July 19, 1862 (Sunday): Enter Mosby

Colonel John Singleton Mosby

HEADQUARTERS CAVALRY BRIGADE,
July 19, 1862.

Major General T. J. JACKSON,
Commanding Army of the Valley:
    GENERAL: The bearer, John S. Mosby, late first lieutenant, First Virginia cavalry, is en route to scout beyond the enemy's lines toward Manassas and Fairfax. He is bold, daring, intelligent, and discreet. The information he may be obtain and transmit to you may be relied upon, and I have no doubt that he will soon give additional proofs of his value. Did you receive the volume of Napoleon and his Maxims I sent you through General Charles S. Winder's orderly?
     Most respectfully, your obedient servant,


J. E. B. STUART,
Brigadier-General, Commanding Cavalry.

Official Records, Series I., Vol. 51, Part 2, Page 594.

Mosby would later become a partisan ranger, but at this point in the war was one of Stuart's scouts.  He was coming fresh off the high adventure of Stuart's ride around McClellan's army and now engaged in further adventures.  A lawyer before the war, Mosby was a keen observer in the field and  of human nature, as his post war writings and speeches show.  Stuart's sending a copy of Napoleon's Maxim's to Jackson was an example of the good will which existed between two very opposite personalities.