All this time Mosby had been active in his "Confederacy" and attacks on the Federal communications also had been made by White's Battalion when in and around Loudoun. These attacks, frequently successful and always without warning, had caused great losses to the Federals and forced them to keep a large number of men engaged in their rear who badly were needed elsewhere. On the 16th August, 1864, General Grant, determining to end the menace, sent the following order to Major General Sheridan: "If you can possibly spare a division of Cavalry, send them through Loudoun County to destroy and carry off the crops, animals, negroes and all men under fifty years of age capable of bearing arms. In this way you will get many of Mosby's men. All male citizens under fifty can fairly be held as prisoners of war, and not as citizen prisoners. If not already soldiers, they will be made so the moment the rebel army gets hold of them." But Sheridan at that time was far too busy with his campaign in the Valley immediately to comply. It was not until after his decisive victory over Early at Cedar Creek on the 19th October, that he felt he could act. On the 27th November he issued the following orders to Major General Merritt in command of the 1st Cavalry Division: "You are hereby directed to proceed, tomorrow morning at 7 o'clock, with two brigades of your division now in camp, to the east side of the Blue Ridge, via Ashby's Gap, and operate against the guerillas in the district of country bounded on the south by the line of the Manassas Gap Railroad, as far east as White Plains; on the east by the Bull Run Range; on the west by the Shenandoah River; and on the north by the Potomac. "This section has been the hot-bed of lawless bands who have from time to time depredated upon small parties on the line of the army communications, on safeguards left at houses, and on small parties of our troops. Their real object is plunder and highway robbery. "To clear the country of these parties that are bringing destruction upon the innocent as well as their guilty supporters by their cowardly acts, you will consume and destroy all forage and subsistence, burn all barns and mills and their contents and drive off all stock in the region, the boundaries of which are above described. This order must be literally executed, bearing in mind, however that no dwellings are to be burned and that no personal violence be offered the citizens. "The ultimate results of the guerilla system of warfare is the total destruction of all private rights in the country occupied by such parties. The destruction may as well commence at once and the responsibility of it must rest upon the authorities at Richmond, who have acknowledged the legitimacy of guerilla bands. "The injury done to them by this army is very slight, the injury they have indirectly inflicted upon the people and upon the rebel army may be counted by millions.