As a soldier, Colonel Buel stands among the bravest and the best. Always attentive to the wants of his command, his men are always the last to be out of supplies of rations or clothing. He generally exercised that fatherly care over us which called forth in return a filial love. He is dignified, and yet perfectly affable. As a commander, he is intrepid and cool, and manages his troops with admirable skill. He possesses a naturally well-balanced mind, thoroughly cultivated, and a heart always full of Christian hopefulness and benevolence. We wish him great success in his new field of labor and responsibility. CHAPTER IX. REBEL CHIEFS AND THEIR RAIDS. 1863.--Rebel Raids by Stuart, Imboden, and Fitz-Hugh Lee.--John S. Mosby, Guerilla Chief.--His Character.--His Command.--Daring and Plunder.-- Aided by Citizens.--Condition of the Country Favorable for their Depredations.--Our Picket Lines too Light.--Attacks on Pickets at Herndon Station, Cub Run, and Frying-Pan Church.--Miss Laura Ratcliffe, Mosby's Informant.--Mosby at Fairfax Court House.-- Capture of General Stoughton.--Fight at Chantilly.--Mosby lauded by His Chiefs.--Mosby beaten at Warrenton Junction.--Severely whipped at Greenwich, where he loses a Howitzer captured from Colonel Baker at Ball's Bluff. The Rebel cavalry has been very active all winter, as may be seen by the many raids which they have made, beginning as far back as December twenty-fifth, when their chief, J. E. B. Stuart, anxious to obtain something suitable with which to celebrate the holidays, crossed the Rappahannock, advanced on Dumfries, where it would seem that our boys, freezing dumb (Dumfries), suffered the raider to capture not less than twenty-five wagons, and at least two hundred prisoners. Moving boldly northward, he struck the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, burning the bridge across the Accotink Run, and from Burke's Station he swung around Fairfax Court House, and returned, by long, circuitous route, into their lines with their hard-earned spoils. A lull of operations followed this bold holiday enterprise, until the sixteenth of February, when a party of General John D. Imboden's rangers, in the Shenandoah Valley, made a rapid raid to Romney, farther west, where they captured several men, horses, and wagons, having taken our forces entirely by surprise. The success which characterized these forays was not only disgraceful to ourselves, and very disheartening, but it gave the Rebels an audacious effrontery and malignant boldness, which led them into more frequent and reckless movements. But our men were a little more on the alert, and thus averted, to a great extent, the injury which was intended.