On April 18, 1864, author Herman Melville rode through the twilight, embedded with the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry, on a scouting mission deep in enemy territory.
Nearly thirteen years had passed since the forty-four-old Melville had published Moby Dick, a book that was not considered a critical or commercial success during the author’s lifetime. Before the Civil War, Melville tried his hand at poetry and submitted a book of verse to his publisher. The manuscript had been rejected months earlier. To resurrect his career and eke out a living as a writer, he thrust himself into the war as a civilian and observer, capturing the conflict with his pen in a book of poetry titled Battle Pieces and Aspects of the War.
The Union cavalry hunted Confederate guerrilla leader John Singleton Mosby and his intrepid Rangers, “the South’s most dangerous men.” These highly disciplined men, who never numbered more than a few hundred, terrorized the North—tied down tens of thousands of Federal troops, cut Union supply lines, captured generals, and pioneered a form of warfare that, had the South adopted it on a larger scale, would have prolonged the Civil War and perhaps resulted in a different outcome.
Weeks earlier in 1864, Mosby had launched a devastating ambush on the Union cavalry at Anker’s blacksmith shop about two miles from Dranesville, Virginia. Hiding in a pine thicket, Mosby relayed his orders: “Men, the Yankees are coming, and it is very likely we will have a hard fight. When you are ordered to charge, I want you to go right through them. Reserve your fire until you get close enough to see clearly what you are shooting at, and then let every shot tell.”
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