Thomas F. Harney

[SSlater]

Me. again. This Harney business ain't easy. But my failures spur me on to be a little more creative - look where you never looked before. Thus, I have stumbled on to an angle that does not bring us closer to Harney, but it concerns him and it's a story that you have never read before. So, it should be entertaining.

When Richmond directed Mosby to cooperate with Thomas N. Conrad on an unnamed mission, Mosby was short of available troops, but he says that he manage to create a new Company H, and he sent them to escort Harney into Washington.

That's fine, but where did he find enough men to create a completely new Company, this late in the war. I assumed that he took a few men from each of the existing Companies. I was wrong. He created a [b]NEW Company of good men, well horsed, well armed, and full of combat experience. HOW?

On February 17, 1864, The Partisan Ranger Act was repealed by the Confederate Congress and the affected Rangers were Ordered to sign up with a Regular Cavalry Unit. (Everyone, but Mosby and The McNeill's Rangers -they were allowed to continue as Rangers.)

That's easier said than done. There was one Ranger Group that was just onerous enough to say NUTS. (At least, I think they said that. - Maybe not.)

These mavericks were the "Chinquapin Rangers" from South-East Fairfax County, VA. - They fought on through the summer of 1864, as Rangers, until September 6, 1864, when they were specifically ORDERED to desist and to join Gen. Fitzhugh Lee in the Shenandoah Valley. NUTS again.

I don't know whether they tried to join Mosby, or Mosby invited them to join up with him. Then despite all Orders to the contrary, The "Chinquapin Rangers" joined Mosby.

Apparently Mosby had worked, before this with them, when they were Company H in the 15th Virginia Cavalry. He knew them to be - Good men, Well horsed, etc.

In summary, "The Chinquapin Rangers" were the Mosby unit, that that assisted Harney in his attempt to reach Washington.

PS. In Sept 1864, when the "Chinquapin Rangers" showed up in Mosby's Camp, was the same time period when Mosby sent another Ranger Unit to King George County to assist Conrad's attempt to nab Lincoln.