Known as the "Gray Ghost," Confederate Colonel John S. Mosby, along with his partisan rangers, terrorized Federal units in northern Virginia from late 1862 until the end of the Civil War in 1865. Furious over Major Mosby's successful raids behind Union lines, General Stoughton orders Captain Morrow to locate the source of the Confederates' information. Harney . He formed a group of his best fighters around the gun and prepared to make what amounted to a last stand. awoke [and] saw my horse standing at my feet with his head bending over me. On the 150th anniversary of the fall of the city of Atlanta to the Union Army's Division of the Mississippi during the Civil War, we're "Um, what is that? William Henry Chapman surpassed his older brothers wartime career. Box 378 Red Hook, New York 12571 United States. "The rangers had some of the best horses in a region known for raising great horses. A seventh captured ranger was executed later. Wanting to create an impact event, Mosby and his men removed a rail and waited for the next westbound train to derail. kealbo54 Sergeant Major. Mosby assembled his men at Salem on April 21, and the command disbanded. Mosbys Rangers and McNeills Rangers. Rhodes, Henry (killed) [13] Mosby and his men had a "poor opinion" of cavalry sabres, and did not use them. A small, intrepid mounted force could charge a much larger one, and with the terrorizing advantage of surprise, rout them. Mosby had agreed to a truce two days before, but not surrender. 2nd Edition. In his later years, he would weigh 450 pounds and be recognized in some newspapers as the largest man in Virginia. The only difference is in the danger . Noted for their lightning strike raids on Union targets and their ability to consistently elude pursuit, the Rangers disrupted Union communications and . From a few troopers the rangers gradually grew to eight . He decided if the enemy insisted on pushing the Rangers, they would pay dearly for their aggressiveness. Noted for their lightning strike raids on Union targets and their ability to consistently elude pursuit, the Rangers disrupted Union communications and supply lines. Committedsuicide on August 31, 1874, by slitting histhroat with a straight-edged razor. Post War: Mosby was only 31 when the war ended, but was constantly harassed by occupying Union troops. Always attack and use terror to gain an advantage, always act on the offensive, said Mosby. He survived, however, living until 1929. But in the summer of 1901, hiswhereabouts became unknown; then hewas found after six weeks wandering thestreets of the city suffering severely fromexposure. "[7], The unit also utilized child soldiers. This proved useful to Confederate military raiding. On November 26, 1863, the Army of the Potomac departed Culpeper County to initiate the Mine Run Campaign. 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. battalion never formally surrendered, but was disbanded on April 21, 1865, after Great-grandson of John Henley, a signerof the Declaration of Independence. Hockman, Noah On April 20th, in Millwood, Virginia, about seven miles south of Berryville, a Federal delegation under Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock tried to get Mosby and around twenty rangers to surrender at the Clarke House & Tavern. Late in the month, with Stuarts blessing, Mosby gathered experienced horsemen from the Middleburg, VA area to form Mosbys Rangers. He moved to Washington, D.C., where he continued to practice law and also worked as a diplomat. Samuel Sam Forrer Chapman, born in 1838, and his brother, William Henry Chapman, born in 1840, both joined the Confederate Army early in the war and were members of Virginias famed Dixie Artillery by the end of 1861. He is able and thoroughly honest and truthful.. Soldiers: I have summoned you together for the last time. The Union viewed them as unsoldierly: a loose band of roving thieves. Take no prisoners! Chapman yelled. Reed, taking quick note of his predicament, threw up his arms to indicate his surrender. He saw action with the Rangers at Miskels Farm on April 1, 1863, and at Warrenton Junction on May 3. Farewell. 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." "[29], The military effectiveness of Mosby's command, Engraving reproduced from frontispiece, Major John Scott, Partisan Life with Col. John S. Mosby, 1867. As Massow passed Reed, the Union captain shot him in the back and out of the saddle. In Baltimore, he became involved in smuggling goods into the Confederacy and subsequently made his way farther south, joining Mosbys command in March 1863. On later reflection, Lee concluded that whatever the military utility of the rangers in the larger scheme of things, Mosby was "zealous bold, and skillful, and with very small resources he has accomplished a great deal. For his bravery under fire, Ferris was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Turmoil in Richmond: Joe Johnston, Jefferson Davis Command Alliance Was Doomed From the Start. Riding with Stuart and about 1,200 Confederate horsemen, Mosby scouted ahead and along the columns flanks in the infamous four-day circuit around the entire United States Army of the Potomac. . The Partisan Rangers had a big hand in bringing the 'Gray Ghost' plenty of glory. Threats of bodily harm to him and his family forced Mosby to give up his law practice and leave his home in Warrenton, Virginia. Younger Rangers called him Major, probably a combined result of youthful impertinence and an abiding respect for ones elders. The Army of the Shenandoah returned to the Harpers Ferry area, with Mosbys Rangers harassing it along the way. On August 7th, 1864, Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan took command of the United States Army of the Shenandoah. Despite the appeal of riding with Mosby, it was dangerous to be a ranger. Ranger Ben Palmer once saw Massow starting a raid with his trusted saber by his side and asked him in complete seriousness, Do you want to be killed? To which Massow replied, A good soldier is always prepared to die!. Served with the 1st MarylandCavalry before joining Mosbys Rangers. Sort By: Taking along a small contingent of Rangers, Mosby decided to travel south in hopes of linking up with General Joseph Johnston and continue fighting. [24], Virginian newspapers were eager to carry articles about Mosby's Rangers. The sad task of leading the remainder of the command to Winchester, Va., to seek wartime paroles fell to Mosbys No. Stuarts cavalry has possession of the Court House; be quick and dress.. From Wikipedia: The Partisan Ranger Act allowed Davis to form a group of partisan rangers. Rosser agreed with the Union that Mosby's men were not soldiers but glorified thievesand bad for morale, because his regular troops were jealous: [Mosby's men] are a nuisance and an evil to the service. Buried inMount Hope Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. My poor motherJesus have mercy on her soul! Upon seeing Atkins body, Mosby reportedly said, There lies a man I would not have given for a whole regiment of Yankees.. Today, theMosby Heritage Area Associationruns tours and educational programs to educate folks about Mosby's Confederacy. He and Mosby remained close friends and communicated frequently until Mosbys death in 1916. Seeing a comrade in arms struggling through the waves some distance off and not receiving that attention from the Federal soldiers which he thought due to his rank, Cab cried out at the top of his voice, Hurry up, Major Hibbs! Co. VA Muster Rolls p. 28, as list appeared, Hoskins did not lose his sense of wanderlust and ventured to Canada late in 1861. Brigadier General Thomas Rosser (with the support of Generals Jubal Early and Fitz Lee) urged disbanding Mosby's command in a letter addressed to General Robert E. Lee. . Mosby later wrote that Stuart, made me all that I was in the warthe best friend I ever had.. *Lighting a path to truth* Former Navy JAG Worldwide U.S. Military Defense. Action in the Valley declined, although there was a sharp encounter between rangers under Lt. John Russell and Federal cavalry on December 16th. Robert E. Lee, Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, is said to have remarked, "I wish I had 100 men like Mosby.". 2, Chapman. It took a personal letter to now President Grant to stop the practice. Sells, James Frances was a milliner and opened a shop in town while Miletus ran a general store. That was important because Mosby, essentially a teetotaler, despised the use of needed forage for the distilling of alcoholhe believed it served a better purpose by feeding horses or soldiers. Jubal Early and his Confederate Army of the Valley had been soundly beaten at Cedar Creek on 19 October; no more reinforcements from General Robert E. Lee were coming. We had no reason to use a blue uniform as a disguise, for there was no occasion to do so. Thompson, John D. I had no faith in the saber as a weapon. Mosby usually conducted his operations with as few as twenty or as many as one or two hundred, but he . The reorganization of the Confederate Artillery in 1862 caused the official disbanding of their unit on October 4 and the reassignment of the brothers to recruiting officer duty in Virginias Fauquier County. "[20] All men had at least two; Mosby himself as many as six, since a few miles at a flat-out run would exhaust even the best horseand Mosby's men were constantly either running toward or away from the federals. The first purpose was to take control over guerrilla warfare and decide who would and would not be able to use it. He soon returned to Prussia. As the fiery Covenanter rode on his predestined course the enemys ranks withered wherever he went. Mosby was seriously wounded in December, but there were still small skirmishes during the winter and spring. Your mission is to infiltrate enemy lines to disrupt the Union war effort. We barely made it, too. Just behind them were members of Mosbys Rangers, a cadre that caught Cabs eye. THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING VETERAN JOURNALISM - JOIN SOFREP+ . Mosby's area of operations was Northern Virginia from the Shenandoah Valley to the west, along the Potomac River to Alexandria to the east, bounded on the south by the Rappahannock River, with most of his operations centered in or near Fauquier and Loudoun counties, in an area known as "Mosby's Confederacy". While riding as part of Mosby's Rangers near the end of the war these men had contact with Thomas F. Harney of the Confederate Torpedo Bureau. . 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. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House to By November 1864, Mosby and his rangers were largely on their own in the Shenandoah Valley war. The furious Federals wanted to take revenge against the six captured rangers; permission was granted, probably by Federal cavalry corps commander, Maj. Gen. Alfred Torbert. Mosby's Marauders: Directed by Michael O'Herlihy. Corder, Joseph M. Mosby experimented with some small artillery pieces but quickly stopped their use as they were of little practicality for the type of lightning fast hit and run raids his forces were conducting. Recently Updated In 1862, still not comfortable remaining in one place for too long, Hoskins left Canada for the United States and settled in Baltimore, Md. What to call the Confederate 43rd Battalion was a matter of contention during the war. They received mixed signals from General Winfield Scott Hancocks staff and rather than risk it, they instead just disbanded the unit. Leading two companies of rangers himself, Mosby sent two more companies under Captain Samuel Chapman into the Valley on September 2nd. Confederate Congress revoked the authority of all partisan units, except for They participated in his raids as often as possible. How did this actually affect armies? The line must be stronger at every point than the attacking force, else it is broken. A few guerrillas equipped themselves with carbines captured from the Union, but "they were unhandy things to carry" and unsuited for fighting on horseback; indeed in the thick of a February 1865 fight the carbines' long barrels made them too unwieldy to fire, and they were used instead as clubs. Mosby created his force under the auspices of the Partisan Ranger Act of 1862 which sought to recruit irregulars for service into the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. [15], For instance, describing the fight at Miskel's barn, Munson says of William H. Chapman (later lieutenant colonel of Mosby's command) wheeling his horse in a thicket of Yankees "[t]he pistols were not a foot apart. The makeup of Mosbys Rangers was no different. A constant irritant for Mosby over the past three months had been Blazers Scouts, the 100-man counterguerrilla force acquired by Sheridan in August. Sheridans advance into the Valley stalled. [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. Mosby often played up his exploits to gain attention in the press for his unit and to emphasize the fact that the 43rd Battalion was a legitimate military command within the command structure of the Confederate States of America's army. It is just as legitimate to fight an enemy in the rear as in the front. Mosby noted William in dispatches for conspicuous gallantry at least twice. By February of 1864 under pressure from General Lee and other senior officers, the Partisan Ranger Act was repealed and all but two guerrilla groups were disbanded. Mosby was against secession from the Union, however when the war began, he enlisted in the Confederate infantry as a private, having decided that he couldnt turn against his home state. Hoskins was one of the men in the group. known as Mosby's Rangers, Mosby's Raiders, or Mosby's Men, was a battalion of Atkins is buried in an unmarked grave somewhere near Paris, Va. Baron Robert von Massow (Baron Robert August Valentin Albert Reinhold von Massow, to be exact) arrived in Richmond in July 1863. He was soon granted a commission as a Major and assembled two companies of cavalry and eight of infantry called the Virginia Volunteers and took part in the first Battle of Bull Run. Hoskins was quite conspicuous during those engagements, clad in the scarlet uniform of his British Army days and wielding a saber. Although the war in the Valley was almost over, the soldiers did not know it. Each man had at least two horses and many men had several. With intelligence from his scouts, Mosby gathered about 300 rangers and rode into the Shenandoah Valley to ambush Sheridans column. In the Division of Armed Forces History here at the National Museum of American History, the collections related to John S. Mosby are my favorite. I suspect that with the addition of accoutrements,they didnt look much differnt . Massow, however, was a firm believer in the effectiveness of a saber, and it remained his weapon of choice. Come along, Major! The Yankees at once transferred their shower baths from Cab to the Major, who showed his appreciation of the formers self-sacrifice by spluttering out to him that he was respectful all at once.. They also performed raids in Maryland.[6].
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