Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1894-04-28
EPISODE OF THE CIVIL WAR.


MOsby's "Greenback Raid" with Its
Unexpected Capture of Currency.
Mr.. Charles T.. Grogan, Of the South
ern Society, was a lieutenant in Mos
by's command during the war. 1t only
requires a reference to the old guer'
rilla chief or to the famous raids III
Louudon county to remind Mr.. Gro
gan of Il story, and the story is always
worth listening to. A few nights ago
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. I'll" never
took Il cent of il. | remember one "c'
casion when we made Il raid on rail
road train and captured SlWo'
The mnury was divided among I'll"
men. share and share alike. but M".hy
did non take Il cent of 1t. Perhaps you
never heard of the story.
OF course no one had ever heard ii i'll
detail before. and Mr. Grogln. after
rejecting To recall the inc dents. told
il as follows:
This raid is known throughout The
South rs the 'grccnback raid 1t WAS
near Duttirll station on the Baltimore
siXty-tive Of lis. with Moshy himself in
command. We took it into our heads
to ditch II train. thinking chat we'd
find one fun of Yankees going t" the
front. We hadn't The slightest idea
what kind of luck we were going Il"
have .r what we would encounter.
Wy" selected IL spot where tn" rail
road ran between too steep banks
There were two tracks there and we
tore up one of them, | forgct which.
Presently Il train came along on the
other track and passed lis To take no
more chances We at one" tore up the
other track. Then we hid ourselves
at the top of the cmbHnkmcnt and
waited
'rrr>rntly Il train cam" alon--l
think ii was moving ward-and
we all got up and watched it. When
il came to the spot where the rails
w,r" torn the engine quietly turned
over on her side and fell against the
entertainment. The whole thing was
over in Il few seconds without Il bit
of no So or fuss. Nobody was hurt "X
c"pt the fireman. who was killed. ]
believe. The cars all remained stand
ing.
oar men at once went through the
ears and ordered everybody out. There
were Il great many immigrants on the
train. and we had Il hard time explain
Ing to them that we wanted hem To
get out of the cars. We noticed two
men who seemed to be rather anxious
about their baggage. one had Il tin
box and the other Il carpr; bag. We
rel wed the gentlemen of their burden
ard to our great surprise we found the
bag and the box full of grrrnblckS
and treasury notes. 1t turned out that
the wo men We're paymaStri'S going
I" The front with money for the army.
when we got this money. MoSby
pat il in my charge and told me To get
across the river with il as fast as |
could Two men and myself inmcdi-
u ely sci out for Ioudon county with
1.-THE money. and rode hard all night
remember dist nelly that one of the
horses slipped and the rider was
thrown t" the ground. scattering the
"rrrnbick$ h" carried right and left
| remember. too. hat the other man
and myself laughed while he picked
M the money. and leased him
'Thr next morning MoShy and the
G,.."rS caught up with us. and we all
stopped under Il tree Ia divide the
money. The money. believe amount
ed to alb llIt S1In.Wm We weren't very
"ntluS AZ ic about it. because we di,ln',
Know whether it was good fnr any
'hlrG II not. The treasury nt>IrI WriI
fresh from the mint. and some of them
Dor" coupons. The men called il money
with tails to il. MoShy insisted ON the
money being divided equally among
III" men. but he did not take a ccut.
Il do not remember how mluy p"'S
0nrr> we took. One of our men. j
Monroe IiuSkrll. gave fifty dollars of
h : money to Il major whom we had
captured. som" over Jealous guerrilla
had relieved the ma ior of his over
coat. his pocket book and his small
change"