John S. Mosby

For the history of Mosby's Rangers, see 43rd Battalion, Virginia Cavalry.

John S. Mosby
Mosby during the 1860s
Birth name	John Singleton Mosby
Nickname(s)	"The Gray Ghost"
Born	(1833-12-06)December 6, 1833 Powhatan County, Virginia, U.S.
Died	May 30, 1916(1916-05-30) (aged 82) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Buried	Warrenton Cemetery Warrenton, Virginia, U.S.
Allegiance	Confederate States
Service/branch	Confederate army
Years of service	1861–1865
Rank	Colonel
Unit	43rd Battalion, Virginia Cavalry
Commands held	Mosby's Rangers
Battles/wars	American Civil War Battle of Bull Run Peninsular Campaign
Signature

John Singleton Mosby (December 6, 1833 – May 30, 1916), also known by his nickname, the "Gray Ghost", was a Confederate army cavalry battalion commander in the American Civil War. His command, the 43rd Battalion, 1st Virginia Cavalry, known as Mosby's Rangers or Mosby's Raiders, was a partisan ranger unit noted for its lightning quick raids and its ability to elude Union Army pursuers and disappear, blending in with local farmers and townsmen. The area of northern central Virginia in which Mosby operated with impunity was known during the war and ever since as Mosby's Confederacy. After the war, Mosby became a Republican and worked as an attorney and supported his former enemy's commander, U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant, serving as the American consul to Hong Kong and in the U.S. Department of Justice.

Early life and education

Mosby was born in Powhatan County, Virginia on December 6, 1833, to Virginia McLaurine Mosby and Alfred Daniel Mosby, a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College. His father was a member of an old Virginian family of English origin whose ancestor, Richard Mosby, was born in England in 1600 and settled in Charles City, Virginia in the early 17th century. Mosby was named after his paternal grandfather, John Singleton.

Mosby began his education at a school called Murrell's Shop. When his family moved to Albemarle County, Virginia (near Charlottesville) in about 1840, John attended school in Fry's Woods before transferring to a Charlottesville school at the age of ten years. Because of his small stature and frail health, Mosby was the victim of bullies throughout his school career. Instead of becoming withdrawn and lacking in self-confidence, the boy responded by fighting back, although the editor of his memoirs recounted a statement Mosby made that he never won any fight in which he was engaged. In fact, the only time he did not lose a fight was when an adult stepped in and broke it up.

In 1847, Mosby enrolled at Hampden-Sydney College, where his father was an alumnus. Unable to keep up with his mathematics class, Mosby left the college after two years. On October 3, 1850, he entered the University of Virginia, taking Classical Studies and joining the Washington Literary Society and Debating Union. He was far above average in Latin, Greek, and literature (all of which he enjoyed), but mathematics was still a problem for him. In his third year a quarrel erupted between Mosby and a notorious bully, George R. Turpin, a tavern keeper's son who was robust and physically impressive. When Mosby heard from a friend that Turpin had insulted him, Mosby sent Turpin a letter asking for an explanation—one of the rituals in the code of honor to which Southern gentlemen adhered. Turpin became enraged and declared that on their next meeting, he would "eat him up raw!" Mosby decided he had to meet Turpin despite the risk; to run away would be dishonorable.

On March 29 the two met, Mosby having brought with him a small pepper-box pistol in the hope of dissuading Turpin from an attack. When the two met and Mosby said, "I hear you have been making assertions ..." Turpin put his head down and charged. At that point, Mosby pulled out the pistol and shot his adversary in the neck. The distraught 19-year-old Mosby went home to await his fate. He was arrested and arraigned on two charges: unlawful shooting (a misdemeanor with a maximum sentence of one year in jail and a $500 fine) and malicious shooting (a felony with a maximum sentence of 10 years in the penitentiary). After a trial that almost resulted in a hung jury, Mosby was convicted of the lesser offense but received the maximum sentence. Mosby later discovered that he had been expelled from the university before he was brought to trial.

While serving time, Mosby won the friendship of his prosecutor, attorney William J. Robertson. When Mosby expressed his desire to study law, Robertson offered the use of his law library. Mosby studied law for the rest of his incarceration. Friends and family used political influence in an attempt to obtain a pardon. Gov. Joseph Johnson reviewed the evidence and pardoned Mosby on December 23, 1853, as a Christmas present, and the state legislature rescinded the $500 fine at its next session. The incident, trial, and imprisonment so traumatized Mosby that he never wrote about it in his memoirs.

After studying for months in Robertson's law office, Mosby was admitted to the bar and established his own practice in nearby Howardsville. About this time, Mosby met Pauline Clarke (March 30, 1837 - May 10, 1876), who was visiting from out of town. He was Methodist and she was Catholic, but their courtship ensued. Her father was an active attorney and well-connected politician. They were married in a Nashville hotel on December 30, 1857 and after living for a year with Mosby's parents, the couple settled in Bristol, Virginia which was close to Clarke's hometown in Kentucky. They had two children before the Civil War and another was born during it.

Career

American Civil War

Mosby during the American Civil War

Mosby spoke out against secession, but joined the Confederate army as a private at the outbreak of the war. He first served in William "Grumble" Jones's Washington Mounted Rifles. Jones became a Major and was instructed to form a more collective "Virginia Volunteers", which he created with two mounted companies and eight companies of infantry and riflemen, including the Washington Mounted Rifles. Mosby was upset with the Virginia Volunteers' lack of congeniality, and he wrote to the governor requesting to be transferred. However, his request was not granted. The Virginia Volunteers participated in the First Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas).

1861

John Singleton Mosby

After impressing J.E.B. Stuart with his ability to gather intelligence, Mosby was promoted to first lieutenant and assigned to Stuart's cavalry scouts. He helped the general develop attack strategies and was responsible for Stuart's "Ride around McClellan" during the Peninsula Campaign. Captured by Union cavalry, Mosby was imprisoned in the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C. for ten days before being exchanged. Even as a prisoner Mosby spied on his enemy. During a brief stopover at Fort Monroe he detected an unusual buildup of shipping in Hampton Roads. He found they were carrying thousands of troops under Ambrose Burnside from North Carolina on their way to reinforce John Pope in the Northern Virginia Campaign. When he was released, Mosby walked to the army headquarters outside Richmond and personally related his findings to Robert E. Lee.

1863

Mosby's Rangers-Top row (left to right): Lee Herverson, Ben Palmer, John Puryear, Tom Booker, Norman Randolph, Frank Raham.# Second row: Robert Blanks Parrott, John Troop, John W. Munson, John S. Mosby, Newell, Neely, Quarles.# Third row: Walter Gosden, Harry T. Sinnott, Butler, Gentry.

In January 1863, Stuart, with Lee's concurrence, authorized Mosby to form and take command of the 43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry. This was later expanded into Mosby's Command, a regimental-sized unit of partisan rangers operating in Northern Virginia. The 43rd Battalion operated officially as a unit of the Army of Northern Virginia, subject to the commands of Lee and Stuart, but its men (1,900 of whom served from January 1863 through April 1865) lived outside of the norms of regular army cavalrymen. The Confederate government certified special rules to govern the conduct of partisan rangers. These included sharing in the disposition of spoils of war. They had no camp duties and lived scattered among the civilian population. Mosby required proof from any volunteer that he had not deserted from the regular service, and only about 10% of his men had served previously in the Confederate Army.

Having previously been promoted to captain, on March 15, 1863, and major, on March 26, 1863, in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States, Mosby was soon promoted to lieutenant colonel on January 21, 1864, and to colonel, December 7, 1864.

Mosby is famous for carrying out a daring raid far inside Union lines at the Fairfax County courthouse in March 1863, where his men captured three Union officers, including Brig. Gen. Edwin H. Stoughton. Mosby wrote in his memoirs that he found Stoughton in bed and roused him with a "spank on his bare back." Upon being so rudely awakened the general indignantly asked what this meant. Mosby quickly asked if he had ever heard of "Mosby". The general replied, "Yes, have you caught him?" "I am Mosby," the Confederate ranger said. "Stuart's cavalry has possession of the Court House; be quick and dress." Mosby and his 29 men had captured a Union general, two captains, 30 enlisted men, and 58 horses without firing a shot.

Mosby led 100 men on a raid across the Potomac River to attack the Union camp at Seneca, Maryland on June 10, 1863. After routing a company of the Sixth Michigan Cavalry and burning their camp, Mosby reported to J.E.B. Stuart of the success. This drew Stuart's attention to Rowser's Ford, the point where Mosby had crossed the Potomac. This would impact the Gettysburg Campaign, as Stuart crossed Rowser's Ford the night of June 27 and was now separated from Lee's army and wouldn't arrive at Gettysburg until the afternoon of the second day of the battle. Lee stumbled into the battle without his cavalry, partly because of Mosby's successful skirmish at Seneca three weeks earlier.

Mosby endured his first serious wound of the war on August 24, 1863, during a battle near Annandale, Virginia, when a bullet hit him through his thigh and side. He retired from the field with his troops and returned to action a month later.

1864

Mosby endured a second serious wound on September 14, 1864, while taunting a Union regiment by riding back and forth in front of it. A Union bullet shattered the handle of his revolver before entering his groin. Barely staying on his horse to make his escape, he resorted to crutches during a quick recovery and returned to command three weeks later.

Mosby's successful disruption of supply lines, attrition of Union couriers, and disappearance in the disguise of civilians caused Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant to tell Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan:

The families of most of Moseby's men are know[n] and can be collected. I think they should be taken and kept at Fort McHenry or some secure place as hostages for good conduct of Mosby and his men. When any of them are caught with nothing to designate what they are hang them without trial.

On September 22, 1864, Union forces executed six of Mosby's men who had been captured out of uniform in Front Royal, Virginia; a seventh (captured, according to Mosby's subsequent letter to Sheridan, "by a Colonel Powell on a plundering expedition into Rappahannock") was reported by Mosby to have suffered a similar fate. William Thomas Overby was one of the men selected for execution on the hill in Front Royal. His captors offered to spare him if he would reveal Mosby's location, but he refused. According to reports at the time, his last words were, "My last moments are sweetened by the reflection that for every man you murder this day Mosby will take a tenfold vengeance." After the executions a Union soldier pinned a piece of paper to one of the bodies that read: "This shall be the fate of all Mosby's men."

Captain Montjoy, wood engraving 1867

After informing General Robert E. Lee and Confederate Secretary of War James A. Seddon of his intention to respond in kind, Mosby ordered seven Union prisoners, chosen by lot, to be executed in retaliation on November 6, 1864, at Rectortown, Virginia. Although seven men were duly chosen in the original "death lottery," in the end just three men were actually executed. One numbered lot fell to a drummer boy who was excused because of his age, and Mosby's men held a second drawing for a man to take his place. Then, on the way to the place of execution a prisoner recognized Masonic regalia on the uniform of Confederate Captain Montjoy, a recently inducted Freemason then returning from a raid. The condemned captive gave him a secret Masonic distress signal. Captain Montjoy substituted one of his own prisoners for his fellow Mason (though one source speaks of two Masons being substituted). Mosby upbraided Montjoy, stating that his command was "not a Masonic lodge". The soldiers charged with carrying out the executions of the revised group of seven successfully hanged three men. They shot two more in the head and left them for dead (remarkably, both survived). The other two condemned men managed to escape separately.

On November 11, 1864, Mosby wrote to Philip Sheridan, the commander of Union forces in the Shenandoah Valley, requesting that both sides resume treating prisoners with humanity. He pointed out that he and his men had captured and returned far more of Sheridan's men than they had lost. The Union side complied. With both camps treating prisoners as "prisoners of war" for the duration, there were no more executions.

On November 18, 1864, Mosby's command defeated Blazer's Scouts at the Battle of Kabletown.

Mosby had his closest brush with death on December 21, 1864, near Rector's Crossroads in Virginia. Apparently having dinner with a family in a Southern home, Mosby was fired on through a window, and the ball entered his abdomen two inches below the navel. He managed to stagger into the bedroom and hide his coat, which had his only insignia of rank. The commander of the Union detachment, Maj. Douglas Frazar of the 13th New York Cavalry, entered the house and—not knowing Mosby's identity—inspected the wound and pronounced it mortal. Although left for dead, Mosby recovered and returned to the war effort once again two months later.

1865

Several weeks after General Robert E. Lee's surrender, Mosby simply disbanded his rangers on April 21, 1865, in Salem, Virginia, as he refused to surrender formally. Many of his men obtained official parole documents from the Union and returned to their homes, but Mosby himself traveled southward with a small party of officers to join up with General Joseph E. Johnston's army in North Carolina. Before he reached his fellow Confederates, he read in a newspaper of Johnston's surrender. Some of his colleagues proposed that they return to Richmond and capture the Union officers who were occupying the White House of the Confederacy, but Mosby rejected the plan, telling them, "Too late! It would be murder and highway robbery now. We are soldiers, not highwaymen."

Mosby was now a wanted man, with a $5,000 bounty on his head issued by Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock. He eluded capture in the area of Lynchburg, Virginia, until the end of June, when Ulysses S. Grant intervened directly in the case and paroled him.

Later life and death

Mosby and his former lieutenant, John S. Russell

Mosby's former residence at Washington, D.C.'s Logan Circle in August 2008.

After the Civil War had ended, Mosby became an active Republican, saying that it was the best way to help the southern U.S. recover from the effects wrought by the war. Mosby went on to become a campaign manager in Virginia for U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant. In his autobiography Grant stated, "Since the close of the war, I have come to know Colonel Mosby personally and somewhat intimately. He is a different man entirely from what I supposed. ... He is able and thoroughly honest and truthful."

A major postbellum activity for Mosby was his prolific defense of J.E.B. Stuart, who had been blamed by some partisans of the "Lost Cause" for the Confederacy's defeat at the Battle of Gettysburg. Mosby had served under Stuart during the campaign and was fiercely loyal to the late general, writing, "He made me all that I was in the war. ... But for his friendship I would never have been heard of." He wrote numerous articles for popular publications and published a book length treatise in 1908, a work that relied on his skills as a lawyer to refute categorically all of the claims laid against Stuart. A recent comprehensive study of the Stuart controversy, written by Eric J. Wittenberg and J. David Petruzzi, called Mosby's work a "tour de force".

Mosby's friendship with Grant, and his work with those whom many Southerners considered "the enemy", made Mosby a highly controversial figure among some Virginians. He received death threats, his boyhood home was burned down, and at least one attempt was made to assassinate him. Reflecting on the animosity shown to him by his fellow Virginians, Mosby stated in a May 1907 letter that "There was more vindictiveness shown to me by the Virginia people for my voting for Grant than the North showed to me for fighting four years against him." The danger contributed to the President's appointing him as an American consul to Hong Kong from 1878 to 1885. Mosby then served as a lawyer in San Francisco, California with the Southern Pacific Railroad. Later he worked for the Department of the Interior, first enforcing federal fencing laws in Omaha, then evicting trespassers on government-owned land in Alabama. He also worked as an assistant attorney in the Department of Justice from 1904 to 1910.

Mosby was friends with the family of George S. Patton. Mosby visited the Patton Ranch and recreated Civil War battles with George, with Mosby playing himself and George playing Robert E. Lee.

In 1894, Mosby wrote to a former comrade regarding the cause of the war, stating: "I've always understood that we went to war on account of the thing we quarreled with the North about. I've never heard of any other cause than slavery."

In June 1907, Mosby wrote a letter to Samuel "Sam" Chapman, in which he expressed his displeasure over people, namely George Christian, downplaying and denying the importance of slavery in its causing the American Civil War. In the letter, Mosby explained his reasons as to why he fought for the Confederacy, despite personally disapproving of slavery. While he admitted that the Confederate states had seceded to protect and defend their institution of slavery, he had felt it was his patriotic duty as a Virginian to fight on behalf of the Confederacy, stating that "I am not ashamed of having fought on the side of slavery—a soldier fights for his country—right or wrong—he is not responsible for the political merits of the course he fights in" and that "The South was my country."

Mosby died in Washington, D.C. on May 30, 1916, and is buried at the Warrenton Cemetery in Warrenton, Virginia.

Legacy

"War Loses Its Romance": Inscription of military quotation by John S. Mosby at Veterans Memorial at the Lackawanna County Courthouse in Scranton, Pennsylvania

• The area around Middleburg, from where Mosby launched most of his behind-the-lines activities, was called "Mosby's Confederacy", even in the Northern press. The Mosby Heritage Area Association in Middleburg, headquartered in Middleburg, is actively involved in preserving the history, culture, and scenery of this historic area.
• The John Singleton Mosby Museum is located in Warrenton, Virginia, at the historic Brentmoor estate where Mosby lived from 1875 to 1877.
• There are 35 monuments and markers in Northern Virginia dedicated to actions and events related to Mosby's Rangers.
• John Mosby Highway, a section of US Route 50 between Dulles Airport and Winchester, Virginia, is named for Colonel Mosby.
• Mosby Woods Elementary School in the Fairfax County Public Schools system is named in his honor.
• Mosby Woods subdivision in Fairfax City is also named in his honor.
• The post office branch for zip code 22042 (in Northern Virginia's Falls Church area) is referred to by the USPS as the Mosby branch.
• Loudoun County High School's (Leesburg, Virginia) mascot is the Raiders after Mosby's Raiders.

In popular culture

• Herman Melville's poem "The Scout Toward Aldie" was about the terror a Union brigade felt upon facing Mosby and his men. In part, the poem was based on Melville's experiences in the field with the 13th New York Cavalry and several of its officers who were alumni of Rutgers College.
• Virgil Carrington Jones published Ranger Mosby (1944), and Gray Ghosts and Rebel Raiders (1956). He also wrote the late-1950s television program, The Gray Ghost.
• A 1913 film entitled The Pride of the South, starred actor Joseph King as John Mosby.
• CBS Television produced The Gray Ghost during the 1957–58 television season. The show aired in syndication and starred Tod Andrews as Mosby during his Civil War exploits.
• In Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls the protagonist refers to Mosby as the best cavalry officer of the Civil War.
• The 1967 Disney television movie Willie and the Yank: The Mosby Raiders starred Kurt Russell as a young Confederate serving under Mosby, portrayed by Jack Ging.
• In the 1988 alternate history novel Gray Victory author Robert Skimin depicts Mosby as the head of military intelligence after the Confederacy wins the Civil War. He defends his friend, J.E.B. Stuart, from a court of inquiry investigating Stuart's actions in the battle of Gettysburg. In the novel, Skimin portrays Mosby as more pro-slavery than was the case historically.
• In the CBS comedy How I Met Your Mother episode I'm Not That Guy, Ted Mosby references John S. Mosby as the only other famous Mosby he knows of.
• There is a computer game based on Mosby's Civil war activities, by Tilted Mill, called "Mosby's Confederacy". (2008)
• Science fiction author H. Beam Piper wrote a popular account of Mosby's life which was published under the title "Rebel Raider".

See also

• 43rd Battalion of the Virginia Cavalry, also known as "Mosby's Rangers"
• Shenandoah River, Mosby's cave, above Harper's Ferry

References

• Alexander, John H. Mosby's Men. New York: Neale Publishing Company, 1907. OCLC 297987971.
• Allardice, Bruce S. Confederate Colonels: A Biographical Register. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8262-1809-4.
• Barefoot, Daniel W. Let Us Die Like Brave Men: Behind the Dying Words of Confederate Warriors. Winston-Salem, NC: John F. Blair Publisher, 2005. ISBN 978-0-89587-311-8.
• Bell, Griffin B.; John P. Cole. Footnotes to History: A Primer on the American Political Character. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-86554-904-3.
• Boyle, William E. "Under the Black Flag: Execution and Retaliation in Mosby's Confederacy", Military Law Review 144 (Spring 1994): p. 148ff.
• Crawford, J. Marshall. Mosby and His Men. New York: G. W. Carleton, 1867. OCLC 25241469.
• Grant, Ulysses S. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant. 2 vols. Charles L. Webster & Company, 1885–86. ISBN 0-914427-67-9.
• Jones, Virgil Carrington. Ranger Mosby. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1944. ISBN 0-8078-0432-0.
• Longacre, Edward G. Lee's Cavalrymen: A History of the Mounted Forces of the Army of Northern Virginia. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2002. ISBN 0-8117-0898-5.
• McGiffin, Lee. Iron Scouts of the Confederacy. Arlington Heights, IL: Christian Liberty Press, 1993. ISBN 1-930092-19-9.
• McKnight, Brian D. "John Singleton Mosby." In Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History, edited by David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000. ISBN 0-393-04758-X.
• Mosby, John Singleton, and Charles Wells Russell. The Memoirs of Colonel John S. Mosby. New York: Little, Brown, and Company, 1917. OCLC 1750463.
• Neely, Mark E. The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. ISBN 978-0-19-506496-4.
• Ramage, James A. Rebel Raider: The Life of General John Hunt Morgan. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1986. ISBN 0-8131-0839-X.
• Siepel, Kevin H. Rebel: The Life and Times of John Singleton Mosby, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8032-1609-9. First published 1983 by St. Martin's Press.
• Smith, Eric. Mosby's Raiders, Guerrilla Warfare in the Civil War. New York: Victoria Games, Inc., 1985. ISBN 978-0-912515-22-9.
• Wert, Jeffry D. Mosby's Rangers: The True Adventure of the Most Famous Command of the Civil War. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990. ISBN 0-671-74745-2.
• Winik, Jay. April 1865: The Month That Saved America. New York: HarperCollins, 2006. ISBN 978-0-06-089968-4. First published 2001.
• Wittenberg, Eric J., and J. David Petruzzi. Plenty of Blame to Go Around: Jeb Stuart's Controversial Ride to Gettysburg. New York: Savas Beatie, 2006. ISBN 1-932714-20-0.
• The Home of The American Civil War: John Mosby
• John Singleton Mosby "A Long And Stormy Career"

Further reading

• Evans, Clement A., ed. Confederate Military History: A Library of Confederate States History. 12 vols. Atlanta: Confederate Publishing Company, 1899. OCLC 833588.
• Goetz, David. Hell is being a Republican in Virginia : the post-war relationship between John Singleton Mosby and Ulysses S. Grant. Bloomington, Indiana: Xlibris. ISBN 9781462890811.
• Mosby, John Singleton. Mosby's Reminiscences and Stuart's Cavalry Campaigns. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1887. OCLC 26692400.
• Mosby, John Singleton. Stuart's Cavalry in the Gettysburg Campaign. New York: Moffat, Yard & Co., 1908. OCLC 2219061.
• Munson, John W. Reminiscences of a Mosby Guerrilla. New York: Moffat, Yard, and Co., 1906. OCLC 166633099.
• Scott, John. Partisan Life with Col. John S. Mosby. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1867. OCLC 1305753.
• Williamson, James Joseph. Mosby's Rangers: A Record of the Operations of the Forty-third Battalion Virginia Cavalry. New York: Ralph B. Kenyon, 1896. OCLC 17692024.

External links

• Col. John Mosby and the Southern code of honor, University of Virginia
• Typed carbon copy letter, signed. John Mosby to Eppa Hunton. November 18, 1909.
• Mosby Heritage Area Association
• Works by or about John S. Mosby at Internet Archive
• Works by John S. Mosby at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• John S. Mosby at Find a Grave
• "Mosby, John Singleton" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1900.
• "Mosby, John Singleton" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.