Blazer's Scouts ("The Broom of Destruction")
in the Shenandoah Valley

The brigade consisted of the 9th West Virginia Infantry and the 12th and 91st Ohio Infantries. Captain John White Spencer of the 9th WVA was chosen to command the scouts and Lieutenants Harrison Gray Otis of the 12th Ohio and Richard Blazer of the 91st Ohio were also assigned as well. There was no shortage of volunteers for the unit. Harrison Otis spoke not only for himself but many of the other men when he wrote, " I suffered nothing from the lethargy of garrison life, but had free play to indulge my penchant for doing audacious things in war." Assertions in the Mosby accounts that these men took on the designation "Legion of Honor" almost certainly have no basis in fact. Not one of the men assigned ever used this term in an article, pension record or had it attributed to them in their obituaries. They were proud to be "Independent Scouts" or call themselves "Blazer's Scouts" after the man who would command them in 1864.