The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1894-04-04
Episode of the Civil War.

Mr.. Charles e. Grogan, of the South
ern society, was lieutenant in Mosby's
command during the war. 1t only re-
quires reference to the old guerrilla
chief or to the famous raids in Loudon
county to remind Mr.. Grogan of a story,
and the story is always worth listening
to. A few nights sgo Mr.. Grogan was
asked by one of his friends:
Did Mosby ever take any of the
plumber that was captured in those
raids?"
"No," he replied promptly, che
never took a cent of it. | remember
one occasion when we made a raid on
a railroad train and captured $4,000.
The money was divided among the
men, share and share alike, but Mosbv
did not take cent of it. Perhaps YOU
never heard the story"
Or course no one had ever heard it in
detail before, and Mr.. Grogan, after re-
t1ecting, to recall the incidents. told if
as follows:
" This raid is known throughout the
South as the greenback raid 1t was
near Duffield station on the Baltimore
and Ohio railroad, between Baltimore
and Martinsburg. There were about
sixty-fve of us, with Mosby himself in
command. We took it into our heads
to ditch train, thinking that we
would find one full of Yankees going
to the front. We hadn't the slightest
idea what kind of luck we were going
to have, or what we would encounter.
We selected spot where the rail-
road ran between two steep banks.
There were two tracks there, and we
tore up one of them. / forget which.
Presently train came along on the
other track and passed US. To take no
more chances, we at once tore up the
other track. Then we hid ourselves at
the top of the embankment and waited.
Presently train came alopg-I
think it was moving westward-and we
all got up and watched it. When it
came to the spot where the rails were
torn the engine quietly turned over on
her side and fell against the embank-
ment. The whole thing was over in
few seconds without a bit of noise or
fuss. Nobody was hurt except the
fireman, who was killed, | believe.
The cars all remained standing.
"Our men at once went through the
cars and ordered every body out. There
were great many Immigrants on this
train, and we wanted them to get out of
the cars. We noticed two men who
seemed to be rather anxious about
their baggage. One had tin box and
the other carpet bag. We relieved
the gentlemen of their burden, and to
our great surprise we found the bag
and box full of greenbacks and treas
ury notes. 1t turned out that the two
men were paymasters going to the
front with money for the army.
When we got this money Mosby put
it in my charge and told me to get
across the river with it as fast as /
could. Two men and myself immedi-
ately set out for Loudon county with
the money, and rode hard all night. /
distinctly that one of the
horses slipped and the rider was thrown
10 the ground, scattering the greenbacks
be carried right and left. ! remember.
TOO, that the other man and myself
aughed while he picked up the money,
and teased him.
1.-The next morning Mosby and the
others caught up with us, and we all
stopped under a tree to divide the
money. The money, believe, amounted
% about $4,000. We weren't very
about it, because we didn't
Know whether it was good for ANYTHING
,r not The treasury notes were fresh
rom the mint, and some of them bore
coupons. The men called it money with
ails to it. Mosby insisted on the
money being divided equally among the
men, but he did not take cent.-Neo
York Sun.