e
position that a state had the constitutional right to sever its
connection with the Union if its people so desired. His objection to
secession was based upon what he considered to be political logic. He
realized that, once begun, secession was a process which could only
end in reducing America to a cluster of impotent petty sovereignties,
torn by hostilities, incapable of any concerted action, a fair prey to
any outside aggressor.

However, he was also a believer in the paramount sovereignty of the
states. He was first of all a Virginian. So, when Virginia voted in
favor of secession, Mosby, while he deplored the choice, felt that he
had no alternative but to accept it. He promptly enlisted in a locally
organized cavalry company, the Washington Mounted Rifles, under a
former U. S. officer and West Point graduate, William E. Jones.

His letters to his wife told of his early military experiences--his
pleasure at receiving one of the fine new Sharps carbines which
Captain Jones had wangled for his company, and, later, a Colt .44
revolver: his first taste of fire in the Shenandoah Valley, where the
company, now incorporated into Colonel Stuart's First Virginia
Cavalry, were covering Johnston's march to re-enforce Beauregard: his
rather passive participation in the big battle at Manassas. He was
keenly disappointed at being held in reserve throughout the fighting.
Long afterward, it was to be his expressed opinion that the
Confederacy had lost the war by failing to follow the initial victory
and exploit the rout of McDowell's army.

The remainder of 1861 saw him doing picket duty in Fairfax County.
When Stuart was promoted to brigadier general, and Captain Jones took
his place as colonel of the First Virginia, Mosby became the latter's
adjutant. There should have been a commission along with this post,
but this seems to have been snarled in red tape at Richmond and never
came through. It was about this time that Mosby first came to Stuart's
personal attention. Mosby spent a night at headquarters after
escorting a couple of young ladies who had been living outside the
Confederate lines and were anxious to reach relatives living farther
south.

Stuart had been quite favorably impressed with Mosby, and when, some
time later, the latter lost his place as adjutant of the First by
reason of Jones' promotion to brigadier general and Fitzhugh Lee's
taking over the regiment, Mosby became one of Stuart's headquarters
scouts.