After the repeal of the Act on February 17, 1864, McNeill's Rangers was one of two partisan forces allowed to continue operation, the other being 43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry (Mosby's Raiders).

However, many Union generals considered Captain John Hanson McNeill (1815–1864) and his men to be "bushwhackers," not entitled to protection when captured, as was the case with other prisoners of war.

McNeill's frequent raids on Piedmont, a town in Hampshire (now Mineral) County, West Virginia — and on Cumberland, Maryland — were aimed at disrupting the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad service.

Piedmont, a small town at the foot of the Allegheny Mountains, was a frequent target due to its important machine shops and vast stores of railroad supplies.

"[5] On April 6, the Rangers clashed with the Ringgold Battalion, Pennsylvania Cavalry at Burlington, Hampshire County, taking twelve men prisoners, and capturing five wagons and twenty-five horses.

[2] On September 11, the McNeill Rangers took part in a surprising night attack of Confederate cavalry on three Federal companies on their way from Petersburg to Moorefield; half of the Union force was taken prisoner.

After earlier unsuccessful raids, McNeill finally succeeded in severing the B&O railroad and burning the machine shops at Piedmont, West Virginia.

On May 22, 1864, in a special communique to Colonel Higgins at Green Spring, Kelley ordered: "As soon as practicable send Captain Hart with 125 or 150 men on a scout up the east side of the river, to Moorefield and vicinity, after McNeill."

On 19 July 1864 near Petersburg, a detachment of McNeill's Rangers attacked about 30 Home Guards under Captain John Boggs (whose company was known as the "Swamp Dragons").

The 18th Virginia Cavalry slowed the Union advance, enabling Gen. John Breckinridge to gather the main body of his Confederate forces at New Market, about 4 miles away.

In a predawn raid on 3 Oct. 1864, Captain McNeill led approximately 50 Confederate rangers against roughly 100 Union troopers of the 8th Ohio Cavalry Regiment guarding a bridge from Meems Bottom, a strategic crossing of the Valley Turnpike over the North Fork of the Shenandoah River to Mt.

The attack lasted just fifteen minutes with most of the Union cavalry captured but McNeill, one of the best-known and feared Confederate partisan raiders, was mortally wounded.

[14][18] In the words of Gen. Sheridan, The capture of Gilmore caused the disbandment of the party he had organized at the "camp-meeting," most of the men he had recruited returning to their homes discouraged, though some few joined the bands of Woodson and young Jesse McNeil, which, led by the latter, dashed into Cumberland, Maryland, at 3 o'clock on the morning of the 21st of February and made a reprisal by carrying off General Crook and General Kelly, and doing their work so silently and quickly that they escaped without being noticed.