The Project Gutenberg EBook of Rebel Raider, by H. Beam Piper

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Title: Rebel Raider

Author: H. Beam Piper

Release Date: September 6, 2006 [EBook #19194]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from "True: The Man's Magazine," December
1950. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed.

Rebel Raider

by H. Beam Piper

* * * * *

It was almost midnight, on January 2, 1863, and the impromptu party at
the Ratcliffe home was breaking up. The guest of honor, General J. E.
B. Stuart, felt that he was overstaying his welcome--not at the
Ratcliffe home, where everybody was soundly Confederate, but in
Fairfax County, then occupied by the Union Army.

About a week before, he had come raiding up from Culpepper with a
strong force of cavalry, to spend a merry Christmas in northern
Virginia and give the enemy a busy if somewhat less than happy New
Year's. He had shot up outposts, run off horses from remount stations,
plundered supply depots, burned stores of forage; now, before
returning to the main Confederate Army, he had paused to visit his
friend Laura Ratcliffe. And, of course, there had been a party. There
was always a party when Jeb Stuart was in any one place long enough to
organize one.

They were all crowding into the hallway--the officers of Stuart's
staff, receiving their hats and cloaks from the servants and buckling
on their weapons; the young ladies, their gay dresses showing only the
first traces of wartime shabbiness; the matrons who chaperoned them;
Stuart himself, the center of attention, with his hostess on his arm.

"It's a shame you can't stay longer, General," Laura Ratcliffe was
saying. "It's hard on us, living in conquered territory, under enemy
rule."

"Well, I won't desert you entirely, Miss Ratcliffe," Stu