In this manner the men were mounted and equipped without expense to
themselves or the Confederate Government. On the contrary, the army
quartermaster kept an agent in Mosby's Confederacy, to purchase from the
Rangers their surplus stock and arms. His standing price for a horse was
forty dollars in gold. But each Ranger retained two or more of the best
for his own use. In this way they were always splendidly mounted. I once
heard a Federal officer say he was not surprised that Mosby's men rode
such fine horses, as they had both armies to pick from. The cavalry was
armed with pistols alone, of which each man carried at least two. Their
superiority over all other arms for this branch of the service was
frequently demonstrated. It is a weapon that can be used with one hand,
leaving the other to guide the horse. Cavalry is never really efficient
unless trained to rush into close contact with the enemy. To see the
whites of their eyes is not sufficient; they must ride over the foe. In
the rapid charge the carbine is not only useless, but a positive
incumbrance. The saber is comparatively harmless; it serves to frighten
the timid, but rarely ever deals a death-wound. Let two men encounter
each other in the charge, one relying upon his pistol, the other upon
his saber, and the former, though an ordinary marksman, will almost
invariably get the better of his antagonist. The Rangers realized their
advantage in this respect. It encouraged them to rush into close
quarters, where the rapid discharge of their pistols soon told upon the
enemy, no matter how bravely they had withstood the onset. I have seen
the victory decided alone by the superiority of the pistol over the
saber, where the opposing columns had crossed each other in the charge
and, wheeling, had mingled in the fight.

But the Rangers were compelled to discard the carbine and the saber for
other reasons than their inferiority in the hand-to-hand conflict. It