ccount of the sleep I made them lose than the
number we killed and captured."

* * * * *

"My purpose was to weaken the armies invading Virginia, by
harassing their rear. As a line is only as strong as its
weakest point, it was necessary for it to be stronger than I
was at every point, in order to resist my attacks.... It is
just as legitimate to fight an enemy in the rear as in
front. The only difference is in the danger. Now, to prevent
all these things from being done, heavy detachments must be
made to guard against them."

* * * * *

"The line that connects an army with its base of supplies is
the heel of Achilles--its most vital and vulnerable point.
It is a great achievement in war to compel an enemy to make
heavy detachments to guard it...."

* * * * *

"Having no fixed lines to guard or defined territory to
hold, it was always my policy to elude the enemy when they
came in search of me, and carry the war into their own
camps."

* * * * *

"These operations were erratic simply in not being in
accordance with the fixed rules taught by the academies; but
in all that I did there was a unity of purpose, and a plan
which my commanding general understood and approved."

* * * * *

" ... while I conducted war on the theory that the end of it
is to secure peace by the destruction of the resources of
the enemy, with as small a loss as possible to my own side,
there is no authenticated act of mine which is not perfectly
in accordance with approved military usage. Grant, Sherman,
and Stonewall Jackson had about the same ideas that I had on
the subject of war."

Though all his engagements were reported to Stuart till the death of
that great cavalry leader, in May, 1864, and afterward to General
Robert E. Lee, Mosby was allowed the freedom of untrammeled action in
the sense that the operations of his command were left to his
individual discretion.

The following militant verses were published in a Southern magazine,
soon after the war, and won immediate popularity:

_Mosby at Hamilton._

BY MADISON CAWEIN.

Down Loudoun lanes, with swinging reins
And clash of spur and sabre,
And bugling of ba