The far-ranging raid on the Lines of Communications was a notable feature of the American Civil War. It was freely employed on both sides and was often harmful to the object of the attack and usually profitable to the raiders, especially to those of the South, by reason of the replenishment of stores. General Turner Ashby, the dashing cavalry leader in the Shenandoah Valley, was a constant source of terror to the Northern Generals, and his death while protecting the movements to _Cross Keys_ (June 6, 1862) was a terrible blow to Stonewall Jackson, who employed his mounted troops with more skill than any other commander, Confederate or Federal. General R. E. Lee possessed a great cavalry leader in J. E. B. Stuart, "but cool-headed as he was, Lee appears to have been fascinated by the idea of throwing a great body of horsemen across his enemy's communications, spreading terror among his supply trains, cutting his telegraphs and destroying his magazines. Yet in hardly a single instance did such expeditions inflict more than temporary discomfort on the enemy; and the Confederate Armies were led more than once into false manoeuvres for want of the information which only the cavalry could supply. Lee at _Malvern Hill_ and _Gettysburg_, and, on the side of the North, Hooker at _Chancellorsville_, and Grant at _Spottsylvania_, owed defeat in great measure to the absence of their mounted troops on raiding excursions. In the Valley, on the contrary, success was made possible because Jackson kept his cavalry to its legitimate duty" (Henderson "Stonewall Jackson"). In the Russo-Japanese War a column of 500 Cossacks, under Colonel Madritov, made a bold raid on the communications of the Japanese I. Army in the last days of April, 1904. The raid involved a { 118} ride of 240 miles and was carried out in entire ignorance of the imminent attack upon General Zasulich's force by the Japanese I. Army at the _Battle of the Yalu_ (May 1, 1904). On arrival at his objective Colonel Madritov found nothing to attack, as the base of the Japanese I. Army had been shifted from the Korean frontier to a shorter sea base at the Yalu mouth. On his return he found his General in disordered flight, and had his small force been available at the Battle of the Yalu it could have protected the retreat to Hamatan and Feng-hwang-cheng. Raids and attacks outside the centre of operations, however daring, have no permanent value.