How is the befitting of a future leader? To me he should have shown respect for his commitment to be present at the organization of the cavalry's new company. As of now, I am profoundly confused by Mosby's seemingly contradictions in his views of supporting the union yet enlisting with the confederacy. .
Enter April 1861. Mosby finally joins the ranks of his cavalry's company in Abingdon, Virginia at Martha Washington College. Herein lies his first action that I believe abides him to his commitment of the Confederacy and thus ending my confusion surrounding his seemly lack of interest as well as starting his ultimate rise to rank of colonel. He had to start somewhere, right? Mosby's accounts of his first days at camp as a guard keeping watch as "irksome." It appears from his own words that Mosby much preferred the outpost experience. That is, rather than keeping watch over his camp he was excited by keeping watch over the enemy's actions. Presumably this preference was the beginning of what was to become Mosby's Raiders. This would be the horseman battalion led by Mosby that would keep watch over the enemy and provide raids when necessary during the Virginia battles. .
It seems from both publications that the timeline is congruent when Harpers Ferry would be controlled by the Confederates. Mosby goes on to illustrate at Harpers Ferry, on April 27, 1861 Stonewall Jackson was ordered to the command of the troops there as it was, "a place of great strategic value for the Confederates. It was a salient position: it's possession by the Confederates was a menace to the North and broke direction communications between the Capital and the West." It appears that Harpers Ferry was of great value according to Mosby as it allowed for the oversight of what Patterson's Army was doing just fifty miles below the gap. Personally, I would say herein lays the start of Mosby's Raiders in future battles; more on that later.