[282]
etc.
“A fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind.”
I look upon Moseby and Hathaway as “par nobile fratrum” and “birds of a feather.”
Near this place Captain Boyd also captured a middle-aged man, who would now be in the rebel army were it not for a constitutional fear of “villainous gunpowder.”
Possessing no desire to snuff the smoke of battle, he remained at home, and, out of pure patriotism for the “C. S. A.,” engages in the sanctified and Christian-like vocation of raising a company of bushwhackers.
He had labored with zeal.
His heart was in the business.
It was a labor of love.
Alas! that now, in Captain Boyd's grasp, his delightful “occupation's gone.”
Unfortunate fellow!
We left Hathaway's residence at six o'clock A. M. on Monday, passing through Middleburgh on the road campward.
On the road leading to the latter place we took several mounted men. They belonged to Moseby's gang.
Upon every road small squads might be seen getting out of the way with wonderful alacrity.
A sergeant and five men, mistaking us for their own cavalry,. rode into our presence in a friendly way, and were captured without difficulty.
We reached camp Monday afternoon via Snicker's Ferry, with fourteen prisoners and sixteen captured horses.
Captain Boyd, commanding the detachment, is entitled to all credit due a successful enterprise.
With one hundred men he penetrated Moseby's chosen haunts and has broken up his favorite rendezvous.
Not many weeks ago Captain Boyd marched to Fairfax Court-House with one hundred men. Moseby, with a choice battalion, watched his return, but had not the courage to assail him. However, he boasted of his intention to capture that detachment of the First New-York at that time.
What will Moseby say now that he has lost another excellent opportunity?
J. H. H.
