Very interesting. A non-fictional, straightforward report of Mosby's raids, during the Civil War. Piper's grandfather apparently fought Mosby on one of his campaigns, and developed considerable respect for him. The reporting is pretty straight, "just the facts" style (though I do wonder about some Negro (sic) captives who had been "forcibly emancipated to drive (Union) Army wagons". Interesting chains of events; Mosby was successful throughout the war, and surrendered only after the rest of the Confederate Army had done so. And he lived, in Washington, until 1916 and the age of eighty-three. One of his protegés, reportedly, was George Patton - who later used tactics similar to Mosby's flexibility, mobility, and firepower. Worth reading, definitely - I'm not a Civil War buff, but it's nice to know some of the less well-known bits. ( )

This book is essentially a hagiographic portrayal of the exploits of a Confederate military adventurer, John Singleton Mosby. Basically, Mosby ran a guerrilla operation in Virginia wherein he attacked and plundered the supply lines of the Union armies.

I didn't find this book particularly well written or interesting. It was basically a listing of this happened, then this, then this, then.... Perhaps if the hero weren't a guy who was killing and plundering people merely for the right to enslave, beat, rape, and kill black people for fun and profit, I might have had more sympathy for him. In terms of merely military tactics, Mosby's story might be vaguely interesting to people who like that kind of thing. I'm not one of them by a long shot.

The 3*s should have a - (minus) appended. I'm not even sure that this book makes more interesting reading than the work of another Piper I've come across, Further Observations of the Nitrogen Orange Afterglow, or yet another Piper I know who has written a novel or two. ( )