Sunday morning globe., 1901-08-25
COL. JOHN NOSEBY.
Another Chapter on This Famous
Man.
A CLASSICAL SCHOLAR
And Soldier Of Tho School Of Napoleon
and Ceaar and Ono Of The Greatest Generals
Of Modern Tlmes-HIs Exploits in tho Field
and His Charming PersOnalIU-The Presl-
dent His Admr8r and Firm Friend,

Col. John s. Mosby, who was recent
ly appointed special agent Of the Gen
eral Land Omce--at the request Of
President Mckinley himself, it is said
will be assigned to a Western dis
trict which will include Minnesota and
Nebraska.
Perhaps there was never a better liz
lustration Of the typical young Amer
lean than John S, Mosby was in 1861
when, in his 2Sth year, he enlisted as
a private under Gen Joseph E. John
son. 1t is impossible for anyone who
knows the type and knows Mosby from
mis- record and and mis- writing to mis-
take him. He was full of Byron and
scott Campbell, Shakespeare and the
writer's whose genius perpetuates the
romance of the middle ages to our own
umes-to our lastlug uetriment as
Mark Twain insists, though he has no
great following IN mis- view that If all
SCOTS novels had been burned I'm ten
years after they were written we might
nave got over the nineteenth century
IN America with little or 40 expendi-
,ure Of gunpowder.
Mosby had not been so very long
away from University of Virginia
when the war began. lie was q young
lawyer who had just begun to attempt
practice, but though he had studied
law under the favorable conditions il
retirement which followed a personal
difficulty with a fellow student at the
university, law influences his descrip-
tiOns OF his campaigning much less
than his reading of the English clas-
sizes. He can quote Jomini and julius
Caesar ouhand ON the art Of war. When
he was leading his handful OF paru-
sans in Virginia he had NapOleon's
maXims in mind and he can not at
tempt to make a point Of his own with
out having it suggest an illustration
from Moliere, horace or some other
poet in or out Of the way Of the com
mon reader But it is easy to see that
the substratum for all TINS is the boy ys
reading Of the English romantic poets
and novelst-chieny Of Byron and
Scott
For most Of them were men Of the
type he himself represented type
which Maj. John N. Edwards best il
lustrated in the West Some Of them
were farmers, more or less illiterate,
it is true, but the better part Of them
stepped into the war out of Walter
Scotts novels. One OF them whom
Mosby admired more perhaps, than
the rest, was a theological student who
was about to graduate into a Presby-
teran minister when he reacted into
a medieval knight, and girded on a
flashing sword with Mosby-a sword
which Mosby would not allow him to
use on the ground that it was a mere
medieval plaything This theory Of the
use Of the saber illustrates the blend
ing of the practical and the romantic
whicA made the young partisans IA
nous at a time most men have hardly
made up their minds what to attempt.
He saw that while the blades Of a
column of cavalry looked sublime as
they flashed in the sun they would
not reach the ten feet beyond the
horses ears, which for a revolver bull
let fred by man who knows how to
use the pistol means certainty And
certainty was what he looked for and
almost invariably found. He did not
assume that his own men were supe-
rior to those he had TO meet as armies
except perhaps that they were more
at home on their horses. The horse,
however, was at best an uncertain
quantity, for when Mosby himself had
just entere the cavalry his horse at
tempted the impossible feat Of jump
ing over a COW lying down in the road.
The result was that horse and rider
we're thrown together, and Mosby fall
ing under the horse, was as nearly
killed as he ever was afterwards dur
Ing his four-years seryice-though at
another time when he was leading a
charge his horse took the bit, carried
him alone into the Federal ranks, and
after running through them, kept on
until he was in sight OF another force
coming up to the assistance Of those
who nad been first attacked. Here Mos
by took the only chance he had to es-
cape being killed or captured by throw
ing himself of the runaway animal
wnue he was going at full speed He
not only knew the uncertainty Of the
best horses but the best men, and his
whole system was based on this knowl-
edge. II was as simple as 1t was eff
fectve. When he was surrounded and
outnumbered by the Federal cavalry
which was kept constantly pursuing
him, he relied on a sudden counterat-
tacK which brought him to close quar-
ters with the revolver to confuse them
and 10 open his way out. "The unex-
pected and the navy six" was the logic
Of the successes which so surprised
both his friends and his enemies when
he won them against superior forces
OF the best Federal cavalry, which, as
he himself thinks, would have cap
tured him over and over again II they
had used the same tactics.
Generally however, they relied on
the saber, and often drew up in close
order with their swords drawn TO cut
him on from his only way out--re-