Reference: 43rd Battalion, Virginia Cavalry, Mosby's Command. He and Mosby remained close friends and communicated frequently until Mosbys death in 1916. He soon came back and said it was not. This wool jacket and slouch hat both belonged to Mosby, who was wearing the hat when he was wounded by federal cavalry in December 1864. Mosby, who, it must be noted, was not given his famous sobriquet The Gray Ghost until well after the war, was an intelligent, tough, audacious, and innovative leader. Once he was released, Mosby walked to the army headquarters outside Richmond and personally related his findings to Robert E. Lee. But the enemy came up in time to make it hot for our rear guard. HIBBS. Scott refers to "Captain Mountjoy", but most references spell it "Montjoy". Hoskins did not lose his sense of wanderlust and ventured to Canada late in 1861. Mosby's four requirements to become a member of his com-mand, besides being a fighter with good character, included the following.12. He died on May 30, 1916, Memorial Day, from complications from throat surgery and is buried in Warrenton, Virginia. [25] In discussing as Mosby's "greatest piece of annoyance", the Greenback Raid in which Mosby's men derailed a train and captured a $170,000 payroll from the paymasters of Philip Sheridan's army (each of the 80 raiders received a $2100 share, though Mosby himself took nothing), Munson says that due to Mosby's comparatively tiny force, [i]t was necessary for the Federal troops to guard every wagon train, railroad bridge and camp with enough active and efficient men to prevent Mosby from using his three hundred raiders in one of his destructive rushes at any hour of the day or night. His uniform andcrutchesare on display inThe Price of Freedom: Americans at War. Rhodes, Henry (killed) Before he got to the gate Sam had already exhausted every barrel of his two pistols and drawn his sabre. Early the next morning, hearing reports of Federal troops near Berryville, Chapman approached the town from the southwest and met the 6th New York Cavalry regiment, a lead element of Sheridans force. The raid began as a complete success and the Rangers were having a bit of a frolic as they ransacked the train looking for loot. Compiled from State of VA Reel 18 Warren An interview with historian Richard M. McMurry on his 2023 book, The Civil Wars of General Joseph E. Johnston, Confederate States Army., History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. Eric Buckland retired from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel after spending the majority of his 22-year career in Special Forces. Left: Mosby's grave in Warrenton, Virginia. 2, Chapman. Buck, Rosters of men who served Virginia from the lower Shenandoah Valley. He died in 1927 in Germany. The Union viewed them as unsoldierly: a loose band of roving thieves. Hibbs feats link him with another Ranger, Henry Cabell Maddux, born on July 17, 1848, and nicknamed Cab. On February 20, 1864, still just 15 years old, Maddux was leaving a boys academy in Upperville, Va., his school books in his hand, when a group of Union cavalrymen came galloping through town. Mosby asked him, have you ever heard of Mosby? The general replied, Have you captured him? at which time Mosby said, I am Mosby, he said. Gen. George A. Custer ordered the burning of five Berryville-area properties including the home of Benjamin Morgan. Here are the stories of some of the most memorable of that lot. Called the Vineyard Fight, this action prevented the 14th Pennsylvania from reinforcing Sheridans punitive cavalry campaign across the Blue Ridge. He wasconnected with the wholesale drug firmof James Bailey & Son in Baltimore afterthe war. CHARLES EDWARDGROGAN,1st Lieutenant, Company D. Author McHenry Howard referred toGrogan as having as little sense of fearand danger as any man he had everseen. Captured at Gettysburg whileserving on Maj. Gen. Isaac Trimblesstaff and sent to the Johnsons IslandPOW camp in Ohio. "[29], The military effectiveness of Mosby's command, Engraving reproduced from frontispiece, Major John Scott, Partisan Life with Col. John S. Mosby, 1867. The Army of the Shenandoah returned to the Harpers Ferry area, with Mosbys Rangers harassing it along the way. Stuarts cavalry during the Peninsula Campaign. Mosby's Rangers in the Shenandoah Valley. Captured on January 4, 1865, along withJames Heiskell, and sent to Fort Warren. McDonald, Samuel Mosby was seriously wounded in December, but there were still small skirmishes during the winter and spring. The next day, April 21st, 1865, Colonel John Singleton Mosby disbanded his ranger battalion, but never officially surrendered. Although armed with Spencer repeating carbines, the New Yorkers were killed, captured, or scattered. Even though she has lived in the state of Virginia longer than she lived in New Jersey, she still gets called a Yankeeaffectionately, she thinks. But if you want to see some really cool objects used by Colonel Mosby, come to the National Museum of American History! Company A - Organized June 10, 1863, at Rector's Cross Roads, Company B - Organized October 1, 1863, at, Company C - Organized December 7, 1863, at Rectortown, Virginia, Company D - Organized March 28, 1864, at Paris, Virginia, Artillery Company - Organized July 4, 1864, at Paris, Virginia, Company F - Organized September 13, 1864, at Piedmont Station near, Company G - A reorganization of the Artillery Company, November 28, 1864, at Salem in, This page was last edited on 11 December 2022, at 09:05. In 1899, he was appointed general of the army. He moved to Washington, D.C., where he continued to practice law and also worked as a diplomat. Why Were These WWI Soldiers Executed by Their Own Country? His brother, Robert, had preceded him to America and first served in Wheats Battalion (the famed Louisiana Tigers). Attended College ofWilliam & Mary in 1860-61. I never knew, nor did I ever hear, of any man in our Command wearing a blue uniform under any circumstances . This time, Cab angered Mosby. He was acting under the authority of General Robert E. Lee, who had granted him permission to raise a company in January 1863 under the Partisan Ranger Act of 1862 in which the Confederate Congress authorized the formation of such units. These groups included Mosby's Rangers and McNeil's Rangers, a partisan ranger group fighting in the area of the South Branch Valley, in what is now West Virginia.11. Mosby was a small town lawyer who joined the Confederate Army when his home state of Virginia seceded from the Union, and who became GeneralJeb Stuart'sbest scout, earning himself both a command and the nickname "Gray Ghost." This proved useful to Confederate military raiding. Joined Nov 29, 2012. I am no longer your commander. Finally it was not safe to send despatches by a courier unless a regiment was sent along to guard him.[26]. While interrogating Sneden, Mosby "opened his blue cavalry overcoat, showing a Rebel uniform underneath."[12]. The partisan rangers job would gather intelligence and take supplies away from the Union army. In Baltimore, he became involved in smuggling goods into the Confederacy and subsequently made his way farther south, joining Mosbys command in March 1863. Whether it was the family road trip toGettysburgor thestampalbum I had featuring all of the generals that got me hooked, I now consider myself very lucky to work among Civil War objects. One, John Atkins, crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Ireland to join Mosby. for the war and elected 2nd Lt., Co. A by John S. Mosby at Rector's X-Roads, Fauquier Co. Inv. By the time Mosby chose to disband rather than surrender the 43rd on April 21, 1865, nearly 800 men had been part of this elite unit. permission to raise a company in January 1863 under the Partisan Ranger Act of When other correspondents were captured in the Rangers' raids, they were treated well and given liquor and cigars. Post War: Mosby was only 31 when the war ended, but was constantly harassed by occupying Union troops. Facing off in a farm field owned by the Gold family about one-half mile south of Berryville, Chapman split his companies into two attack wings and charged, yelling and screaming. Ten days later, April 9th, Confederate commanding General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Virginia. The only difference is in the danger Mosby felt that "a small force moving with celerity and threatening many points on a line can neutralize a hundred times its own number. William also fell in love with a young lady, Josephine Jeffries, living in Mosbys Confederacy. When Mosby became aware of the location of a still, he had it destroyed. During the Mount Zion Church fight on July 6, 1864, guerrilla John Alexander "noticed in one of the charges that his mount was unaccountable dull, and in spite of the most vigorous spurring fell into the wake of the pursuit." In a bit of an interesting twist of fate, after the war, Mosby became a political ally and close confidant to President Ulysses S. Grant, his former enemy during the war and served as a consul to Hong Kong. It is difficult to evaluate the contribution of Mosby's raids to the overall Confederate war effort. The battalion was formed in June, 1863, with five companies, later increased to eight. This sort of shooting left the enemy with a good many empty saddles after an engagement. After the passengers were removed, rangers burned the train. During the Civil War, "Mosby's Confederacy" encompassed 1,800 square miles, including today's Fauquier, Loudon, Clarke, Warren, and Prince William counties. . As the Mosby tactics became better known, scouting parties from the Northern army began to develop an affection for the pistol, with increasing success I might add. mosby's rangers roster. Printed by H. E. Howard. Many of our attacks were made at night, when all colors looked alike, and in daytime we did not have to deceive the Yankees in order to get at them. Mosby later wrote that Stuart, made me all that I was in the warthe best friend I ever had.. That day was the boys last at school, John Munson wrote in Reminiscences of a Mosby Guerrilla: [U]ntil the end of the war, he was one of the gamest and best soldiers Mosby had. Yesterday a friend paid this tribute: A man of exemplary character and spotless integrity, Colonel Chapman lived a life of simple and natural religion. We had no reason to use a blue uniform as a disguise, for there was no occasion to do so. McKay, Thomas B. Sam, to give more vigor to his blows, was standing straight up in his stirrups, dealing them right and left with all the theological fervor of Burly of Balfour. Never wounded during the war, Chapman ironically received his first-ever gunshot at the hands of a tax-evading moonshiner. It has been said that we wore blue to deceive the enemy, but this is ridiculous, for we were always in the enemy's country where a Southern soldier caught dressed in a blue uniform would have been treated to a swift court-martial and shot as a spy.