al genius. "They would
scatter for safety, and gather at my call like the Children of the
Mist," was what he wrote in after years. Of all his methods this has
been the least clearly understood. The explanation that he has offered
in his _War Reminiscences_ can be only partially complete; for he
could not, with propriety, point to his personal magnetism and daring
as the dominant influences, though he must have known that to an
extraordinary extent they were responsible for this almost
unparalleled devotion. "The true secret," he says, "was that it was a
fascinating life, and its attractions far more than counterbalanced
its hardships and dangers. They had no camp duty to do, which, however
necessary, is disgusting to soldiers of high spirit. To put them to
such routine work is pretty much like hitching a race horse to a
plow."

[Footnote 31: In alluding to the famous "greenback raid" (October 14,
1864), in which a party of Rangers entered a train of the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad, near Kearneysville, capturing, among other
officers, Majors Moore and Ruggles, Federal paymasters, with their
funds, Lieutenant Grogan, of the Rangers, has said that the command,
the next day, "met at Bloomfield, in Loudoun County, and examined into
the condition of our sub-U.S. Treasury, and finding there a net
surplus of $168,000, the same was divided among our stockholders
($2,000 each) and circulated so freely in Loudoun that never
afterwards was there a pie or blooded horse sold in that section for
Confederate money."]

Many of his followers were recruited in Loudoun County. A few before
the advent of Mosby had pursued peaceable vocations; but the command
consisted in the main of men who had seen active service in the
cavalry and infantry regiments, but tiring of the routine and
discipline of the camp had returned to their homes in Loudoun and
adjoining counties. At times he had with him dauntless spirits who had
been incapacitated for infantry duty by reason of wounds received in
action, some of these carrying crutches along with them tied to their
saddle bows. At another time he enrolled several experienced fighters
who had been absent from their regiments without leave ever since the
first battle of Bull Run--a period of nearly two years.

With this promiscuous following, which at no time exceeded one hundred
men, he instituted a long unbroken series of successful strategems,
surprises, and night attacks, harassing the communicati