The Independent Loudoun Rangers

The Independent Loudoun Rangers. Serving the Union. , The Independent Loudoun Rangers consisted of two cavalry companies recruited by Waterford miller Samuel Means from Lovettsville's and Waterford's Unionists. Mustered into Federal service on June 20, 1862, they were the only organized body of Union cavalry raised in present-day Virginia. The Rangers totaled fewer than 200 men who operated in small groups assisting the Federal army as scouts and guides, helping provost marshals police the Potomac border, and protecting local Unionists., On August 27, 1862 50 troopers of Confederate Lt. Col. Elijah V. White's 35th Battalion Virginia Cavalry, the "Comanches," trapped 25 of Lt. Luther Slater's Rangers in Waterford Baptist Church. Losing nearly a dozen killed and wounded, the Rangers fought until their ammunition was nearly exhausted, then surrendered. Slater, a Lovettsville resident, was among the wounded. Five days later, other Rangers captured several of White's men near Hillsboro, thereby gaining a measure of revenge., Both the Loudoun Rangers and White's Comanches were local men, sometimes from the same families. The two units clashed many times, and the Confederates generally prevailed over their Unionist friends and relatives., Capt. Daniel Keys led the Rangers after Means was dismissed in 1864 for refusing to integrate his command into the West Virginia cavalry. On April 6, 1865, 50 of Col. John S. Mosby's partisans attacked the Rangers' camp near Harpers Ferry and effectively destroyed the unit. Three days later at Appomattox Court House, the war in Virginia came to an end., Nearly 40 Rangers died in the service of the Union (half in Confederate prison camps), and about 40 were wounded.