If you can possibly spare a division of Cavalry, send them through Loudoun County and destroy and carry off all the crops, animals, negroes and all men under fifty years of age capable of bearing arms. In this way you will get many if Mosby's men. All male citizens under fifty can be fairly 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.

There is no doubt about the necessity of clearing out that country so it will not support Mosby's gang . . . So long as the war lasts they must be prevented from raising another crop.

Now there is going to be an intense hatred of () in that portion of the Valley which is nearly desert. I will soon commence on Loudoun County, and let them know there is a God in Israel.

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 guerrillas 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. . . To clear the country of these parties that are bringing destruction upon the innocent as well as 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 livestock in the region, the boundaries of which are described above. 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 . . .