Elijah Viers "Lige" White (August 29, 1832 – January 11, 1907) was commander of the partisan

Partisan (military)

A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity...

 35th Battalion of Virginia Cavalry

35th Battalion of Virginia Cavalry

The 35th Battalion of Virginia Cavalry, also known as White's Battalion, White's Rebels and the Comanches, was a Confederate cavalry unit during the American Civil War raised by Elijah V. White in Loudoun County, Virginia in the winter of 1861-62...

 during the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

. His men became commonly known as "White's Comanches" for their war cries and sudden raids on enemy targets.
Elijah White was born in the area of Poolesville, Maryland

Poolesville, Maryland

Poolesville is a town in Montgomery County, Maryland United States with a population of approximately 5000 people. It is surrounded by the Montgomery County Agricultural Reserve, and is considered a distant bedroom community for commuters to Washington, DC.The name of the town comes from the...

. In 1855, White moved to Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

 to fight in the border wars

Bleeding Kansas

Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas or the Border War, was a series of violent events, involving anti-slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian" elements, that took place in the Kansas Territory and the western frontier towns of the U.S. state of Missouri roughly between 1854 and 1858...

 with Kansas

Kansas

Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

. The following year, he returned home and bought the 355 acres (1.4 km²) Ball farm across the Potomac River

Potomac River

The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...

 in Loudoun County, Virginia

Loudoun County, Virginia

Loudoun County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and is part of the Washington Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the county is estimated to be home to 312,311 people, an 84 percent increase over the 2000 figure of 169,599. That increase makes the county the fourth...

, in the vicinity of the Big Spring north of Leesburg

Leesburg, Virginia

Leesburg is a historic town in, and county seat of, Loudoun County, Virginia, United States of America. Leesburg is located west-northwest of Washington, D.C. along the base of the Catoctin Mountain and adjacent to the Potomac River. Its population according the 2010 Census is 42,616...

.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, White enlisted in Captain Daniel T.