erous fire.

_The Loudoun Rangers_ (_Federal_).

This volunteer organization consisted of two companies of disaffected
Virginians, all of whom were recruited in the German settlements
northwest of Leesburg. Company A, at the outset, was commanded by
Captain Daniel M. Keyes, of Lovettsville, who later resigned on
account of wounds received in action. He was succeeded by Captain
Samuel C. Means, of Waterford. Company B's commander was Captain James
W. Grubb. The total enlistment of each company was 120 and 67,
respectively. All the officers and privates were of either German,
Quaker, or Scotch-Irish lineage, the first-named class predominating.

The command was mustered into the Federal service at Lovettsville, the
20th day of June, 1862. Its historian, Briscoe Goodhart, a member of
Company A, in his _History of the Loudoun_ (Virginia) _Rangers_, has
said that it "was an independent command, organized in obedience to a
special order of the Honorable Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, and
was at first subject to his orders only, but subsequently merged into
the Eighth Corps, commanded at that time by the venerable Major
General John Ellis Wool...."

The "Rangers," as the name implies, were scouts and, in this highly
useful capacity, served the enemies of their State with shameless
ardor. But, as a body, they fought few engagements and none of a
decisive nature. Their first and, perhaps, sharpest encounter happened
in and around the old Baptist Church at Waterford.

The following absolution or justification is offered in the preface to
the above-quoted work:

"As the name of their organization indicates, they came from
a State which was arrayed in arms against the authority of
the National Government. No Governor, or Senator, or Member
of Congress guarded their interests; nor was any State or
local bounty held forth to them as an allurement. Their
enlistment in the Union Army--their country's army--was the
spontaneous outgrowth of a spirit of lofty patriotism.

"As they saw their duty they were not lacking in moral
courage to perform that duty; and with no lapse of years
shall we ever fail to insist that the principles for which
the Rangers contended were eternally right, and that their
opponents were eternally wrong."

Far from being a well-ordered command with a clearly defined _modus
operandi_, the two companies were poorly drilled, imperfectly
acc