The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-17

We were too few for close fighting ant craftsmanship and horsemanshp wert everything in the band. During all the time that 1 rode with Mosby there never was more than 100 of his men together al any one time that I know of
 That was Mosbys way.
 'I cast my fortunes with Mosby in 1862. when I was about b years old I did so because he was townsman of mine, both claiming BrlstolGoodson as our home Bristol in Tennessee and Goodson in Virginia. We were from the Virginia part of the hiphernated town. When I went with the band l was mustered into John E. Owens squad.
 70 yes. l was i'll more bridge burning. track tearing and wagon raids with Mosoy than I care to mention I was with him in the raid on the Pennsylvania railroad
 in West Virginia, which fig familiar to those who have studied the history of the civil war. It was a fierce and lawless kind of fighting. We were not a part of the regular Confederate army and we were bound by no general orders that affected them: neither were we to be ac- corded the benefits of the laws Of War if captured But few of Mosbys men were ever captured
 We never knew where we rode to, or why, or where we should go next It was not MOSDN 5 way to let uS klloN. The old veteran paused refiectively then he added: T would be glad to see the old leader again It was an exciting 13 months l served under him and 4shoaid have continued to ride with him to the end
 of the war, or captured, or killed, had
 been able to ride
 John s. Mosby,' the veteran continued, was one of the most intrepid. cool and calculating men that I ever met, and say this after an experience of dealing with men politically, socially and in a business way for the past 50 years. He was a man who never, to my l knowledge, told anyone what he intended l to do next; he would, when the time come, ! outline what he intended and then give 1 his orders.
 1 T saw Mosby at the head Of 0 of his raiders make daring charge on the en- l tire wagon train and escort of Genera l Banks, and go about his plans for It as
 coolly as If it were pasttme. l vas 1T | that dash. and his only orders on thai 1 morning before we set out to intercept l the train was: Boys. saddle up. lli'
 next order was, Forward, march! Gna we came in sight of the moving wagof l train and escort of full regiment. there came no word from him. Then his nex order was, 'Charge,' and within five min
 utes we were in the thick of the hottes l
 As students of civil war history know 1 this was just before the battle of Win chester, and the forced march and figh l of Stonewall Jackson.
 Those who were with Mosby in Una
 raid will certainly remember him as on I of the most valiant cavalry leaders of tn Confederate partisans. Tn my opinioi Mosby had but one equal and that wa
 that other superb cavalry leader, Genera | Ashby.'
 Joined Alabama Regiment When Thompson's days of usefulness a
 cavalryman were over he dared not g back to his native town, since that was Il | the hands of the federal forces, so he wen 1 to Alabama and enlisted in the Sixtietl Alabama regiment: he served with thi | regiment fin all of the fierce fighting l saw. until the final collapse of the Con federate cause in the surrender to Gran
 at Appomattox Court House. It was dur ing this service with the Alabama regi
 ment that things began coming his wa,
 in the line of proIectiles and missiles iron the enemy. From that time until the sur render of Lee at Appomattox, Thompson
 body stopped some of them. His first wa. bullet wound in the body when he was at Laurelville. Va; the second at the bat
 tie of Hatcher's Run; third at chicka
 mauga, and the fourth at Petersburg, Va
 It is the wound that he received ai chickamauga that Colonel Thompson con templates with the least satisfaction, for that came very near proving one in the back.
 That wound always did embarrass me
 to think of said the colonel. "One req son was that got it where had no idea that the Tank on the other side. who ] had been trying hard to pick off. even suspected where I was. We had come with T,oncstreet's corps from Virginia Id the relief of the hard pressed forces ir