“ All over the State, particularly in the Tidewater and Potomac counties, there are a great many men who do not belong to companies, and who probably will not for some time. They have not regulation weapons, but almost every man of them has a rifle, or a shot-gun, or a flint-lock musket, and one or more pistols of some kind. All these men should form neighborhood squads of from five to fifteen, according to density of population, put the weapons they have in perfect order, make each of them a strong, sharp sheath-knife — a large old file or rasp makes a splendid one--keep their best and most active horse always fresh and in good condition, and have a signal at which they shall all gather at some rendezvous. Such squads are to act as guerillas, and if the enemy approaches their section of the country, hang upon his outskirts, fill the hollows, hide behind trees, in ditches, anywhere that they can best protect themselves and cut down the enemy. Such men, so armed and equipped, can destroy an enemy's army more certainly and effectively than regular troops, and any of the weapons we have named, in the hands of a cool, determined man, is sufficient. Ten men, so provided, and using proper judgment, can pick off a hundred men in a day's march, with little risk to themselves. They will also prevent foraging and marauding parties from scattering through the country, and every man they drop will be furnishing Virginia with at least another weapon. If our men through the country will organize thus — all of them, boys, old men, all who are not in active service — no army can ever reach Richmond, and our State can never be filled with the bands of lawless stragglers who threaten to carry so much terror and desolation to our homes and firesides.” --N. Y. Tribune, May 11.
