Confederate guerilla leader John Singleton Mosby had always encouraged his Rangers to strike first and “get the initiative” on their enemies, using the element of surprise to quickly and violently subdue small numbers of enemies. However, in September 1864, Union scouts copied Mosby’s Rangers’ tactics and did the same to Confederates.
Early one morning, 16 Union Jesse Scouts, dressed in butternut colored clothing to resemble Confederate cavalry, led a group of scouts under Captain Richard Blazer near the Virginia-West Virginia border. The scouts found the tracks of dozens of cavalrymen in the muddy ground. They were being pursued by a band of Rangers that nearly doubled their Union numbers.
Blazer’s scouts followed about 150 to 200 Rangers as they rode up winding roads on the mountainside and fed their horses in pastures. After a slow, careful ride of two miles, the cavalry halted at the bottom of a hill and “sat a moment and listened.” They heard voices through the trees. Blazer ordered one of his men to dismount and sneak up on the Confederates. Armed with Spencer rifles, the scouts intended to rain shots on the unsuspecting Confederates, but instead spotted two men drinking applejack near a still.
Blazer’s men captured two drunken men and possibly Applejack, accusing them of being part of Mosby’s band. The surprised men denied the allegations and promised to cooperate with the search if they were not harmed. Blazer gave the Southerners the opportunity to lead them to the Rangers, “riding slowly and carefully on his horse so as not to fall into the trap of the young men.”
The Confederate soldiers rode two abreast along a narrow trail along the east side of the Shenandoah River. The country road led to a large farm clearing where Rangers A and B, under the command of Lieutenant Joseph N. Nelson, unknowingly dozed off while their horses lazily grazed. Confederate Ranger James Williamson recalled their surprise: “It never occurred to us that the enemy was on our side of the river. We thought the only danger was beyond the ford where I was stationed.”
The sound of Colt rifles and the neighing of horses signaled the start of the battle. Blazer’s men emerged like vengeful ghosts from the woods behind the encamped Confederates, and the rangers scrambled to their horses. Within seconds, the Confederates had found a way to “line up in four abreast.”
“They’re packed together like fleas,” Sergeant Asbe Montgomery yelled to Blazer as the scouts charged into the fray. Blazer turned and saw his sprinting men getting caught up in the maelstrom. And Montgomery yelled, “Come on, boys, charge and make a move.”
Scouting Party, Edwin Forbes, 1862, Library of Congress
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Union scouts spurred their horses and yelled frantically, firing their pistols and seven-shot Spencer rifles at the Rangers. Montgomery yelled, “You scoundrels! I’ll give you something else to do besides attack ambulances and wagon trains.”
Nelson tried to rally his men, initially driving back some of Blaser’s scouts, and the two forces united, with horses and armored men firing at each other at close range.
Confederate Emory Pitts found one of his scouts with a pistol aimed at his face. The pistol misfired, and Pitts “leaned out of the saddle, seized the man by the scruff of the neck with his left hand, lifted him out of the saddle and nearly rolled him onto his lap, put his pistol under the prisoner’s breast with his right hand and fired a shot. The body fell to the ground and he galloped away. The soldier fell on one of our own men, who had fallen off his horse and was half hidden among the rocks, pretending to be dead.”
A bullet grazed Ranger Williamson’s ribs, and as he gasped for breath, Ranger William Walston asked, “Are you badly hurt?”
“I don’t think it’s that bad,” Williamson replied calmly but breathlessly. Bullets whistled by the two Rangers’ ears as they fled from the Union scouts. “Hold on to Old Bob,” yelled Walston, referring to the Ranger’s horse, which had been in countless skirmishes. Williamson hopped on Old Bob and panned around to see “our men totally demoralized and running in all directions.”
The scouts fought like the enemy they hunted, “in an instant, all at once, they shot down the enemy, but not one of our men fell, and the enemy began to retreat.” The rebel leader, Lieutenant Nelson, fell from his horse and was shot in the thigh. Like a dam that had suddenly burst, the Rangers fled toward the river to escape the scouts.
“Soon it was all on our side,” Montgomery recalled. But the battle had a cost. Montgomery’s horse was hit by a bullet, and several fellow scouts were wounded in the melee. A Ranger took down a scout to Montgomery’s right, then pointed his Colt at the sergeant’s face. “Fortunately, I was about two feet away when I saw it. I didn’t have time to pull the hammer back.” [on my Colt] “I aimed at his arm and fired my revolver over his head.” Montgomery then yelled over the din of battle, firing a bullet at the Ranger, “spinning him around” and knocking him out of the saddle. Montgomery and Blazer’s scouts, carrying two Navy Colts and a Spencer, launched an attack in the midst of the Ranger ranks, a bullet lodged in Montgomery’s shoulder blade.
Blazer’s forces overpowered much stronger forces. He recorded: “I encountered 200 of Mosby’s guerrillas, and after 30 minutes of hard fighting we succeeded in routing him, driving him over a fence and through a cornfield for three miles. They fought with determination, but the seven gunners [the Spencers] It seems like it was too much for them.”
After collecting the wounded from both sides (including a Ranger shot through the arm), the scouts crossed the Potomac River at Myers Ford and marched to Myerstown, West Virginia. Blazer’s men claimed five casualties (one killed and four wounded), six of Mosby’s men and one officer killed, four wounded, and six Rangers taken prisoner.
Blazer’s men were known for their humanitarian behavior. Ranger J. Marshall Crawford wrote that although the Yankees were drunk (some of the scouts may have been drinking applejack), “they carried their wounded to the neighboring houses, and insisted that every precaution be taken until they were removed. It must be said that they had more humane instincts than any of the other soldiers that day.” [Yankee] “We’ve never met before.”
Patrick K. O’Donnell is a bestselling and acclaimed military historian and expert on elite military forces. He is the author of thirteen books, including a new bestselling book on the Civil War. The untold story of Lincoln’s Special Forces, Mosby’s Ranger Hunt, and the shadow war that gave birth to American special operations, It is currently on display in Barnes & Noble stores nationwide. His other bestsellers include: Must-Haves, Unknown Peopleand Washington ImmortalsO’Donnell served as a combat historian for a Marine rifle platoon during the Battle of Fallujah and is a frequent speaker on espionage, special operations and counterinsurgency. He has served as a historical consultant on DreamWorks’ award-winning miniseries Band of Brothers, as well as documentaries produced by the BBC, the History Channel and Discovery. PatrickKODonnell.com translation:
