Scouting for Jeb Stuart was not the easiest work in the world, nor the
safest, but Mosby appears to have enjoyed it, and certainly made good
at it. It was he who scouted the route for Stuart's celebrated "Ride
Around MacClellan" in June, 1862, an exploit which brought his name to
the favorable attention of General Lee. By this time, still without
commission, he was accepted at Stuart's headquarters as a sort of
courtesy officer, and generally addressed as "Captain" Mosby. Stuart
made several efforts to get him commissioned, but War Department red
tape seems to have blocked all of them. By this time, too, Mosby had
become convinced of the utter worthlessness of the saber as a
cavalryman's weapon, and for his own armament adopted a pair of Colts.

The revolver of the Civil War was, of course, a percussion-cap weapon.
Even with the powder and bullet contained in a combustible paper
cartridge, loading such an arm was a slow process: each bullet had to
be forced in the front of the chamber on top of its propellant charge
by means of a hinged rammer under the barrel, and a tiny copper cap
had to be placed on each nipple. It was nothing to attempt on a
prancing horse. The Union cavalryman was armed with a single-shot
carbine--the seven-shot Spencer repeater was not to make its
battlefield appearance until late in 1863--and one revolver, giving
him a total of seven shots without reloading. With a pair of
six-shooters, Mosby had a five-shot advantage over any opponent he was
likely to encounter. As he saw it, tactical strength lay in the number
of shots which could be delivered without reloading, rather than in
the number of men firing them. Once he reached a position of
independent command, he was to adhere consistently to this principle.

On July 14, 1862, General John Pope, who had taken over a newly
created Union Army made up of the commands of McDowell, Banks and
Fremont, issued a bombastic and tactless order to his new command,
making invidious comparisons between the armies in the west and those
in the east. He said, "I hear constantly of 'taking strong positions
and holding them,' of 'lines of retreat,' and of 'bases of supplies.'
Let us discard all such ideas. Let us study the probable lines of
retreat of our opponents, and leave our own to take care of
themselves."

That intrigued Mosby. If General Pope wasn't going to take care of his
own rear, somebody ought to do it for him, and who better than John
Mosby? He w