The opening of I. INTRODUCTORY
A successful scout, or spy, is like a great poet in one respect: he is born, not made--subject to the requisition of the military genius of the time.
That I was not born to be hanged is a self-evident proposition. Whether I was a successful scout or not, the reader of these pages must determine.
It was my good fortune to have first seen the light under the shadow of one of the spurs of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in the beautiful Cumberland Valley, in the State of Pennsylvania, near Mason and Dixon's line.
This same locality is distinguished as the birthplace of President James Buchanan, and also that of Thomas A. Scott, President of the Pennsylvania Railroad and its system, under whom I served. Mr. Scott used to say he had leased this position for ninety-nine years with twice the salary of the president of the United States.