Excerpt from History of the Independent Loudoun Virginia Rangers: U. S. Vol, Cav, (Scouts) 1862-65As the basis of every great national achievement is to be found in the thoughts and feelings of the people, so the real history of a great army is founded upon the annals of the separate organizations of which it was composed.The History of the Loudoun (virginia) Rangers, as feebly set forth in the following pages, claims attention as a part, however small, in the history of one of the greatest wars the world has ever known.As thename of their organization indicates, they came from a State which was arrayed in arms against the authority of the National Government. No Governor, or Senator, or Member of Congress guarded their interests nor was any State or local bounty held forth to them as an allurement. Their enlistment in the Union Army - their country's army - was the spontaneous outgrowth of a spirit of lofty patriotism.As they saw their duty they were not lacking in moral courage to perform that duty and with no lapse of years shall we ever fail to insist that the principles for which the Rangers contended were eter nally right, and that their opponents were eternally wrong.While most of the events narrated in this work passed under the personal observation of the writer, he has also made use of reliable information from every available source.He desires to express his grateful sense of obligation to those who have materially lessened his labors and largely contributed to the value of his work by furnishing useful materials, such as reports, letters, diaries, etc.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.