 times at night
by our yidette5 and yet was never touched.
/ have never heard whether congress has
voted him a pension. The last time that
1 was ever ON picket was in February,
1862. The snow was deep and hard frozen.
My post was on the outskirts OF Fairfax
Court House, at the junction of the Wash
ington road and turnpike. l wore
woolen hood to keep my ears from freeZ-
ing and n blanket thrown around me rs
protection against the cold wind. The
night was clear and all that's best of dark
and bright. / sat on my horse under the
shadow of a tree, both as n protection
from the piercing blast and as n screen
from the sight of an enemy. had gone
on duty at midnight to remain until day
break The deep silence was occasionally
broken by the cry of Halt" from some
distant sentinel as he challenged the
patrol or relief. The swaying branches
of the trees in the moonlight cast all sorts
of fantastic shapes on the frozen snow.
In this deep solitude l was watching for
danger and communing with the spirit of
the past. At this very spot, few nights
before, the vidette had been fired on by
scouting party of infantry that had come
up from McClellan's camps below. But
the old gray horse had several times got
up a picnic there which raised a laugh on
the soldiers
Now / confess that was about as much
afraid of ridicule as of being shot, and so,
unless l got killed or captured, l resolved
to spend the night there. Horatio Coolies
was not more determined to hold his po-
sition on the bridge of the Tiber than
was to stay at my post, but perhaps his
motives were less mixed than mine.
had been long pondering and remember
ing, and in my reverie had visited the
fields that / had traversed lin LIES
morning march when my bosom was
young" was suddenly aroused by the
crash of footsteps breaking the crust OF
the hard snow. The sound appeared to
proceed from something approaching me
with the measured tread of file OF sol
diers. Ii was screened from my view by
some houses near the roadside. was
sure that it was an enemy creeping up TO
get a shot at me, for / thouht that even
the old horse would not have ventured
out on such n night, unless under orders.
Ny heart began to sicken within me
pretty much as Hector's did when he had
to face the wrath of Achilles My horse
shivering with cold, with the instinct OF
danger, pricked up his ears and listened
as eagerly as / did to the footsteps as they
got near l drew my pistol, cooked it, and
took aim at the corner around which TINS
object must come. I wanted to get the
advantage of the first shot. Just then
the hero of hundred panics appe ared-
the old gray horse. / Eeturned my pistol
to my belt and relapsed into reverie-
was happy, my credit as soldier had
been saved.-Col. John 5. Mosby in New
York Mercury.