The National tribune., 1908-03-19

his clothes. N.Y. motive In deceivins
him in regard to the amount Of my
force was to deprive him Of all hope
Of rescue. was in a most critical sit.
luation, for in addition to several thou
sand troops in the surrounding camp:
a considerable number were quartere6
in the houses in the village"
This exploit gave Mosby much pres
tige in the Army of Northern Virginia
and enabled him thenceforward to pur.
sue his career as a partisan" The de
serter Ames was, made a Lieutenant
and served with Mosby until he wa:
killed in the latter part of 1864.
stonennn's Raid.
The fight at Kelly's Ford had giver
our cavalry great confidence in them
selves. when they could meet the Con.
federate horsemen on anything like
equal terms. Among Hooker's plans
was the one of consolidating all his
cavalry and sending it against Lees
rear and his line of communications
He had now faith to believe that his
| own men so maSSed could overcome
Stuarts celebrated troops, who, so far
in the war. had been having everything
their own way. Unfortunately, the man
whom he selected to head his cavalry
was by no means the equal of ]. e. b
| Stuart. Gen. Stoneman was one of the
|
reputation at the beginning of the war
who failed utterly 70 justify the SAN
| guine expectations entertained of him
He had been commanding a division and
| the Third Corps without attracting any
particular attention by his achievements,
when he was put in command of the
| Cavalry Corps. This seemed to be one
for which he was well fitted, and he did
conspicuously well in the way he went
about organizing it for service. I'm
fortunately Gen. George B. Stoneman,
Ike William b. Franklin, was never to
achieve any decided success, no matter
what means and opportunities were Civ
en- him. Hooker said that he gave
Stoneman 1900 cavalry, and all that
was necessary was fair field and a
competent soldier to sweep around
Lees flank directly into Richmond,
overcoming all the possible opposition
that the Confederate cavalry could Of
fer. On April 12 Hooker issued the fol-
lowing explicit, terse and generally ad-
mirable order to StOneman, which
would have stimulated better man
into the highest activity:
Headquarters Army of the Potomac,
april ~. 1863.
Maj George Stoneman, Com
manding Cavalry.
General: / am directed by the Ma
jor-General commanding to inform you
that you will march at a. m. on the
18th inst. with all your available force
except one brigade, for the purpose of
turning the enemy's position on his
left, and of throwing your command
between him and Richmond and isolat-
ing him from his supplies, checking his
retreat and inflicting upon him every
possible injury which will tend to his
discomfort and defeat. To accomplish
this the General suggests that you as
cend the Rappahannock by the differ
ent routes, keeping well out of the view
of the enemy and throwing out well
to the front and flank small parties to
mask your movement and to cut off
all communications with the enemy by
the people, in their interests. living on
this side of the river. To divert sus-
picion 1t may not be amiss to have
word given out that you are in pursuit
of CIV. Ed Jones'S guerrillas, as they
are operating extensively in the Shen-
andoah Valley. in the direction of VIM
chester. ''''p1' 2af .---. .. .a
I'VE further suggest that you select
for your place of crossing the Kappa
hammock some point to the west Of the
Orange & Alexandria Railroad, which
can only be determined by the circum
stances as they are found on the ar
rival of your advance. In the vicinity
of Cuipeper you will be likely to come
against Fitzhugh Lees Brigade of Cav
airy, consisting of about 1000 men,
which it is expected that you will be
able to disperse and destroy without
delay to your advance or detriment to
any considerable number of your COM
mand.
"At Gordonsville the enemy has a
small provost guard of infantry, which
it is expected you will destroy. if it can
be done without delaying your forward
movement. From there it is expected
that you will be able to push forward
to the Aqua & Richmond Railroad,
somewhere in the vicinity of Saxton's
Junction, destroying along your whole
route the railroad bridges, trains, cars,
depots of provisions. lines of telegraphic
communications, etc. The General di-
reefs that you go prepared with all the
means necessary to accomplish this
work effectually. AS the line OF the
railroad from Aqua to Richmond pre-
sents the shortest one for the enemy
to retire on, 1t is more than probable
that the enemy may avail himself of
it and the usually travelled highways on
each side of it for this purpose, in which
event you will select the strongest po-
sitions, such as the banks of streams.
commanding nights, etc, in order to
check or prevent it, and, if unsuccess-
full, ySu will fall upon his TANKS, attack
delay him until he is exhausted and
out of supplies. Moments of delay will
be hours and days to the army in pur-
suit If the enemy should retire by
Culpeper and GordOnsville you will en-
deavor to hold your force in his front,
and harass him day and night on the
march and in camp increasingly. LEI
you cannot cut off from his columns
large slices, the General desires that
tvnt will To ia Gpp
Let your watchword be fight, and let
all your orders be fight, fight, fight,
to the General as the rebel carcasses.
1t is not in the power of the rebels to
oppose you with more than 5000 sabers,
and those badly mounted, and, after
they leave Culpeper. without forage or
rations, keep them from Richmond, and
sooner or later they must fall in our
hands.
"The General desires you to under
object of your movement the cutting of
by the Fredericksburg route, checking
his retreat over those lines. and he
wishes to make everything subservient
to that object he desires that you
keep yourself Informed of the enemy's
whereabouts and attack him wherever
you find him. If. in your operations. an
opportunity should present itself for
YOU to detach a force to Charlottesville.
which is almost ufiguarded, and destroy
the depot of supplies said to be there.
or along eiAquia Railroad in the di-
rection of Richmond, to destroy the
bridpeS on l. or the crossing of the