Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-05-14
Gen. Ashby
Will O Wsp
Of Civil War
Troops thought He
Was Several Men
BY DAMON RUNYON

BY DAMON RUNYON
7 OS ANGELES, May IA
IL Colonel Mosby never used
more than Is or so men and
sometimes as few as 20 in the
style of fighting at which he
was master in the Civil War
and which has been introduced
in this war by the British with
their Commands.
1t was because OF the small
detachments that the great Con-
federate partisan ranger" could
appear and disappear with star
ting suddenness on his forays.
disbanding his men when cap
ture threatened and letting them
fairly melt into the landscape
one by one.
The only difference between
Mosby's technique and that of
the Commands is that the lat
ter have airplanes TO carry
them on their daring expedi-
tionS.
Mosby'S men were all fine
horSemen of amazing endurance.
The UnioniStS alleged that the
irregulars OF the Louisiana law
yer's command sometimes COM
mitted acts not countenanced
by the rules of warfare, but then
the Confederates made similar
charges against some of the
Union troops.
Elusive as Mosby and his men
were, the real will o. the wisp
OF the Confederate irregulars
was Turner Ashby. a handsome
man who always rode a white
horse that could jump bitches
and fences like a steeplechaser
and who came to be regarded
by the Union soldiers as
wholly mythical figure.
They would not believe that
such a man existed because he
struck at so many different
places in a short period of time
that the Northerners decided
the exploits must be the work
Of several bodies of troops.
SHBY got commission at
"A the outbreak of the war as
captain of a band of rangers
but was rapidly promoted. He
was a brigadier general when he
was killed at Harrisonburg
while leading his men-in cav
airy engagement during Stone
wall Jackson's valley campaign.
He died crying:
Charge, men. For Gods sake,
charger
Ashby and his men moved
like the wind. He would smash
wagon train in one spot at
daybreak and belt a Union camp
30 miles away at nightfall. He
was once captured by the First
Michigan Cavalry but escaped
by. wheeling his horse suddenly
and jumping it over a high fence.
John Hunt Morgan. who was
also a general of the Confed-
crate army when he was killed
near Greeneville, Tenn, in 1864,
was a partisan ranger leader
whose methods were different
from those of Mosby. His COM
mand was always on a per-
manent basis and eventually
developed beyond mere rangers
into trained cavalry.
LIE WAS born in Alabama but
H was raised in Lexington,
Kentucky. where stands an
equestrian statute to his MEM
DRY. He was veteran of the
Mexican War and at the out
break of the Civil War was one
Of the first to raise a company
of horsemen and offer his serv-
ices TO the Confederacy. He
picked his men for horsemanship
and daring.
Morgan's command would ride
until their mounts became eX-
hausted. then they would remove
the saddles and brides and keep
going afoot until they picked up
fresh steeds at wayside farms.
They generally pitched into the
Union camps at night and by
dawn were we'll on their way
back to their own lines laden
with booty and prisoners.
ONE of Morgan's greatest ex-
" PLOTS was his raid in force
into Indiana and Ohio, which had
terrific political repercussions in
the North. He struck terror to
the Middle West and wreaked
considerable damage but the pur-
suing Union cavalry finally
caught up with him at Portland,
near Burlington Island, after he
had galloped through the out
skirts of Cincinnati. He lost 600
men in battle and as many more
surrendered.
Morgan gave up 10 General
Shackelford a few days later
near New Lisbon. Ohio. He was
imprisoned in the penitentiary
at Columbus and escaped a few
months later. rejoining the Con-
federate army. He was shot TO