se for farm work, or some needed harness, or food and blankets
for their families. The regular Mosby Men called them the
"Conglomerates," and Mosby himself once said that they resembled the
Democrat party, being "held together only by the cohesive power of
public plunder."

Mosby's first operation with his new force was in the pattern of the
other two--the stealthy dismounted approach and sudden surprise of an
isolated picket post. He brought back eleven prisoners and twelve
horses and sets of small arms, and, as on the night of the 10th, left
one wounded enemy behind. As on the previous occasions, the prisoners
were taken as far as Middleburg before being released on parole.

For this reason, Mosby was sure that Colonel Sir Percy Wyndham,
commander of the brigade which included the Fifth New York, Eighteenth
Pennsylvania and the First Vermont, would assume that this village was
the raiders' headquarters. Colonel Wyndham, a European-trained
soldier, would scarcely conceive of any military force, however small,
without a regular headquarters and a fixed camp. Therefore, Wyndham
would come looking for him at Middleburg. So, with a companion named
Fountain Beattie, Mosby put up for what remained of the night at the
home of a Mr. Lorman Chancellor, on the road from Aldie a few miles
east of Middleburg. The rest of the company were ordered to stay
outside Middleburg.

Mosby's estimate of his opponent was uncannily accurate. The next
morning, about daybreak, he and Beattie were wakened by one of the
Chancellor servants and warned that a large body of Union cavalry was
approaching up the road from Aldie. Peering through the window
shutters, they watched about 200 men of the Fifth New York ride by,
with Colonel Wyndham himself in the lead. As soon as they were out of
sight up the road, Mosby and Beattie, who had hastily dressed, dashed
downstairs for their horses.

"I'm going to keep an eye on these people," Mosby told Beattie.
"Gather up as many men as you can, and meet me in about half an hour
on the hill above Middleburg. But hurry! I'd rather have five men now
than a hundred by noon."

When Beattie with six men rejoined Mosby, he found the latter sitting
on a stump, munching an apple and watching the enemy through his field
glasses. Wyndham, who had been searching Middleburg for "Mosby's
headquarters," was just forming his men for a push on to Upperville,
where he had been assured by the canny Middleburgers that Mosby